Bleisure Travel – The Key to Happier (and Cheaper) Employees?

Nearly a third or 30 percent of employees would accept a lower paying job if it meant more travel, research from Booking.com has shown.

Business travel has long been seen as a workplace benefit one that can be spread more widely if staff are allowed some free time during their travel so combing business and leisure.

“By adding a leisure element to a business trip, employees are likely to find the experience both personally and professionally rewarding,” Booking.com said in a statement. Happier employees are also likely to be more productive and successful in their jobs creating a win-win for employers it went on to say.

What’s more, encouraging bleisure could also be the key to retaining elusive millennial demographic, the statement added.

Millenials, those aged between 18 and 34, are regarded as being more likely to move jobs but as a group are most likely to take advantage of the opportunity for personal travel on a work trip. This probably because they have less money to spend on holidays and don’t yet have family responsibilities, Booking.com said.

Businesses though however, may be yet to fully realise the potential of allowing a mix of business and leisure.

Recent research has found the top two reasons business travellers do not take advantage of opportunities for bleisure are that they do not have the time, or that company policy does not allow it.

“To make bleisure work for both parties, businesses need to build transparent policies that can enable employees to make more of their business travel. So for a more fulfilled, productive workforce – is it time companies reviewed their policies on bleisure?” asked Booking.com

In their research Booking.com found 30 percent would accept a lower paying job if it meant more travel.

Among millenials  (18 to 34-year-olds) 48% said they had taken a bleisure trip, whereas only 33 percent of travellers aged 35 to 54 and 23 percent of over 55 did. Of millenials nearly four-fifths or 78 percent intentionally carved out personal time on a business trip, Booking.com reported.