‘Bleisure’ travel data shows 75% extend their business trips

Research shows the wave of bleisure travel shows no signs of slowing down as more people continue to embrace the trend of combining business trips with leisure activities.

To capitalise on the phenomenon, Great Hotels of the World (GHOTW) has decided to put its focus on the ‘bizcation’ (how I feel it should be called) or the ‘bleisure’ market. The international hotel brand carried out an exclusive survey, which found out that 50% of respondents travel on business five or more times a year, with 70% taking trips with flights of four hours or more.

Also found in their study, which targets the business and MICE market, 75% of respondents said that it is a common practice to extend their business trips to get some more juice out of their stays. Almost half of them (44%) agreed to this statement and thinks that bleisure trips are getting more common in their organisations. Furthermore, 44% said they do bleisure trips alone.

It is clear that bleisure travel has become the norm across industries — and companies need support for their ever-mobile workforce.

Authentic experiences vs impersonal stays

As bleisure market has grown, so has the preference for “authentic cultural experiences”, rather than impersonal stays in large hotels with little or no independent personality, according to GHOTW.

Lavish corporate retreats, designed to reward and impress the C-Suite (CEO, COO, CFO CIO and others) are now more focused on creating a collective and meaningful experience that drives human interaction and connections, strengthens core company values and increases overall engagement.