‘Bleisure’ on the rise

Business-leisure travel, or “bleisure”, saw a sharp increase in 2023. With flexible working arrangements becoming more commonplace, employees are taking advantage of the opportunity to take a working holiday.

Research from Corporate Traveller found that due to increased need for work/life balance, employees are choosing to combine working and travel.

“We have observed an increase in bleisure travel, whereby travellers weave short breaks into work trips. Our data shows increases in trips of four days or more, which suggests many travellers are opting for a ‘long weekend’ or ‘week away’ approach to their trips,” commented Corporate Traveller managing director Tom Walley.

Mr Walley noted that encouraging these sorts of trips can assist in promoting healthy employee morale, which can translate to business efficiency.

“Aside from extra accommodation, extending a corporate trip has no impact on the cost of flights as they are already booked. In fact, there can be perks to extending a trip, such as discounted rates or cheaper return flight dates,” he explained.

“Some organisations are realising that enabling staff to combine business with leisure has a positive impact on staff morale, which, in return, positively impacts business success.”

Employees have shifted how they take breaks over the course of the year. The research revealed that between May and November, same-day return trips were down 2.3 per cent, two-day trips down 1 per cent, and three-day trips down 8.4 per cent.

Conversely, trips over this threshold saw an increase. Four-day trips were up 3.8 per cent, five days up 4.2 per cent, and six days up 5.8 per cent.

Mr Walley continued: “Understanding the shifting preferences of business travellers is essential for the travel industry to adapt and cater to the evolving needs of travellers across different trip lengths. The growth in bleisure travel this year reflects a changing mindset among travellers that will continue shaping the industry and its offerings to meet that growth in demand.”

Seeing the turnaround in bleisure is a good sign of things slowly returning to normal following the pandemic. HR Leader previously reported on how business travel bookings were returning to pre-pandemic levels.

These attitudes have been stirring for some time now. With businesses seeing the merit in providing bleisure experiences, perhaps more employees will take the opportunity to take a working holiday.

Managing director and chief executive of SiteMinder, Sankar Narayan, said: “The long-awaited recovery of travel has emerged with a new type of traveller, who has higher expectations from hotels and their travel experiences than ever.”

He continued: “We are seeing pent-up demand pushing the next phase of global travel recovery forward, with supply-driven hurdles such as border restrictions and flight scarcity becoming less of a roadblock for travellers in high-traffic destinations across the world.”

Jack Campbell

Jack is the editor at HR Leader.