Meet the Bleisure Traveller

Combining work and leisure has become increasingly popular among business travelers who want to take advantage of their stay to enjoy a short holiday and discover the destination, be it city or a resort area. The trend towards mixing business with leisure affects far more than the oft-quoted millennials, weaned on technology and social media. Many baby boomers and generation X’s professional lifestyles are, at least partially, home-based, and they enjoy far more flexibility in their working lives than they did just a decade ago.

We wanted to know more about this global trend, and conducted a survey targeting international Business Travelers. Overall, we’ve received over 1400 responses and we would like to share with you the key conclusions:

Business Trends:

• Bleisure is undoubtedly impacting business travelers’ options and lives: a whopping 75% of respondents extended business trips for leisure purposes, in most cases multiple times a year.
• Not only is bleisure here now, 44% of travelers feel that bleisure has been on the rise and will increase further in the future.
• The overwhelming majority of bleisure travelers (60%) booked the leisure part of the trip directly with the accommodation provider. Yet, already 20% of frequent travelers were able to book the leisure part of the trip through the corporate travel agent.

Spotlight Heavy Traveler

• While a majority of travelers (56%) have family or friends joining them, surprisingly there are almost 44% of solo travelers on bleisure trips.
• When business travelers are joined by family or friends for the leisure part of the trip, a vast majority – 71% – are joined by only one person, i.e. one double room. However, 29% of respondents indicated that the leisure part of the trip involves 3 or more people.
• 72% of our survey respondents stayed in the same accommodation for the leisure part of their trip.
• However, for those that did change their accommodation, budget was clearly an issue, with 42% opting for a cheaper hotel and 38% choosing a short-rental, such as AirBnB type apartment or house.

So what are the key takeaways for our Member Hotels:

• Bleisure is clearly an opportunity for all accommodation providers, but especially for hotels as the vast majority of travelers will not change accommodation if the “corporate hotel” also caters to their leisure needs.
• The quick win opportunity in bleisure is catering to the needs of frequent travelers. There is a large, seemingly untapped opportunity in single bleisure travelers.
  • Do hotels design, decorate, and market our hotel lobbies and restaurants so that all guests can either work efficiently, mingle with each other; or meet the locals?
  • Do restaurants and cafes in your destination offer individual seating, or friendly communal tables to reduce the stigma of the solo traveler?
  • And do the concierge teams know which tours and excursions to recommend, so that solo travelers can have the option of meeting like-minded travelers?
• We encourage our member hotels to proactively market their uniqueness as independent hotels; but also to invest in and showcase their deep-seated knowledge of their destination.

And the key takeaways to our partner Agencies:

• Travel agencies are used in less than 30% of bleisure oriented trips. In most cases, the corporate travel agency is called into play, as a trusted partner, with a proven track record with complex business travel, and who can also advise on the company travel policy, duty of care and other relevant issues.
• As a representation company for independent, upscale and luxury hotels, Great Hotels of the World is a carefully curated collection of Bleisure hotels. Our hotels meet the needs of business trips with a wide array of services – on property. As well as boasting fantastic meeting facilities, Great Hotels of the World properties offer outstanding leisure facilities and a range of food and beverage options.
• As a company, we value travel agents and professional meeting planners, and encourage them to tap into this burgeoning market, by investing in quality content on the destinations that clients are traveling to, and on our member hotels’ leisure offerings.