'Bleisure' Travel - The Key to Happier Employees?

Much has been made of the employee benefits of bleisure – the blurring of leisure and business travel – but are businesses truly realising its full potential?

Singapore, August 31, 2017 -- Business travel is a highly valued workplace benefit for employees today, with research from Booking.com[1] finding that 30 percent would even accept a lower paying job if it meant more travel. By adding a leisure element to a business trip, employees are likely to find the experience both personally and professionally rewarding. Happier employees are also likely to be more productive and successful in their jobs – so, a win-win for employers.

What’s more, encouraging bleisure could also be the key to retaining that elusive millennial demographic – often thought to be more flighty and professionally less loyal. This demographic has been found most likely to take advantage of the opportunity for personal travel on a work trip[2] – perhaps because they have less money to spend on holidays and they do not yet have the responsibilities that come with a family.

It seems businesses, however, may be yet to fully realise the potential here – recent research[3] has found that 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?

SUPPORTING STATS

Embracing Bleisure

• 30 percent would accept a lower paying job if it meant more travel[4]
• Nearly half of business travellers (49 percent) have extended their business trip to a different city or country in the past 12 months[5]

Mobile Millennials

• While 48 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds said they had taken a bleisure trip, only 33 percent of travellers aged 35 to 54 and 23 percent of over 55 did[6] 
• 78 percent of millennials intentionally carved out personal time on a business trip. Further, 60 percent of millennials said that vacation time benefits their business by helping them think big picture, as opposed to 49 percent of boomers[7]

What’s your policy on bleisure?

• 58 percent said they didn’t have enough time for bleisure. Another 18 percent said their company policy didn’t allow it[8]

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CONTACT DETAILS

For further information, contact Nicole Verghese, Public Relations
nicole.verghese@booking.com / +65 6645 0500

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[1] 2017 Travel Predictions data collected by Booking.com with 12,781 respondents across 13 markets in September 2016

[2] Extending Business Travel into Leisure Time – Bleisure Study from the Global Business Travel Association

[3] As above

[4] 2017 Travel Predictions data collected by Booking.com

[5] As above

[6] Extending Business Travel into Leisure Time – Bleisure Study from the Global Business Travel Association

[7] Survey from Marriott Rewards Premier Business Credit Card on small business owners' travel attitudes and behaviours

[8] Extending Business Travel into Leisure Time – Bleisure Study from the Global Business Travel Association