“Business or pleasure?” It’s a question travelers are frequently asked when sharing travel plans. However, our latest research reveals that the line between the two is becoming increasingly blurred as more and more business travelers extend trips to make the most of their time away from home.
While the term bleisure – business travel, extended for leisure – has been around for some time, this new study provides a broader look at the influences and motivations of this growing and valuable audience, providing insights will help marketers target and convert business travelers.
Unveiled today at Phocuswright Europe, examines the behavior of American, British, Chinese, German, and Indian bleisure travelers, and shows that domestic and international bleisure travel is booming in each of these markets.
Regular blog readers may recall our first study on bleisure, Profile of the American Bleisure Traveler, which revealed that more than 40 percent of business trips were extended for leisure. Fast forward to 2018 and that number has risen to 60 percent in the U.S., which is consistent with the multi-national average across all five countries we surveyed.
Here are some of the key findings from the study below:
- Bleisure Locations: Business travelers are more likely to consider a bleisure trip in a destination with great food and restaurants, good beaches, natural sightseeing and historical monuments. Travelers from all five countries consider major cities like Berlin, Hong Kong, Munich, London and New York better for bleisure travel.
- Converting to Bleisure: Leading factors that influence bleisure travel decisions include traveling to a destination with great entertainment, visiting an iconic or bucket list destination and the destination being easy-to-navigate. By showcasing unique experiences and activities every destination, hotel, restaurant, attraction, airline, can entice business travelers to extend their trip for leisure.
- Bleisure Research & Booking Resources: The bleisure path to purchase is condensed, in comparison to leisure trips, with approximately 80 percent of bleisure travelers spending just one to five hours on research during both the inspiration and planning phases. During the consideration phase, over two-thirds of bleisure travelers conduct research using a search engine and nearly half use travel-related websites.
- Bleisure Budgets & Payment Preferences: Compared to a typical vacation, over half of all bleisure travelers spend the same amount of money or more on a bleisure trip, and more than three quarters save money specifically for bleisure travel. Credit cards are the leading preferred payment method with bleisure travelers.
We will be releasing further insights and findings from our study in the coming months, so subscribe to our blog using the form below and stay up to date by following us on Twitter and LinkedIn.
