Bleisure remains a hot topic for the travel industry. Regular blog readers will have seen our recent study, Bleisure Travel Trends, which examines the behavior of bleisure travelers from around the globe. For now, we are going to look specifically at Indian bleisure travelers, a group that is increasing in size and importance in the travel economy; the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) predicts that India will account for 50 million outbound tourists by 2020.
India also has a reputation as a nation of prolific business travelers, so it’s no surprise to learn that Indian bleisure travelers took an average of seven business trips last year, more than the average across the countries we surveyed. Well over half of these became bleisure trips, as the trend for adding leisure elements to business trips grew in popularity last year.
Here are our top four key takeaways for the Indian bleisure traveler:
- Bucket list locations convert. What does an appealing bleisure destination look like for Indian travelers? Factors like traveling to a destination with great entertainment (57 percent) or visiting an iconic or bucket list destination (52 percent) are the most important for conversion. Cities that are easy to navigate and have outdoor recreation are also more likely to become bleisure hotspots.
- Booking windows are condensed. When it comes to booking travel, we see a condensed booking window for Indian travelers, when compared to their behavior for pure leisure trips, with 85 percent spending fewer than five hours on research during the planning phase.
- Most Indians are willing to travel for bleisure. More than half of Indian bleisure trips were in the same city as the business trip (53 percent), compared to the multi-national average of 67 percent. Nine in 10 Indian bleisure travelers are willing to travel from their business destination for the leisure portion of a trip – on both domestic and international bleisure trips.
- Bleisure budgeting is important. Indians are serious about budgeting and saving for bleisure trips. Compared to a typical vacation, almost three quarters (72 percent) spend the same amount of money or more on a bleisure trip, significantly higher than the multi-national average of 57 percent.
So, how can you put this information into action and convert Indian business travelers to bleisure? As the Indian market continues to grow, showcasing unique experiences and activities, which are influential factors during the decision-making process, will help destinations, hotels, restaurants and attractions, entice Indian business travelers to extend their trip for leisure.
For more insights on influences and motivations of Indian bleisure travelers, in addition to travelers from the U.S., China, Germany and the U.K., download the full report.
