The joy of combining business with pleasure is becoming a popular trend among travelers.
There’s even a name for it: ‘bleisure,’ putting the words business and leisure together. According to travel and expense data gathered by SAP Concur, bleisure trips increased by 20% from 2016 to 2017. Over 2.2. million bleisure trips were taken in 2017 which comes out to an average of about 10% of total business trips around the globe. So when do these trips happen? Most occur in September and October over any other month, and people that work in the manufacturing, tech, and financial services make up close to 40% of bleisure trips in 2017.
Expedia found that 60 percent of business trips turn into bleisure trips and with travelers taking more than six business trips per year, on average, there’s a key opportunity to reach this audience.
Just like everything else, many would want to blame the rise of bleisure trips on millennials, but for once, we can’t place the full blame on them. SAP Concur discovered that while millennials account for 38% of all bleisure trips, Generation X takes up 31%, tying with Baby Boomers.
So where is everyone going on these trips? From 2016-2017, there was a 46% increase in travel in European, Middle Eastern, and African countries. Asia-Pacific countries came in second place with a 45% increase, and the Americas coming in third with a 19% increase. Travelers tend to make stops in certain spots like New York City, Chicago, Tel Aviv, London, Tokyo, and Singapore.
Since these trips are saving travelers time and money, the data on where travelers are stayingmostly during bleisure trips comes as no surprise. From 2016 to 2017, 70% of bleisure travelers booked Airbnb versus only 10% booked hotels. Have to cut the cost somewhere right? Of those Airbnb lodgings, 76% were booked by millennials compared to only 6% by Baby Boomers, which is most likely due to the cost efficiency of Airbnbs for a younger generation.
While the name could use a little work, it looks like the trend isn’t dying anytime soon.
