'Traveling for business or leisure?' It's a question that used to be commonly heard in airline lounges, hotel check-ins, and rental-car counters. These days the answer to that question is increasingly 'both,' as bleisure travelers find a way to blend business trips with leisure travel, thereby breaking down many of the barriers that used to separate the categories of business and leisure travel.

While the bleisure trend predates the pandemic, it's certainly taken off in a post-COVID-19 world, as employers have become more flexible about remote work, business travel has started making a comeback, and work-life balance has continued to be redefined.

Let's take a closer look at the rise of bleisure travel, as well as what both employers and employees need to know to benefit from it.

What is bleisure?

Simply put, bleisure travel typically means adding a leisure trip or vacation onto a business trip. For example, if a company sends their employee to a conference in Europe or the Caribbean for three days during the work week, that employee may decide to extend their stay through the weekend, turning what would have been a three day trip into a weeklong one.

While they still use their vacation days for the leisure portion of the trip—and pay their own way once the conference ends—they are benefitting from the fact that their flights and a portion of their hotel was paid for as a business traveler. This can often translate to better rates and a cheaper trip overall, meaning that bleisure travel is a great way to keep travel costs down.

Bleisure travel is not the same thing as the rising trend of digital nomads, who work remotely from destinations that are typically associated with vacation, such as Southeast Asia and Central America. Instead, bleisure trips are about maximizing the enjoyment of a business trip by adding on a vacation element to it. Most bleisure travelers tend to stay a few extra days after a work trip, rather than a few weeks or months as digital nomads do.

What are the benefits of bleisure?

Bleisure travel has many benefits, not just for the individual on the trip, but also for their employers and the hospitality industry at large.

While business travelers tend to be in a rush, heading to the airport as soon as the last session at the conference or their important meeting has ended, bleisure travelers tend to take their time once the work portion of their trip has wrapped. In many cases, their family or a friend may join them for the leisure component of their trip. 

All of this means that work trips can be less stressful, and employees can return from a bleisure trip feeling rested and rejuvenated—rather than burned out and exhausted, as can often be the case with frequent business trips.

This benefits employers and corporations, because workers tend to be more productive when they are rested rather than overworked. Granting permission for employees to turn business trips into bleisure trips—within their allotted vacation time, of course—can mean that your corporate travel budget actually ends up boosting output and productivity in the long run. 

The best way for corporations to approach bleisure is to have clearly articulated policies in the HR or employee handbook, so that employees know what is expected and allowed, and any boundaries that need to be respected are clearly stated.

The hospitality industry also benefits from the rising trend of bleisure, as it has given many frequent travelers motivation to get back out there after the COVID-19 pandemic. Hotels and destinations are increasingly catering to the bleisure traveler as they realize the distinction between business travel and leisure travel increasingly doesn't exist. Whether it's discounted accommodation costs or a loyalty program just for bleisure travelers, there are many ways that this new demographic is being catered to.

What are popular bleisure destinations?

The bleisure traveler wants a destination that has lots to offer, from sites and attractions to good weather and a memorable culinary scene.

Many bleisure travelers prefer destinations with favorable weather for some simple R&R after a work trip. Therefore, work trips to the Caribbean and Mexico can commonly turn into bleisure trips.

Business hubs, such as London, Singapore, or Dubai, have much to offer bleisure travelers when they are done with their work responsibilities. Many bleisure travelers, who perhaps haven't visited these famous tourist destinations before, will take the opportunity to do so if they are sent on a work trip. It can be a very cost-effective way to visit cities that are otherwise quite expensive to visit.

If a work-trip destination is farther flung, such as to South Africa or Australia, then many bleisure travelers will be motivated to stretch their trip longer, as traveling such a long way for a short period of time can be exhausting and hard on the body. So the typical week-long bleisure trip—comprising a three-day work trip and a long weekend for leisure—may stretch to 10 days or more.

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