Did you catch Dana’s blog on 2019 Corporate Travel Trends? The very first trend listed was bleisure, and we stand by our proclamation: “Bleisure is here to stay.”
In fact, we’ve been hearing more and more about it lately, and perhaps, partaking of a little bleisure ourselves. So, our team decided to dive deeper into this hot topic and present the significant bleisure travel trends you can no longer ignore.
“What the <bleep> is bleisure?”
That’s what we said, at first. Turns out, “bleisure” is a portmanteau (fancy French for a blended word) of the words “business” and “leisure.” The Expedia Group Media Solutions report Unpacking Bleisure Traveler Trends defines it as “the practice of combining business travel and leisure travel into one trip.”
Employers are embracing bleisure as an element of their employees creating a better work/life balance. Employees can maximize business travel to new and interesting destinations by extending them into bleisure trips and enjoying them longer, and on a personal level.
And if you’re responsible for marketing a tourism destination or other travel or hospitality brand, another way to spell it would be “$$$$$.” Why shouldn’t you waste another minute raking in your share of this ever-growing travel market…?
“Bleisure is booming!”
Expedia Group Media Solutions, the advertising arm of that global network of online travel brands including Expedia, Hotels.com, Vrbo, Hotwire and lots more, tapped into 2,500 bleisure travelers from five countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, India and China).
Their findings: In the previous year, an average 60% of business trips turned into bleisure—a nearly 40% increase over the year before that. Most bleisure travelers, spanning a range of occupations, go on 6+ business trips per year, with about equal likelihood of domestic and international travel turning into bleisure.
Time for a “bleisure breakdown.”
You should know the following about your potential bleisure customers:
• Leisure days almost double the length of bleisure trips
• Over 2/3 of bleisure spending goes to hotel, airfare and dining (hotel is 32%)
• Business trips 2+ nights, far from home, are most likely to convert to bleisure
• “Great entertainment/activity city” and “Bucket list/must visit location” are the top leading factors for extending
• 65% are solo bleisure travelers; 64% are not headed to see family or friends
• Bleisure travelers devote less time to research than they would for leisure travel, so you have to act faster to target and persuade them
• But! Because not everything’s always booked in advance, you also have a good chance of reaching and converting them during their trips, particularly for products like dining, entertainment, tours, activities and transportation
Your customers are planning their next bleisure trip right now.
We’ve been tracking the bleisure travel segment for a while and helping our clients attract and capitalize on this lucrative opportunity. Say today’s the day to unleash your bleisure travel sales potential with the right bleisure travel marketing strategy. Email Lynn Kaniper at lkaniper@danacommunications.com—or call 609.466.9187, ext. 117—to find out how.
