A recent study from Expedia Media Solution and Luth Research uncovers the booking habits for these so-called bleisure travelers, for one thing, we find out that despite mostly staying within the United States when traveling for business, American bleisure travelers add leisure to nearly half of their business trips!
Source: Expedia Media Solutions, December 2016
That’s great news for destinations management organizations, specially at the international level, when bleisure makes even more sense considering the time and effort to get there. This is particularly true for destinations that have a strong focus on meetings and conventions, which seem to draw the bulk of bleisure travelers.
Source: Expedia Media Solutions, December 2016
More Leisure Than Business?
What’s even more fascinating about some of the results of this study is to find out that most folks actually take more time for leisure than for the business component of their trip. In fact, 58% of bleisure travelers surveyed said they take as many, if not more, days for the leisure part of their trip!
Source: Expedia Media Solutions
Other interesting findings from this study:
- At 66%, destination is the leading factor in turning business travel into bleisure, followed by the additional costs required to extend the trip (59%) and how close the trip is to the weekend (51%).
- The majority of bleisure trips are spent in the same city or area as the business trip (84%), but as the length of the business trip increases, so does the likelihood the traveler will visit multiple cities. Those who travel at least three days for business are more likely to visit three or more cities (20%).
- Most bleisure travelers personally research or book elements for the leisure portion of their trip, including hotel (70 percent), airfare (52 percent) and restaurants (50 percent).
- When conducting research for bleisure trips, hotel or accommodations are typically researched first (35 percent), followed by sightseeing locations (18 percent) and airfare or travel reservations (15 percent).
- PCs tend to be the device of choice for bleisure research across travel site categories, but home rental sites like HomeAway (61 percent) and OTAs (42 percent) dominate mobile-only research.
The appeal of a destination obviously plays a big role as well, but it’s interesting to see what bleisure travelers prioritize when it comes to choosing their next bleisure experience. Sightseeing is the biggest decision-making factor (85%), followed by beaches, the food scene and weather!
Read the full report here.
