The phenomenon?of business travelers who tack on?additional leisure travel days to their business trip %u2014 the %u201Cbleisure%u201D traveler %u2014 has been cited as an emerging trend for years.
But a new white paper, %u201CA Quantitative Look at the Leisure Phenomenon,%u201D by Carlson Wagonlit Travel%u2019s CWT Solutions Group, found that the percentage of business travel trips that are also bleisure trips has remained static over the last five years, calling the overall trend into question.
Who exactly are the travelers most likely to combine work and tourism? And where are they most likely to travel?
A study of five years%u2019 worth of data?by CWT Solutions Group shows that female travelers who rarely travel for work are the most likely to add a leisure trip when they do hit the road for work.
Travelers between the ages of 20 and 25 are the most likely to add a leisure component to their business trip, the study found.
%u201COur definition of bleisure requires a Saturday night stay at destination either at the beginning or at the end of a trip, or both,%u201D reads the report%u2019s executive summary. %u201CUsing this definition, we find that every year 20 percent of business travelers take bleisure trips, and these account for 7 percent of all business trips. These values have remained largely unchanged since 2011, which indicates that this is not a new phenomenon.%u201D
The report defines a bleisure trip as business trip which has an arrival flight on Saturday or a flight departure on Sunday; in other words, a business trip that begins or concludes on the weekend.?The report provides a caveat about the difficulties of providing definitive answers about the trend using this methodology, stating that it is nearly impossible to determine the true scope of bleisure travel using this definition.
The data show that almost half of those who combine business travel with leisure take personal days at the end of their trip.
%u201COur analysis shows that for 46 percent of the bleisure trips the personal days occur at the end of the trip, for 34 percent at the beginning, while for the remaining 20 percent leisure occurs at both ends of the trip,%u201D the report continues.
Here are four charts from the report that shine more light on the phenomenon of the bleisure traveler.
Top international bleisure destinations?may surprise you........ Continue Reading........