travel tech insights

With more advancements in mobile technology and the ease at which people can communicate, the line between work and play becomes more and more blurry. In today’s world, it’s not uncommon for people to respond to work emails on their smartphones or tablets while on holiday, nor is it uncommon for travelers to add small vacations onto their business or corporate travel bookings.

This merging of business and leisure travel, also known as bleisure travel, is a somewhat recent development in the market share of today’s travel industry customer, though it’s a segment that’s growing exceptionally fast with great potential impact on how travel companies position products and services. According to a recent study by BridgeStreet Global Hospitality, more than 60 percent of travelers reported merging business and leisure travel in the last year, with 30 percent of respondents adding at least two additional days to their trip.

The release of BridgeStreet Global Hospital’s The Bleisure Report 2014 introduced a new term to the travel industry and revealed the idea of combining business and leisure travel – far from being outlandish – was a reality for a sizeable number of people and poised for growth.  The report found that 83% of global business travelers take time on business trips to explore their destination cities and 37% add personal leave days to most or all of their trips. The key word to notice is “global” business travelers, because it makes all the sense in the world to maximize international airfares bought by employers.