What is bleisure travel?

Bleisure travel is a type of business travel that combines work and leisure. It typically involves extending a business trip to include a weekend or using vacation days to facilitate sightseeing or other non-work-related activities at the destination. Many employers allow bleisure travel as an employee benefit, subject to company travel policies.

The word 'Bleisure' itself is a portmanteau of the words 'business' and 'leisure'.

Bleisure travel is distinct from a workation, which generally involves working remotely from a destination rather than visiting primarily for a dedicated business trip.

When corporate travellerss were asked about their favorite work-life balance measures, bleisure travel came out on top. ^[1]

Examples of bleisure travel

The most common example of bleisure travel involves a business traveller flying off to another city to attend a meeting or an event and staying a few extra days. Here are a few different scenarios:

• A business traveller attending a conference in New York City who extends their trip to spend a few extra days exploring the city's museums, restaurants, and iconic landmarks.
• A consultant travelling to a project site in Bali who takes some time off afterwards to enjoy the island's beaches and temples after completing their work.
• A software developer traveling to a tech conference in Tokyo stays the weekend to explore the city.

Why is bleisure travel popular?

There are many benefits that bleisure travel can bring about:

Benefits of bleisure travel

Cost

Bleisure travel reduces the cost burden on the traveller, as the flights to and from the destination are usually covered by the company as part of the business trip. It makes little difference if the inbound flight is moved to the weekend, so they are generally open to this.

Morale

Many people state that bleisure travel helps prevent burnout from non-stop work and makes them happier. Importantly for employers, bleisure travel increases the attractiveness of an employer, helping increase their morale. ^[2]

Work/life balance

Combining business and leisure when travelling has been shown to help bring back balance between work and private life, with bleisure travel being the most cited work-life balance support measure. ^[1]

Empowerment

Bleisure travel provides travellers with the ability to independently plan and organise elements of their journey around their desires.

This provides them with responsibility and independence, empowering them and strengthening their skills in these areas.

Cultural understanding

The ability to explore a location enables better cultural understanding. By experiencing local customs and gaining a deeper understanding of local culture, travellers can strengthen their relationship with partners and clients located there.

All of this is explains why businesses are so receptive – it increases the satisfaction of employees and looks good on a job description, helping to attract more talent.

What are the challenges of bleisure travel?

Bleisure travel can blur the boundaries between the business and personal parts of a trip, creating additional considerations for both employers and employees.

Businesses should have a clear travel policy that explains how bleisure trips are handled, including which expenses are covered and where the company’s duty of care begins and ends. Employees may also need to consider insurance and visa requirements when extending a business trip for personal reasons.

Separating business and leisure expenses is particularly important, while employees travelling with company devices should continue to follow their organisation’s data security requirements.

Clear policies and responsibilities can help employees enjoy the benefits of bleisure travel while reducing potential financial, legal and security risks.

Focusing on the employees

If managed properly and accounted for in the planning to some extent, bleisure travel looks to be a very positive change. While the blurring of work and life can be worrisome and cause conflict, it can offer new opportunities to travellers.

They can get more out of their travel and go so far as to increase their satisfaction in their quality of life. This means better morale and productivity for the business at little to no extra cost.

In any case, this seems to be a manifestation of the more employee-focused outlook businesses are taking.

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[1] Preferred work-life balance support measures of business travelers worldwide | Statista

[2] Study shows: Bleisure travel and workation create new tourist demand | IU.de