As the name suggests, bleisure travel combines business activities and leisure travel. Due to the technological boom realized over the past few years, the lines between personal life and work increasingly merge day by day. Most successful business travelers have found interest in adding extra days to business trips to explore different foods, cultures and natural features.
According to Forbes, business travel is gaining ground among most business owners.
- At least 57 percent of companies have policies to allow young employees to attend more business trips with vacation time.
- More than 78% of the millennials have intentionally added more days on business trips.
- About 74% of business travelers would like their corporate travel policy to increase the budget to accommodate entertainment.
A Shift in Business Trips
People are slowly adopting a new trend in business trips to mix the organizational call with entertainment. Statistics show that in every three business travelers worldwide, at least one of them has added a leisure component to one of their regular business trips.
Do you love business travel? This growing bleisure segment mainly consists of more experienced business travelers and millennials.
They both have unique and different purchasing habits from the typical tourist and can borrow a lot from exploration to help nourish business.
What Are The Benefits of Bleisure Travel?
Although mixing business activities and leisure may sound counterintuitive, especially for business companies or owners striving for more productive trips, the benefits of leisure travel significantly outweigh the associated disadvantages. Some advantages of adding the fun element to your trips are:
Reduces stress
Travel can sometimes be hectic, especially for frequent travelers or long-haul destinations. Allowing your employees to combine formal business trips with entertainment will help reduce stress and burnout levels. They will also feel appreciated and committed to working more for the betterment of the business.
Deepen Business-Client Relationships
Allowing your employees to interact with clients in formal and informal settings will create mutual friendships most businesses crave.
The travelers get ample time to explore the clients in their local environment and understand their culture, local customs, sensitivities and sometimes the local direct.
As a result, the company gets clear insight and develops deeper client relationships.
Bleisure Travel Attracts the Best Talents
If your bleisure policies are formalized, more employees will be willing to work with you or close to the company. The company can then take the opportunity to recruit the best available talents that are likely to propel the business to higher horizons.
The incentive will also motivate employees who don’t like traveling to participate more in business trips.
Creates Job Satisfaction
Most successful companies have incentives that keep the employees hooked to the organizational goals, and so can yours. Although sometimes you may deem this opportunity small, it might sound bigger to travel lovers.
If they are formalized, the incentives create satisfaction that can allow you to set and implement other rules at ease.
Undoubtedly, allowing the entertainment section on the business trip will add weight to the budget.
However, the incentive will create the best opportunities that can enable business to grow fast. Therefore, it is a win-win policy because it enhances employees’ productivity.
How Can You Create More Bleisure in Life While Growing Your Business?
Bleisure is one of the coolest trends in business travel history that can maximize organizational profits. However, there are a few steps you need to follow to avoid compromising the interests of business while squeezing whimsical and fun into the organizational lifestyle.
1. Business First.
Although bleisure is great, it should not come at the expense of employee productivity. After all, why are you on the trip if not for work? Bleisure can be planned at specific periods when the travelers have little work, or someone can comfortably cover them during the entire travel period.
2. Utilize the ‘Window’ Days.
Window day has different names in different countries, but it occurs when a national bank holiday comes midweek. It would be better if your bleisure trip could be squeezed between a weekend and a public holiday. This strategic planning allows travelers to visit destinations without losing paid vacation days.
3. Add More to the Business Destination.
Do you really need to stay in one location for the whole bleisure trip? Not really. If, for example, you are traveling to Brussels, you can spare some time to visit nearby cities such as London, Amsterdam, or Paris for an hour or two.
4. Make the Most Out of It.
As the saying goes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do. If you interact with clients or remote working employees, try their lifestyle to cultivate stronger relationships.
Grow Your Business
At H2H Companies, we understand the hassles associated with growing a business, especially startups. We are committed to working closely with you to help you navigate all the hectic processes involved.
If you are trying to grow your business or a service-based business owner and want more freedom in your life, learn the three shifts for more freedom at www.h2hgrowth.com. You can also visit our website or check Repeatable Business Process Recipes to Help You Create Scale
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I'm Bryan Kramer. I coach executives and founders one to one, and I give keynotes on AI, leadership and human connection.