Bleisure Travel
It’s a great idea and I'd always encourage it. Most recently I had an exec fly to LAX for a meeting. Although she has been many times for business, this time she decided to stay in California for an extra 48hrs and take some surf lessons in Huntingdon Beach. Not only did she have a great time, she secured lower priced airfares for her company as she was flexible with her return dates. She was relaxed when she returned to the UK and she now has a genuine topic of conversation with her clients in the area.
Business travel has historically been perceived as a perk, something to aspire to. These days the reality is that business travel is frequent, tiring and it often means time away from the family. Where’s the fun in four days in Hong Kong if you only see the inside of your hotel room, your meeting room and the airport lounge?
The buzz word “bleisure” makes sense for the business travellers of today. They are given the opportunity to genuinely experience a destination while taking minimum annual leave and reducing the expense of personal travel. For employers it actually makes huge business sense!
Reduce Disruption in the Workplace
Employees who take advantage of bleisure trips usually spend less time out of the office. Instead of heading off on annual leave for a week or two at a time, employees tend to tack on only a few days at the end of their business trip reducing disruption to your business.
Reduce Stress and Create Great Client Relationships
Don’t forget travel can be tiring, especially to long-haul destinations and for frequent travellers who are putting on their best show for clients. By encouraging employees to combine business travel with leisure time helps to prevent burnout and reduce stress levels for them.
Most importantly in my opinion, travellers who spend more time in a destination where they are visiting clients or colleagues have an opportunity to really explore and understand local customs, culture and common topics of interest – perhaps even pick up a new language. This creates the conditions for improved insight and deeper client relationships. We all know people buy into people and giving employees a common ground with clients or something to bond over – perhaps a favourite surf beach, or speciality restaurant – will only benefit your business relationship.
Increase Employee Retention
As job hopping is now commonplace and retaining millennial employees is more difficult, one way to increase retention is to Introduce travel perks. Including a bleisure clause in to your travel policy can make you more attractive to new recruits and help you secure the best talent.
Travel content is all over social media and with increasing numbers of business travellers keen to explore international destinations all you need is an employee to Hashtag your company name for the #BestBusinessTripEver and your profile is increased in more ways than one.
Cutting business expenditure
You could actually save money on the business flights. Unsurprisingly, flying is most expensive on Mondays, Fridays and Sundays. If your employee is looking to add on a couple of days to their business trip and returns or flies out midweek, the company could save hundreds.
I’d be happy to offer guidance with writing with your travel policies. They can be a great tool within the workplace, everyone knows where they stand, you can advertise it to your staff and applicants, and everyone will be in a good position to confidently and accurately make the most of their travel itineraries.
Donna Eldred Corporate & Luxury Travel Specialist
T 01442 540 068 M 07477 926 816 E donna.eldred@travelcounsellors.com W https://tctravelmanagement.co.uk/donna.eldred