A latest study points out that business travellers who are part of ‘bleisure’ travel are found to be more productive. A poll conducted by the University of East London (UEL) lists a myriad of benefits that allows business travellers enjoy the leisure part of a destination over and above a meeting trip; the physiological and mental well–being level is raised by almost 78% in employees returning to work from a bleisure trip.
Another study conducted by the London City airport, as part of its Bleisure Travel Report, cites 61% of employees to have experienced increased productivity level right after a bleisure trip. Nearly 36% of participants, that is a good one third of survey respondents, have reported to have taken part in leisure activities, indicating that bleisure is becoming popular as a key element of modern day business travel.
The study by London City also contradicted previous research studies on the adverse impacts of business/corporate travel, which mentioned some travel employees felt apprehensive about requesting their manager for leisure time on business trips.
Furthermore, employees, according to the report, are found to spend leisure time sampling local drink and food, travelling around the place, absorbing local history and culture, and meeting kith and kin. If studies are anything to go by, nearly 54% of the employees are accompanied by a family member or another on a bleisure trip.
Another added advantage is that there is a bigger opportunity for urban business tourism to bolster tourism and leisure activities when a business traveller makes a trip, especially when it benefits the productivity and well–being of the traveller, at large. It also increases rapport between fellow colleagues when positive travel experience is shared in story form.
Though the pros of bleisure travel far outweigh the cons, the report, however, mentions that 71% of respondents have reported that their employers were dispassionate towards intertwining business and leisure during business or corporate trips.
Something that is quite evident, based on the study, is that most companies do not have any formal travel policies in place for bleisure trips. This means that employees can’t include leisure facets to their corporate travel freely; therefore, it is the hands of the travel manager to establish clearly defined policies on bleisure travel for the enhanced productivity and higher well being of their employees, and how much the management cares for the work/life balance of their employees.