Globally, 20 percent of business travelers forgo leisure
diversions during their business trips, aka bleisure, because of how it may
look to their employer, according to Egencia's 2018 Bleisure Trends study. By
region, 32 percent of business travelers in Asia took a pass on bleisure due to
employer perception, followed by 20 percent of business traveler respondents
based in North America and 15 percent of European respondents. Nearly 9,000
business travelers responded to the December 2017 survey.
Egencia found 68 percent of respondents take at least one
bleisure trip per year. Twenty-eight percent said the biggest factor
determining whether they included a leisure add-on to a business itinerary was the
destination. Proximity to the weekend came in second at 23 percent, followed by
proximity to friends and family at 16 percent.
When respondents took bleisure trips, sight-seeing was the
most popular activity across all regions with 30 percent of total respondents
saying they took advantage. Dining came in second at 20 percent, and 17 percent
went shopping. Among business travelers who include a leisure component, less
than two percent globally have billed back leisure expenses to their companies.
A significant share of respondents from each
region surveyed said they would plan a bleisure trip this year. Despite the
fact that the highest percentage of Asia-based respondents said they refrain from
bleisure travel due to employer perception, it remains a popular trend there.
According to the Egencia survey, 50 percent of respondents in that region said
they were planning to add a leisure component to a business trip in 2018, while
41 percent of North American respondents and 32 percent of European respondents
have bleisure trips on their to-do lists.