The trend toward combining business and leisure travel is not new.
We first covered it in 2009, and it wasn't new then.
But now that travel is returning from the COVID-induced slowdown, it's clear the pandemic accelerated the long-term trend towards what the travel industry site Skift calls "that awful moniker bleisure travel".
Skift's recent essay The Great Merging looks at the broader trend of work/life integration and focuses on what it means for travel.
Key quote:
"How we live, work, socialize, and travel has merged into each other, with profound implications for the global industry at the center of selling this dream. How will travel respond?"
Skift's provides data that bleisure travel has accelerated via the CEO of American Airlines. Key quote:
"For example, historically, only about 20 percent to 25 percent of the trips in the airline were something that we call blended, where somebody was traveling for both business and leisure. "Now, for about five to six months, about 50 percent to 55 percent of the trips in the airline are blended…."
This is a huge shift in a relatively short period of time.
Skift also points to the rapid growth of companies providing longer stay options, which cater to bleisure travelers, as evidence of the growing bleisure travel trend,
These include startups like Sonder, Selina, Blueground, Habitas, and Life House. Many major hotel chains are also adding longer-term stay properties - Skift mentions Accor, Marriott, and Hyatt as examples.
As with most trends accelerated by the pandemic, bleisure travel's growth rate will likely slow from its current lofty levels.
Reversion towards prior growth rates is common after an accelerating shock.
But we agree with Skift that bleisure travel will continue to grow faster than in the past.
