The global lodging giant IHG's Crowne Plaza hotel chain recently released The Future of Blended Travel. Key quote on blended travel:
"The convergence of business and leisure behaviors was once remarkable. Not anymore ... as post-pandemic travelers increasingly adopt seamless blended travel behaviors and attitudes."
The key data is illustrated by the report chart below. It shows the majority of respondents to the study's survey plan combine business and leisure travel over the next year.
The report lists 4 key trends as driving the growth of blended travel:
1. Reworking Work: Travel to a hotel or resort in a warm, exotic overseas location or an exciting city as a base for remote flexible working has boomed over the past two years.
2. Hybrid Living: Increasing number of business travelers are planning to extend their work travel with leisure days to get the most from their trips. Key to this is the flexibility and ability to work while traveling – whether it is a long-haul trip or a weekend visiting family – that's enabled by new working practices.
3. Upskilling and Side Hustles: Upskillers and Side Hustlers are using the power of travel to fuel inspiration, feed curiosity and enable networking and connections.
4. New Care Economy: More than ever before, families want to travel with children and grandparents. Multi-generational travelers seek out destinations that cater to all ages.
A key reason we like this study is we vastly prefer the term "blended travel" over "bleisure travel", which we first reported on in 2015.
No one seemed to like the term bleisure travel - Skift even called it "that awful moniker". But it's been commonly used. Hopefully, blended travel will replace it as the term of choice.
We consider the blending of travel and work an important social and business trend. It's a driver behind the growth of remote work, the growing number of digital nomads, and even the shifting patterns of where people live.
It's a trend worth following and the Crowne Plaza report is well worth reviewing.