I
recently traveled to Mexico City for
a business review meeting with one
of our partners, Corporate Travel
Services (CTS). This time, I invited my
wife to join me so we could squeeze in a
little vacation time. I was able to spend
a day in meetings with CTS and added
on a couple of days of vacation time for
touring. This is the concept of ‘Bleisure’ –
combining a business trip with some leisure
time to improve employee satisfaction
with business travel.
WHO’S DOING BLEISURE
TRAVEL?
According to the Global Business Travel
Association (GBTA), the average bleisure
traveler takes seven work trips a year.
When combining business and leisure,
travelers extend their stay for an average
of three days. They tend to work for larger
companies, with an average of 950+
employees. Among these workers, 58%
have children at home, and 44% report
that they travel with someone else for the
vacation portion of their trip. The reasons
they cite for extending their business trip
include the desire to visit a location where
they enjoy spending time, a chance to
visit a new destination – as a way to take
a cost-effective vacation – and simply
needing time away from home and work.
ADVANCE PLANNING FOR
BLEISURE TIME
Spending your free time in a new city or
the surrounding area can be intimidating
when you’ve never been there and don’t
know which areas to avoid. When I
realized that I’d be spending a few extra
days in Mexico City, I reached out to a
local expert, a highly recommended tour
guide to help me put together an itinerary.
Since I also wanted to impress my wife a
bit, I splurged on a guided, private tour.
We commissioned a tour guide for his
services for a couple of days at $250 a
day. Our first day, he took us to one of
the most sacred places in Mexico, the
Teotihuacán pyramids. You learn things on
a guided tour that give you the backdrop.
It becomes an education when you hire a
good tour guide. I felt like I was on a really
rich vacation, but it was on a shoestring
budget. It felt like we spent more than we
did because the experience was so unique
and tailored to us.