Estate Living Magazine Investment - Issue 34 October 2018 | Page 64

It’s a
bleisure
As more and more people cyber-commute, the boundary between home and
office is blurring – and so is the boundary between work and holiday.
Way back in the last quarter of the previous century, when Cape Town – oceanside awesomeness
competition was hotting up, airlines started frequent flyer The perfect bleisure mix would be to fly in, then take the MyCiTi
programmes to either get or retain a nice fat share of the (mostly bus to your hotel. I particularly like the Westin Cape Town, and
corporate) travel market. And that’s when business travellers not just because it is super-conveniently situated right next to the
realised that having to fly to clients, conferences or contractors at CTICC, the Waterfront and downtown. Here’s where it gets great.
regular intervals was not all slog. There was an upside. Finally, when After a hectic day of meetings, slip on a pair of shorts and wander
they manage to sneak a week or two away from the office, they downstairs to take delivery of your rental SUP (stand-up paddle)
could use their accumulated air miles to take a holiday somewhere board. And then quietly explore the three kilometres of canal, going
exotic. past the beautiful Marina Residential Estate, and end up at Battery
Park, where you can have coffee, a meal or a nice cold craft beer.
But savvy business travellers are getting even cleverer. Rather than And then paddle or walk back to your hotel. If you have enough
splurge all your leave on one air miles-sponsored extravaganza, why time, you can extend the excursion all the way to Sea Point either
not take it piecemeal, and use those flights to exotic places
to greater value than just collecting air miles. And
thus was born the concept of bleisure travel – a
blending of business and leisure.
In its most basic form, bleisure involves
tagging a few days on before or after a
business trip to somewhere interesting,
and taking time out – even if it’s just an
hour or two in the morning or evening.
Of course, you don’t get to choose your
destination, but with some imagination
and a bit of help from Professor Google,
you can find something worth doing almost
anywhere.
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