‘Bleisure’ Trips on the Rise

The concept of blending business travel trips with vacation is growing, with 60 percent of U.S. traveler trips combining the two, up from 43 percent in 2016, according to Expedia.

In a recently published study surveying more than 500 American travelers, Expedia said that the average bleisure trip adds 2.6 vacation days to a business trip of 3.7 days. Nearly nine out of ten U.S. business traveler trips are domestic, Expedia found, with 79 percent of those trips remained in the city where the individual was traveling for business.

The survey also showed that mid-July appears to be the annual peak for bleisure travel by Americans. (The study also reported on the bleisure habits of residents from China, Germany, India and the U.K.) While Expedia didn’t break out results only for the U.S., it found that globally, two thirds of those trips were for conferences, 46 percent were for business meetings, 42 percent were sales trips, and 30 percent were internal meetings.