Australians travelling for business now average six nights away on a trip compared to a global average of 3.5 nights according to Corporate Traveller, Flight Centre’s agency for SME business travel.
After analysing booking data from for the six months from October 2023 to March 2024, Corporate Traveller says the length of bleisure trips has risen by five per cent.
“Prior to the pandemic, mixing business with pleasure while away for work was a real luxury and not necessarily the done thing, but that has all changed in the last couple of years,” said Corporate Traveller’s global managing director – based in Australia – Tom Walley.
“Corporates have now realised that extending trips for themselves or having their family come along to join them after a trip has ended is a great way to build upon health and wellness in the workplace.
“Given we’ve witnessed an increase of five per cent in the average business trip length in Australia, it’s clear a rise in bleisure travel is behind it, and our ability to work remotely and capitalise on extending trips – especially for meetings, events, and conferences – play a big role in this,” said Walley.
For destinations hoping event attendees extend their visits to the region, this is good news and an opportunity to increase focus on pre and post event tour opportunities locally.
Walley’s assertions are backed up by data from the Global Business Travel Association which shows that over six in 10 business travellers mix business and leisure travel more now than they did in 2019.
Seventy-nine per cent of these travellers choose to stay in the same accommodation for both parts of their trip, which will be good news for hotels targeting business travellers and the business events market.
