Expedia Media Solutions has released its latest research on business travellers taking time out for leisure.

The Unpacking Bleisure Traveler Trends reveals insight such as that travellers adding leisure to their corporate travel trips take more than six business trips per year and almost two thirds of their trips, 60%, were extended.

The study also looks at the sort of factors influencing the decision to add on some leisure time – with 56% saying food and restaurants is a big consideration, closely followed by factors such as beaches, weather and what there is to do and see.

Insight from the study:

• Business trips of two to three nights are most likely to result in bleisure trips as well as more long-distance trips
• Other prominent factors influencing the decision to add on a leisure element include great entertainment, 48%, a bucket list type destination, 43% and proximity to the weekend.

Research and booking behaviour

• About 80% of those adding a leisure element to a trip spend between an hour and five hours on research during both the inspiration and planning phases, a shorter consideration period than with traditional leisure booking
• Before making the decision to add some leisure time, 68% of travellers carry out research via search engine, 47% via travel-related websites and 44% via a destination website.

Budgets and payment trends

• Compared to a typical vacation, 57% of bleisure travellers spend the same amount of money or more on a bleisure trip, and more than 75% say they save for combined business and leisure trip
• Credit cards emerge as the preferred payment mechanism whilst on the trip, 69%, followed by cash, 47% and debit cards, 44%.

The full study, conducted by Luth Research, is available to download here. 

The research was carried out with the participation of more than 2,500 American, British, Chinese, German and Indian business travellers who extend trips for leisure purposes.