Here’s How Many Additional PTO Days It Takes to Make a Work Trip Not Suck
Because if you’re going to be in New York City or London, you might as well make the most of it.
From hush trips to working from anywhere with an internet connection, the way travelers combine business with pleasure is changing more than ever before. And now we have some new verbiage to describe it: Bleisure. In case this is the first you’re hearing the term, bleisure is the combination of business and leisure, in which a voyager tacks extra time onto a work trip for a mini-vacation.
A new study is telling us exactly what length is most ideal for this kind of trip. According to Corporate Traveler and FCM Travel, business travelers are extending their trips to more than a week to accommodate for recreation. This mainly points to people traveling for business during weekdays then extending their getaways over the weekend for exploration and relaxation.
Comparing data from sourced from April 1 to September 30 of 2023 and April 1 to September 30 of 2024, the study showed that bleisure trips lasting more than seven days have grown at the fastest pace (9%) from last year. In a close second place are trips lasting six to seven days, at an 8.5% growth from 2023. Third place goes to four- to five-day trips, at an 8% growth from 2023.
With work travel commonly drawing people to the financial hubs of the world like Chicago, London, and Singapore, these cities have plenty to offer outside of work hours, so extending your trip for a few days just makes sense. In New York City, for example, bleisure travelers can escape office confines for de-stress sessions at outdoor spas, cocktails at the hottest new bars, and delightful Broadway shows.
To optimize your time, one practiced, international bleisurer on Reddit suggests, “finding great restaurants, cafes, and co-working spaces nearby to have peace of mind for focusing on the adventure, researching local nomad or expat communities to find social circles, and looking up all the usual tourist things to do beforehand in order to leave room for serendipity.”
This development seems like the natural progression of things as work-life balance has become increasingly important to Millennials and Gen Z when navigating career decisions. It might just be the ultimate hack to preventing burn out.