Blended business and leisure travel represents a top opportunity for tourism growth, according to the WTM Global Travel Report, produced in conjunction with Tourism Economics.
More than half of experts responding to a Travel Industry Monitor 2024 survey cited blended leisure and business travel as a tourism growth opportunity, making it the top niche mentioned.
Business travel’s performance has been “something of a surprise relative to prior expectations,” the report notes. The post-pandemic persistence of online meetings and events was expected to cause its decline.
Instead, in-person meets are “still highly valued” and business overnights and spending have surpassed previous peaks.
The report notes business travel is being built largely around business events.
A key takeaway is that business travellers are staying longer and spending more per trip. While the volume of international business visits currently remains 6% below pre-pandemic levels, the number of overnights are 3% above that 2019 benchmark.
Such extended visits can be attributed to the trend for bleisure – the combining of business trips with extra days of leisure tourism. In this respect remote working has had a positive effect, the report notes, enabling travellers to be more flexible about working overseas around their leisure time.
The WTM Global Travel Report is produced in conjunction with Tourism Economics, part of Oxford Economics. It was unveiled on Tuesday 5 November at WTM London.
