![\"Kunsthalle](\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/va-n145-milan039-2.png\" "\\"Kunsthalle")
<\/p>\nA meeting in Barcelona at the end of the week, no major obligations and a tempting weather forecast: why not play it safe and postpone your ticket for a few hours, or even a few days? This is the question on the minds of a growing number of business travellers who have been tempted by the idea of 'bleisure'. This word is a contraction of \"business\" and \"leisure\", and illustrates the mixing of private and professional life. This phenomenon has taken on such importance in recent years that it would be almost dangerous for a company not to adapt to it.<\/p>\n
However, business travel specialists are still struggling to put a figure on this trend. From a visit to a museum between two meetings to a whole weekend in the sun, practices vary. Everyone combines business with pleasure in their own way, which doesn't make it easy to understand the phenomenon. However, Bridgestreet is trying its hand at it, and according to a recent study by this big name in long-stay accommodation, a very large majority of those questioned (82.3 %) say they take advantage of a business trip to explore the destination, with tourism remaining the most common activity (77.2 %), ahead of gastronomy (66.3 %), with nightlife attracting only 34.8 % of professionals.<\/p>\n
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Generation Y is naturally more receptive to this new trend. According to the Business and Travel Technology study published in March by Egencia, the rate of bleisure among them is 36 %, compared with 18 % among the 40-50 age group. But this difference is not based on generational factors, as we might think a little too quickly, but rather on family pressure. Indeed, there is every reason to believe that these same 'Ys' will be less available to extend their stay once they have become parents... More generally, this same Egencia study estimates that 24 % of French business travellers consider bleisure to be 'a priority'.systematic<\/em>\"even evoking a \"French art of enriching business travel<\/em>\". In fact, this rate is only 20 % in Germany and 10 % in the UK. \"The French associate business travel with motivation and pleasure, while the British see it above all as stress and fatigue, which explains why the latter want to get home as quickly as possible.<\/em>\"says J\u00e9r\u00f4me Fouque, Vice President and Managing Director of Egencia France.<\/p>\n Cultural differences may indeed explain this propensity to extend a stay. But there are other factors as well, not least the democratisation of what's on offer. Low-cost airlines and private accommodation booking platforms (Airbnb, MagicEvent) enable travellers to extend their trip at lower cost. The tightening of travel policies may also encourage them to seek some form of personal compensation. Relegated from Business Class to Economy, from top-of-the-range hotels to three-star hotels, nomadic executives can now indulge in a little 'luxury' by treating themselves to a little escape and respite away from the office. In fact, half of French professionals have a close friend or relative accompany them on their bleisure breaks, financing this 'extra' out of their own funds. However, not everyone embraces bleisure, far from it. Many travellers prefer discretion to protect themselves from suspicion, or simply jealousy. The other name for bleisure, \"blurring\", emphasises the \"vagueness\" surrounding these hybrid holidays. \"Let's live happily, let's live hidden<\/em>\"says Jordy Staelen, Managing Director of business travel agency 3mundi. This business travel agency estimates the rate of systematic bleisure in France at 8 %, but \"it is likely that not all travellers are entirely sincere<\/em>\"says Jordy Staelen himself.<\/p>\n Companies are still a long way from taming 'bleisure'. In fact, only one of 3mundi's clients has incorporated this phenomenon into its travel policy. Yet companies are faced with a major challenge: how can they ensure travellers' safety without knowing where they are, or even if their trip has ended? Especially as the legal framework also seems rather vague. Where does the company's liability end in the event of an accident during a business trip? \"As long as there is no clear case law on the subject, we will always find ourselves sitting between two chairs.<\/em>\"deplores Jordy Staelen. He adds: \"I hope it's as late as possible, because that would mean there had been a serious case. It would be a shame if it came to that!<\/em>\"An observation shared by the insurance industry: \"There is no precedent yet for an accident on the fringes of the mission period.<\/em>\"says Chantal Serabian, Head of Group Insurance at April International Expat. Business travellers themselves don't seem to be aware of the problem. \"They don't always realise that they may be exposing their company to potentially significant risks<\/em>\"adds J\u00e9r\u00f4me Fouque at Egencia.<\/p>\n So how can companies protect their backs without simply banning bleisure? For J\u00e9r\u00f4me Fouque \"The bleisure trend is here to stay. It now remains to be seen how the various players will position themselves on this subject and manage the very strong pressure of BtoC habits in the business world.<\/em>\". To rise to the challenge, companies need to make things clear to their travellers, advises Chantal Serabian at April: \"It is best to advise employees who wish to extend their stay to take out private cover, or at least to check whether the insurance contract provides for an extension for the few days following the assignment. The point is not to relieve the company of its responsibilities, but to formalise the framework of the assignment and its limits. The company must therefore draw up an assignment order that clearly defines the actual period of the assignment.<\/em>\". \"This does not mean, however, that in the event of an incident, its responsibility will not be checked.<\/em>continues Chantal Serabian. You can always look for the little beast. If the company hadn't sent its employee on an assignment, he wouldn't have wanted to stay.<\/em>\"<\/p>\n Against this backdrop of uncertainty, bleisure offers a new opportunity for business travel agencies to reassert their pivotal role. \"It's very important that everything fits in with the company's travel rules,<\/em> says J\u00e9r\u00f4me Fouque from Egencia. The aim is to offer the best of both worlds, organised around highly intuitive mobile tools that respond to companies' needs in terms of duty of care, compliance with procedures and negotiated rates.<\/em>\"Other agencies go further, envisaging a form of passive tracking, but also information sharing. \"By definition, bleisure takes place mainly outside corporate booking channels. However, agencies can be creative in finding ways to retrieve this information and pass it on to their customers,<\/em> insists Jordy Staelen. If we know that the traveller has not taken his or her return flight, that he or she is still in the country, and that the company has signed an ad hoc document setting out the conditions of use and transmission of the data, we can locate the travellers in the event of a problem.<\/em>\"Nevertheless, there is still a certain amount of mistrust surrounding the tracking of employees on the move, as illustrated by the European legislation governing geolocation. We still have a long way to go to invent the business travel of tomorrow, combining business and pleasure while reconciling corporate responsibilities.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More and more business travellers are combining tourism with business trips. This phenomenon presents companies with the challenge of managing these hybrid trips and clarifying the responsibilities of each party.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41779,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[1261],"type-darticle":[],"n_magazine":[],"class_list":["post-41777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politique-voyages","tag-bleisure","vapo-free"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"Bryant](\"https:\/\/www.voyages-d-affaires.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/va-n145-milan040-2.png\" "\\"Bryant")
<\/p>\nWhose fault is it?<\/h2>\n
Imagining tomorrow's bleisure<\/h2>\n