Booking habits of bleisure travelers revealed

Today, at the annual Expedia Partner Conference in Las Vegas, Expedia Media Solutions unveiled the Profile of the American Bleisure Traveler study, which reveals the booking habits of bleisure travelers, or business travelers who extend their trip with leisure travel and activities.

Overall, the study found that 43 percent of all business trips, across domestic and international destinations, are bleisure trips, revealing a substantial opportunity for the travel industry.

This new study provides an in-depth look at the travel and booking patterns of bleisure travelers and some key findings include:

-At 66 percent, destination is the leading factor in turning business travel into bleisure, followed by the additional costs required to extend the trip (59 percent) and how close the trip is to the weekend (51 percent).

-More than 60 percent rated major cities like New York, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C. as leading destinations for bleisure travel. Additional destinations touted for their bleisure appeal include Denver, Boston, Nashville and San Antonio.

-Once someone has considered taking a bleisure trip, the path to booking is typically one to four weeks; more than 80 percent said they would book all or most of their leisure activities or extended hotel stay within this time period.