According to Bloomberg, people seeking to escape the confines of their homes went road-tripping to nearby vacation rentals in surprisingly strong numbers last year, with short-term rental sites like Booking.com, Vrbo, and Airbnb all seeing a surge in their domestic bookings despite the travel slowdown.
‘Bleisure’ is the blend of business travel and leisure, and may not be a new concept to the travel industry, but it is definitely getting a second look. The ability to work and conduct business is no longer confined to a desk, four walls, or necessarily the indoors. Workcations, a variant of bleisure, has been gaining popularity as resorts such as in Muskoka, and sunny destinations are pivoting their marketing strategies to offer ‘work-from-paradise’ packages.
American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), the world’s leading business partner for managed travel, says the pandemic has also led to a rising population of ‘digital nomads’ – professionals whose work is technology-enabled and location-independent. As long as they have a laptop and Wi-Fi connection, digital nomads can work and move within multiple locations near or far, from coffee shops to hotels, a rooftop patio or beach. However, working remotely can have limits. It can sometimes lead to isolation, video conferencing fatigue, the absence of workplace culture, and the value of face-to-face interactions with colleagues, partners, and customers.
For these reasons, AmexGBT launched a new Workspaces booking service for remote workers and small teams. GBT’s Workspaces gives customers the ability to make flexible, daytime bookings of meeting venues, co-working spaces, guestrooms with desks, converted suites and small hotel meeting rooms, to use as work and collaboration spaces.
The service is designed to serve the needs of individuals and business travellers who seek safe, productive places to work, and companies that need controllable, cost-efficient options for their staff to get together where office use is restricted. There are currently 500+ Canadian venues on the platform (hotel suites, meeting venues, shared office venues) with 50+ instantly bookable workspaces, growing daily. Many of its hotel partners such as Hyatt and Radisson have redesigned converted guest suites that offer safe working environments, with all the comforts of a short-term rental such as kitchens, living room spaces, in-room dining, and access to amenities including fitness centres and pools.
Business travel will move ahead more responsibly
Professionals these days might be used to conference calls and realize that some meetings aren’t necessary in person. Some businesses might have adapted much better than they expected and decide to keep some of the changes they’ve put in place.
There may be more hybrid conferences where people from a region will all meet in one location and connect virtually with other regions.
Business travel will undeniably be different, but it will pick up slowly. The new normal for business travel will be a more mindful, thought-out way of travelling. In the long run, it will benefit both employees and employers, leading to a better life-balance for the former and a better return on investment for later. As we all know, meetings and deal breakers are much more successful in person, so everything continues to be a juggling act for businesses but it’s all workable.
Businesses will offer more travel support for their employees
Bookings, transport, hotels, and transfers via different platforms might have worked for most employees in the past. But anyone who had to cancel or change multiple bookings in the past few months might have been left frustrated by a time-consuming and inefficient process. Organisations recognize that good communications play a crucial role in supporting the needs and safety of employees. Technology is key to enabling this at scale. Last July, GBT launched Travel Vitals – a brilliant tool aggregating from hundreds of sources to provide COVID-19 information in once place. Travellers can search by destination, airline, hotel, and transportation operators for up-to-date regulations. GBT also has a mobile app called Travel Program Notifications (TPN), that allows travel managers to send push-notifications and timely messages to their travellers.
Businesses will focus on environmental sustainability
Meanwhile, there is an advancing desire for businesses to be more conscious of their activity within the context of environmental sustainability. The pandemic has provided an opportunity to re-evaluate working practices and the management of business relationships, and business travel in particular. In 2019, GBT became the first global TMC to offset 100% of its emissions from employee business travel. Its corporate travel and expense management software, Neo, offers a new sustainability feature to help travellers make better-informed booking decisions by filtering carbon emissionsfor air and rail transportation, and hotel eco-certifications.
It will be interesting to see how travel will evolve and continue to grow as it’s a safer and more practice means of travel for today’s business professional.
If you want to learn more about business travel trends, join me on Tuesday, April 13, 2021, as I will interview Patrick Doyle, VP and General Manager at American Express Global Business Travel Canada.
Main image credit: GBT Workspaces: Hyatt Regency Toronto, Deluxe Suite Workspace/2021
