COVID-19 and the bleisure travellers: an investigation on the aftermaths and future implications

ABSTRACT

Bleisure travel is a terminology usually used to label travel that involves components of both business and leisure. It characteristically takes the form of business travellers prolonging the length of their trip, to relish leisure activities at the destination visited. The study investigated the effect of COVID-19 on the bleisure travellers and the repercussions of covid-19 pandemic on their future travel behaviour. A qualitative research methodology was adopted and data was collected with the help of a semi-structured interview guide to interviewing people who were involved in bleisure travel. A total of 30 respondents from several industrial verticals like service, healthcare, tourism, IT, academia etc. were considered for the study. Data were analysed with the help of Nvivo-12 by using thematic analysis. The results revealed that due to this global pandemic, bleisure travellers are highly demotivated, scared and anxious. The results further conveyed that the future of bleisure travel seems uncertain and blurry which not only affects the tourism or travel pattern of the tourists but will have a high impact on pure business-related activities as well. The study will help to chart out the future course of actions and to analyse the implications of COVID-19 on bleisure travel.

KEYWORDS:

• Bleisure
• business travel
• COVID-19
• pandemics
• tourism industry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Sandeep Walia

Sandeep Walia, Associate Professor, is the Head of Department of School of Hotel Management & Tourism at Lovely Professional University, India. His research areas include Community based tourism and nature-based tourism. He has obtained his PhD from Indira Gandhi national Open University New Delhi, India.

Parvinder Kour

Parvinder Kour is presently working as Assistant Professor at School of Hotel Management and Tourism, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Jalandhar (Punjab), India. She has completed her Doctorate of Philosophy in Tourism Management form University of Jammu (Jammu and Kashmir), India. Her area of research is destination management, branding, marketing and planning.

Pooja Choudhary

Pooja Choudhary is presently working as Assistant Professor in School of Hotel Management & Tourism at Lovely Professional University, India. Her research areas are tourism marketing and tourism education. She has obtained her PhD from Central University of Jammu, India.

Aruditya Jasrotia

Aruditya Jasrotia is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Amity Institute of Travel and Tourism at Amity University, Noida, India. His areas of expertise are Smart Tourism, Smart Tourism Destinations, Smart Cities, Tourism Technologies, Community Based Tourism and Sustainable Tourism. He recieved his PhD in Tourism Management from Central University of Jammu, India.