56%
respondents claimed they extended business trips for personal travel in the
past one year
82%
respondents check work emails on holiday
TripAdvisor®, the world’s
largest travel site*, today revealed the findings of its survey on Mixing
Business & Leisure on Travel. The survey was conducted among actively employed professionals* of whom over 75% travel
often or occasionally for work. These respondents include a large sample of
frequent travellers (30% undertook 3-5 domestic business trips in the last 6
months and 41% took at least 1-2 international business trips in the past 6 months.) Over 50% respondents were professionals with 6-15 years of
work experience and 21% were senior professionals with work experience between
16-25 years.
According to Nikhil Ganju, Country Manager, TripAdvisor India, “The findings
from our survey indicate that Indian professionals are exploring opportunities
to make room for leisure on business trips as well as willing to accommodate
work on holiday.”
Elaborating further, he adds “The
survey shows a high propensity for working
professionals to make time for a holiday when they are travelling for
work, as 69% respondents said they extend their business trips for personal
travel sometimes. Hhighlighting
a desire to be actively connected to work and clued in, even while they are on
a break, 82%
respondents check mails and 94% take or make work calls on holiday.”
Make Time To Play At
Work
While business trip schedules are choked with
meetings, conferences, market visits and playing catch up with work mail on
Smartphones , the survey finds that the top 3 things that people still try and
find time for are :
- Try/eat out at popular restaurants in the city (78%)
- Visit some local tourist spots (75%)
- Catch up with a friend in that city (66%)
Interestingly, family loving Indians seem to
prefer catching up with a friend in the city compared to meeting relatives
which featured lowest among other options!
The survey also found that as many as 83%
respondents extend their business trips to accommodate personal holiday/leisure
break sometimes, often or always. However, in the past one year, 56%
respondents have actually extended business trips to make time for a personal
break.
While majority of 65% respondents said they
never tried to manipulate a work trip, 35% respondents admitted to deliberately
planning business trips that were not really required, for simply a
break/change from office routine (14%) or because the trip gave them an
opportunity to plan a holiday in or around the business trip destination(13%).
Probing deeper into the travellers psyche,
the survey asked respondents to select reasons for which they were likely to
extend their business trip for personal travel. The top reasons that emerged as
incentive to club work travel with a personal trip were, travelling for work to
a city/country where they/their family would like to take a holiday (57%) or
travelling close to a holiday destination of interest to them or their family
(48%).
Wired To Work On
Holiday
The Indian professional appears to be
addicted to work with a whopping 82% admitting to checking work e-mails while
on vacation. Of these, while 61% check their e-mails daily, 15% are constantly
checking their inbox. What’s even more surprising is that respondents
acknowledge it isn’t employer expectation or pressure but personal choice that
they stay connected to work mail on holiday. And to top that, 60% respondents
felt working on holiday didn’t reduce their holiday enjoyment; in fact it
actually helps them relax better.
According to the survey, key reasons why
employees choose to check work mails on holiday:
“I
find I can relax more if I keep an eye on what’s happening at work” (43%)
“It
helps reduce the number of emails I have to read when I return” (42%)
“To
help my colleagues when I am away” (40%)
“I
love my job and like to stay connected” (39%)
Further strengthening this trend, the survey
finds 94% respondents make/ take work
related calls while on holiday out of which 23% make/take calls often or
always, while one-third decide on taking/making calls depending on who is
calling them.
Smartphone is the device of choice for a
majority of 62% respondents to manage work on holiday, followed closely by the
traditional laptop at 59%. Tablet adoption seems to be catching up with 22%
using it for remote work management.
No Stress From
Employer or Spouse
For the Indian professional, support begins
at home as 77% respondents confirmed they never argued or had a fight with
their spouse/partner for working on holiday. Supporting this further, 89%
respondents said they don’t need to hide that they are working on holiday for
fear of upsetting their partners.
Employers also seem to be reasonable as 73%
respondents said their managers expect them to be accessible or work on holiday
only in case of emergencies.
A question of ethics
It is interesting to note that 58%
respondents do not consider it unethical to use air miles or hotel
points from business trips for personal use:
- 57% respondents said that they used airline miles collected on business trips for their personal travel.
- 50% respondents indicated that they use hotel reward points collected on business trips for their personal travel.
This could be a result of seemingly liberal
company policies as 67% respondents confirmed that their organisation does not
prohibit employees from using airline miles or hotel points accumulated from
business trips for personal use.
*survey sample does not include self-employed
professionals.
