By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
One night last week, I opened our television set to relax after a hard day’s grind. I was immediately glued to the CNN channel as I saw pictures in a trailer which I thought were from the Philippines. My hunch was right, they were actual shoots from the Philippines.
The host of the show, Mr. Richard Quest, was explaining after a while about a word that will become part of the Merriam Webster dictionary this 2017. The word: bleisure. Mr. Quest was elucidating on the meaning of the word with actual videos of beautiful Philippines. The pictures alone will help you forget about, even for some fleeting moments, why a Philippine senator was about to be arrested, why Amnesty International is pressuring the Duterte administration about human rights, or why scalawag policemen are being thrown to a beautiful, peaceful place that is Basilan.
It seems to me that Mr. Quest is convinced that the Philippines is a perfect destination for bleisure. After seeing the entirety of the episode on the Philippines, I am more than convinced (as if I was not convinced before?) that our country is really an excellent showcase for bleisure. I have been to a lot of places in the Philippines— in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao– but I know that I have not even scratched the surface of places of interests, such as those shown in the program.
I am always amazed at how lovely the Philippines is when I see shows about travels in the country. Points of interest seem endless. It therefore befuddles me why many Filipinos are wanting to travel abroad for vacation even if they have not been to popular tourist allures in the country.
But what is bleisure? It was defined simply as a blending of business-oriented trips with personal time. It is a combination of two words: business and leisure. It takes off from earlier combinations such as the word staycation (stay and vacation) or, promo names like Kathniel (Kathryn and Daniel). The blending of parents’ names or part of names to name a child have long been a practice, of course.
According to some report, business travelers would like now to maximize their trips by extending their stay in places of their business activities. In effect, business people would like their family members or friends to tag along during their travels to share their leisure time. Bleisure therefore would be a source of bigger business. In fact, it is touted to be growing tremendously giving additional income even to travel agents.
The Global Business Alliance revealed that 67% of business travelers indicated that it is important to have business trips to have leisure add-ons. One can just imagine how this could translate to higher spending by those involved. At the same time, it will actually save time and money for the bleisure travelers as they will have to spend for only one trip fare instead of two.
Mr. Quest’s show included an interview with our tourism secretary, Mr. Ramon Jimenez. The interview itself was combined with a tour of Intramuros. That is, they were talking as they were roaming around the preserved, old Spanish “settlement” on motorized rollers. The show also featured trips to a private island and Puerto Galera aboard a seaplane, featuring resorts owned and developed by expats. Quest and the viewers were treated to a breath-taking and stunning beauty along the way. The panorama along the route covered makes one proud of being a part of a beautiful place where it is more fun to be in.
It is said that bleisure offers an opportunity to tap into a traveler who generally spends more and books more products than people who take strictly leisure trips. It is exploding in other places. It is time that we, including CAR, should take advantage of this by involving hotels, and tourist destinations in planning and strategizing for this.
Quest was incredulous why we have only a measly 5 million or so tourists coming to the Philippines while our neighbors like Thailand have more than 15 million tourists yearly. He opined that bleisure could be a sure way to increase such tourist arrivals. Amen to that.
**
