“Whether for employees, companies or the self-employed Bleisure and workation options are constantly growing. Tourism destinations and hotel providers have already responded to this with exciting concepts. A brief foray.“ Sylvie Konzack
Everyone has put their shoes on the shelf behind the front door, even though they don’t have to. One guest has retreated to the soundproof video call room, another is lying in the hammock in the garden with his laptop. And the next is standing at the desk on the balcony with a view of nothing but South Tyrol (see also this post). Whether board members, employees or freelancers – at “Franz & Mathilde” everyone has their own space in a small room and can, but don’t have to, do anything together.
The hosts Sarah Tribus and Philipp Gems are young interior designers and “Franz & Mathilde” are the names of Sarah’s grandparents, who once ran the guesthouse. A few years ago, Sarah and Philipp transformed the sixties charm of the six-room guesthouse into a workation concept with plenty of modern feel-good flavour. This switch has paid off: the house is now almost always full. All guests stay for at least two weeks, some want to enjoy “temporary emigration” to South Tyrol for several months. Each guest is their own “workation master”. And if you want, you can also go hiking and biking with your hosts during your free time.
3/4 of Bleisure trips take place as part of meetings,
congresses, events and incentives. (GCB)
All guests stay for at least two weeks, some want to enjoy “temporary emigration” to South Tyrol for several months. Each guest is their own “workation master”. And if you want, you can also go hiking and biking with your hosts during your free time.
Workation locations have more than just a desk and a strong WIFI connection. This is clear to all those who are living and breathing for this topic. And more and more providers are realising this. The mountain village of Prechtlgut in Salzburger Land, for example, has eight chalets and lodges for plenty of workation space for teams and families and also offers executive coaching sessions with the host Carina Neumann, a qualified health psychologist. If you look to the cities, concepts such as Lyf offer exciting coliving as a workation: In the new building in Vienna, for example, the Lyf Schönbrunn Vienna (f.l.), the lobby leads into a courtyard with several buildings: they house 162 apartments, some in maisonette style, plus three community kitchens, a coworking lounge and several terraces on the roofs. There is also a fitness and meeting room – according to the motto “Share the day”.
Providers such as “Franz & Mathilde” are also organised in associations such as CoworkationAlps. This association was initiated by Regionalentwicklung Oberland KU from Bavaria as an economic and tourism promotion organisation – a cooperation model that enables healthy growth with diverse structures far away from the misappropriated flats in many large cities.
New Work needs new places and formats.
Vanessa Thielemann, Founder of Brali
The German federal state of Brandenburg is also promoting the topic of workation and bleisure with TMB TourismusMarketing Brandenburg by organising events for tourism stakeholders and investors. A summit has just taken place near Berlin at the 360 Grad Bleisure Resort (see also this post) to which Bleisure Traveller was also invited as a speaker. In turn, the Rhineland-Palatinate Convention Bureau made 2023 the Bleisure theme year and created a stay-longer offer for hotels. And Switzerland is also increasingly keeping up with the topic with targeted Bleisure offers.
New target groups, more low season
According to the Newoka III study published by Workation.de, two thirds of accommodation providers who have gained initial experience with workation expect demand to increase. Most of them see this as an opportunity to attract new target groups and also to play a greater role during the low season. 55% of the accommodations actively support team activities, mostly by providing offers via external providers. A third organise themselves. And in general, 37% of accommodation providers report a slight to strong increase in workations (chart above), while 66% assume that demand for workation will generally increase in the coming years.
Most respondents consider the technical equipment with sufficient internet capacity and workstations to be a major road block but at the same time a welcome investment. If you ask experts such as the business travel association VDR, they heavily indulge this and also recommend docking stations, technical support and perhaps also options for registering working hours for hotels and serviced apartment providers. “Access, i.e. the processes behind it, must be simple and easy to integrate into travel management. The price level should also be reasonable so that people are more likely to try out new services,” says VDR Managing Director Jens Schließmann (see interview).
“New work needs new places and new formats,” says Vanessa Thielemann, founder of Brali Team Retreats & Offsites. The more people work remotely, the more important regular meetings are to convey the company’s mission.
And bleisure? According to a study by Prof Dr Peter Neumann from IU International University, over 30% of the tourism professionals surveyed have already developed specific bleisure offers and almost as many have joined forces with external partners. According to the German National Tourist Board (GNTB) and the German Convention Bureau (GCB), Germany was also the No. 1 bleisure country in Europe in 2023 as the
No. 1 business travel destination. 75% had previously attended a congress or similar event. The GNTB now wants to promote Bleisure even more – additionally because the CO2 footprint of business travellers is decreasing
Sylvie Konzack …
… … had spent three days with the CoworkationAlps association and thus with providers in the summer. She was enthusiastic about the increasingly diverse workation options in the hotel industry, co-retreats, conferences and co-working.
Foto: © iStock.com/LeoPatrizi, Sylvie Konzack
