The German Business Travel Association VDR has been promoting the framework conditions for bleisure and workation for years. We spoke to President Christoph Carnier and Managing Director Jens Schließmann about the reasons, approaches and opportunities.
Christoph, the VDR has just turned 50 and you have been involved since the 1990s. Jens, you worked with VDR for eight years through your job at Lufthansa and have been VDR Managing Director since mid-2023. What kind of clout does a business travel association need to have today in order to respond to new trends? How has lobbying work changed?
Christoph Carnier (CC): VDR’s lobbying work only began a good 20 years ago and was still relaxed back then because the issues were more relaxed. Today, it’s all about mobility and tax issues, such as those that are important to clarify for bleisure and workation. Whether in Berlin or Brussels – the ministries here decide on many things relating to business travel, and we seek dialogue so as not to hinder innovations such as mobility budgets and to keep regulations lean. This is because companies are reluctant to invest more in innovation if the requirements and circumstances are too complicated. We were also successful in this sense during the coronavirus pandemic, when travel was initially banned completely and we managed to ensure that business travel remained permitted because the economy had to keep running.
Jens Schließmann (JS): In recent years, VDR has once again been able to emphasise how high the added value of business travel is for our economy, also with the help of our annual business travel analysis. The association has managed to make its voice heard on many topics in Berlin today and to be asked about them.
A look at the results of the 2024 business travel analysis shows that although there were significantly more business trips in Germany in 2023 than in the previous year, there were still 40% fewer than in 2019. At the same time, expenditure is almost as high as in 2019. A crazy situation, isn’t it?
CC : The good news is that companies allocated a lot of budget in 2023, despite and because of the increased costs. Overall, people are now looking more specifically again at what the money for a business trip is spent on. As a result, the purpose of the trip, including the carbon footprint, is increasingly taking centre stage.
JS: The travel restrictions in recent years have made it clear how important direct dialogue and therefore business trips are for people and the economy. In the meantime, travel is increasingly being bundled without compromising on intensity and by travelling more sustainably. And examples such as Workation show that the virtualisation of the working world also brings benefits.
So the emphasis is also on the opportunities.
JS: Yes, in many companies today, business trips are also differentiated more according to whether you are meeting your customers or travelling internally, i.e. meeting colleagues at other company locations. The latter is now often more colourful and sometimes allocated to different budgets.
Do you also count workation and bleisure as internal travel?
JS: No, because strictly speaking, workation is not a form of business travel, as I am “only” moving my work to another location. And bleisure is an extension of a business trip to include a private stay, which increases the attractiveness of the trip. Both are an issue for us because we are transforming ourselves from a business travel association into an association for holistic mobility management. Today, travel management is confronted with many additional and new aspects due to many external issues. Some of these are sustainability issues, while others are related to human resources (HR). Workation, for example, is an HR topic in which travel managers are involved in many companies today.
How do you perceive the “journey” of Bleisure and Workation? Why has the VDR decided to provide professional support for these topics in working groups etc.?
CC: The coronavirus pandemic was the catalyst for many topics. Companies have been able to experience how well remote working works and what you should be in the office for. There are also skilled workers who come from other countries and want to work from home for part of the year. It has been shown how well this works in many jobs. However, this raises new issues, such as visa regulations, reporting obligations, etc., where companies and employees have to operate within a legally compliant framework. Providers have quickly established themselves here, taking over the reporting, querying topics, keeping an eye on deadlines, etc.
JS: According to the business travel analysis, 43% of companies have already implemented workation and 33% are planning to do so. This means that we are not involved in these topics as an end in themselves, but rather to help companies find their way around the regulations and approach the topic using best practices. Because we firmly believe that this form of New Works can only be enriching, both for companies and employees. We want to be the gateway for our member companies to approach these topics.
How can tourism service providers such as hotels and serviced flat providers position themselves even better here?
CC: We are currently seeing a growing trend among companies to bring employees back to the office. Against this backdrop, “workation” has the “flavour” of some employees focusing more on holidays. Against this backdrop, if there is one thing we can recommend to hotels and serviced flat providers, it is to provide a business environment for professional working. This includes sensible docking stations, high speeds, technical support and perhaps also options for recording working hours.
JS: 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 offers.
What next bleisure or workation trips are you planning yourself?
CC: I generally travel a lot and am used to working from anywhere. Due to the ever-improving technical conditions, I also go about my “usual activities” on a business trip, whether it’s a meeting or other work routines. I rarely take time for leisure or sightseeing. JS: I’m not planning anything like that at the moment – but I fully support the idea of flexible working. Because if the technical framework conditions are right, it should be possible to work efficiently and successfully anywhere, regardless of location.
Thank you very much for the interview, dear Christoph and Jens!
Sylvie Konzack …
… has been in dialogue with the VDR for many years about movements in the business travel market and is always impressed by how open the association is to bleisure and workation topics.
Fotos: © VDR, iStock/Yuri_Arcurs