Leisure and its relationship with tourism is changing. Bleisure is in fashion now. New dynamics and factors are contributing in shaping tourism.
The Leisure time and need for recreation are vital and create demand for tourism. In fact, the interplay shapes the tourism product. The product is highly perishable but an innate desire of man gives it a lasting value.
Technology has blurred the boundaries between work and play, professional and personal, career and down time. A creative agency might bat around ideas over the ping-pong table; an architectural firm might be at its most productive on retreat.
And as the lines between work and life blur, so do the distinctions between business and personal travel. It’s a trend that goes way beyond the tried-and-tested formula of bringing your partner to a conference. Where destinations appeal, professionals around the globe are increasingly adding weekends, or even weeks, to work trips, whether solo, with a partner, or as a family. So established is this hybrid of business and leisure travel that it’s acquired a portmanteau moniker – “bleisure travel”.
Leisure was important since antiquity. Ito is changing continuously and the dynamics is changing also. In different culture, it changes.
Increased interest in culture, particularly as a source of identity and differentiation in the face of globalization worked as a motivation. Growing levels of cultural capital, stimulated by rising education levels also helped the process. Aging populations in developed regions having enough wealth and time also increased the demand. A desire for direct forms of experience (“life seeing” rather than sightseeing) was developed in the later years of 20th century also augmented cultural tourism. Increased mobility in our times creating easier access to other cultures increased tourism
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