Vacations are casualties during recessions, as you saw yesterday: two-thirds of Americans have canceled theirs already. Well, you may have a chance to recapture the family experience by combining it with a business trip. This “blended travel” approach, which got me to Savannah, Georgia and Little Rock, Arkansas as a kid, has become more popular, according to some industry experts. To me, it’s hardly surprising, given that one of the plane tickets is already covered and, depending on how you structure it, you can get at least some of the hotel room picked up by the company, too.
Of course, there are other opportunities to recapture some cash, too. If you work for a large company with an employee discount program, you could be able to add nights to your trip at a low cost, cut the cost of meals and attractions and maybe even save a little on your flights.
And, it looks like this is going to become the norm. According to MSNBC:
A survey conducted earlier this year by the Meredith Corporation, the publisher of Family Circle magazine, found that of readers who travel for work, 77 percent took along a family member or significant other on their last business trip, and 47 percent do so the majority of the time.
[photo by ToastyKen via Flickr]