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A12 BUSINESS
Thursday 28 July 2022

Has remote work changed the travel

landscape?

er during the week. That
could all be shifting with re-
mote work.
According to data from
Hopper, a travel booking
app, the cost of domes-
tic flights on Sundays and
Mondays has risen 5.90%
and 2.97%, respectively, in
2022 compared to 2019,
while the cost of flying on
Friday and Saturday has
dropped by 3.04% and
1.60%. It’s now cheaper to
fly on a Saturday than a
Monday, on average.
In this June 19, 2017, file photo, a person types on a laptop Further, remote workers
keyboard in North Andover, Mass.
Associated Press can take longer trips during
busy holidays, flattening
By SAM KEMMIS trends. “Many travelers the “peak” of peak travel
NerdWallet who have the opportunity dates. “Since 2020, we’ve
While some workers re- are choosing to combine observed a small but no-
turn to the office this year, remote working with trips ticeable shift toward Thurs-
many others continue for a change of scene as day departures for Me-
to work remotely indefi- well as maximizing PTO,” or morial Day weekend itin-
nitely. This seismic shift has paid time off, explains Mark eraries,” says Craig Ewer,
changed where people Crossey, traveler expert at spokesperson for Google
live and work and, increas- Skyscanner, a travel search Flights, “which suggests
ingly, how they travel. engine and agency. “Wor- that location flexibility is in-
In the first quarter of 2022, kations allow people with deed having an impact on
nearly 25% of job post- flexible home and work traveler behaviors.”
ings at the 50,000 largest lives to become ‘half tour- AN INDUSTRY ADAPTS
companies in the U.S. and ists’ for a period of time.” Many workers fled large cit-
Canada were for perma- This kind of freedom ap- ies during the pandemic,
nently remote positions, peals to Lisa Wickstrom, filling the suburbs and ru-
according to the job listing a mortgage underwriter ral areas. But remote work
service Ladders. That’s up based in Arizona who now has changed the calculus
from a mere 4% before the works from around the more drastically for some,
pandemic. “It has enabled world with only a suitcase. freeing up budgets to allow
us to extend trips, leave “I got three weeks of va- more travel.
early and work different cation before,” says Wick- “I save over $2,000 a month
hours,” says Kirsten Reck- strom, “But I never feel like I after taxes by living in Flori-
man, a credit risk manager have to take vacation time da,” says Reckman. “We’re
based in Tampa, Florida, because … I’m always on traveling a lot more be-
who works remotely. “My vacation.” cause of that.”
boss is very accommodat- For the travel industry, these Lower cost of living and
ing as long as the work nomads offer enormous tax incentives means more
gets done.” Reckmen’s ex- opportunities. Remote freedom for some remote
perience reflects a larger workers can spend far workers. And some compa-
trend. One in five travel- more time and money at nies are seeing a potential
ers this summer plan to do far-flung destinations. Yet windfall.
work on the road, accord- “bleisure” travelers don’t fit Airbnb, the vacation rental
ing to a report from De- the typical tourist mold. platform, reports that the
loitte, an international pro- “You can’t just go freely ev- number of long-term stays
fessional services network. erywhere,” explains Derek (over 28 days) doubled
Of these so-called “laptop Midkiff, a patent attorney in the first quarter of 2022
luggers,” 4 in 5 plan to ex- who left San Diego during compared to 2019. The
tend the length of their trips the pandemic and never company has even intro-
because of schedule flex- looked back. “You’re living duced an “I’m Flexible”
ibility. somewhere but also work- search functionality for
THE RISE OF ‘BLEISURE’ ing. Someone asks me, ‘Did travelers who don’t need
TRAVEL you do this and this,’ and I to get back to an office on
Remote work has blurred have to say, ‘No, I’m work- a specific date.
the line between business ing, it’s not the same as “I’ve found Airbnb to be
and personal travel. Rather when you’re on vacation.’” cheaper, and have better
than leaving home rarely TRAVEL DAYS ARE CHANG- rules,” says Midkiff, explain-
for vacation, remote work- ING ing why he chooses va-
ers can travel at any time. Before the pandemic, it cation rentals over hotels.
This has the potential to was expensive to fly on “And I like to stay a month
upend longstanding travel the weekends and cheap- to get the discount.”q