Participants in Destination-Curated Bleisure Tours: A Profile of International Business Visitors in Seoul’s Pilot Program

Destinations increasingly offer curated leisure tours to business visitors, but little is known about the people who take part in them. This foundational study profiles participants in pilot bleisure tours run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, compares three participant types (meeting and exhibition attendees, corporate business travelers, and accompanying persons), and examines how participants evaluate the tours. Post-tour survey data from 554 participants (May–September 2026) were analyzed with Holm-corrected chi-square and Kruskal–Wallis tests and partial least squares structural equation modeling. Participants were mostly first-time visitors from North America and Europe with one or two days of free time who mostly joined because they had spare time. The participant types differed in travel party, region of origin, and free time; no significant differences were detected in leisure preferences, information sources, concerns, or desired support, although questionnaire changes and unequal subgroups limit these comparisons. Tour quality was positively associated with satisfaction (β = 0.399) and recommendation (β = 0.332), with a small indirect path through satisfaction. Evaluations differed more across tour programs than across participant types. The findings provide a baseline for designing and promoting bleisure tours for business visitors.