Entrance of Best Western Plus Hotel Hong Kong (20190308161746)

A staycation (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsday trip distance of their home and does not require overnight accommodation. In British English the term has increasingly come to refer to domestic tourism: taking a holiday in one's own country as opposed to traveling abroad. Common activities of a staycation include the use of a backyard pool, visits to local

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are green spaces set aside for recreation inside towns and cities. ...

s and

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

s, and attendance at local

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

s and

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...

s. Some staycationers also like to follow a set of rules, such as setting a start and end date, planning ahead, and avoiding routine, with the goal of creating the feel of a traditional vacation. Staycations achieved popularity in the U.S. during the

financial crisis of 2007–2010 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...

. In 2020, staycations became common due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

Etymology

The word ''staycation'' is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsdaycation A day trip is a visit to a tourist destination or visitor attraction from a person's home, hotel, or hostel in the morning, returning to the same lodging in the evening. The day trip is a form of recreational travel and leisure to a location that ...

" are also sometimes used. The earliest references to this term as coming from a 2003 article by Terry Massey in ''

The Sun News ''The Sun News'' is a daily newspaper published in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, in the United States. It serves the Grand Strand region of South Carolina with a daily circulation of 19,773 and a Sunday circulation of 26,798. It is owned by Cha ...

''. Hotel impresario Paul Ruffino who is credited for coining the word "infomercial" has also been credited for his incarnation of the word. According to a Connecticut travel blog, the word ''"staycation"'' was originally coined by Canadian comedian

Brent Butt Brent Leroy Butt (born August 3, 1966) is a Canadian actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Brent Leroy on the CTV sitcom ''Corner Gas'', which he created. He also created the television series ''Hiccups'' and wrote ...

in the television show '' Corner Gas'', in the episode "Mail Fraud", which first aired October 24, 2005. The word became widely used in the United States during May 2008 as the summer travel season began with gas prices reaching record highs, leading many people to cut back on expenses including travel. Merriam-Webster cites the earliest use in the Cincinnati Enquirer, July 18, 1944. However, it had already been published a few weeks earlier in another Cincinnati newspaper. The term was added to the 2009 version of the

Merriam–Webster's Collegiate Dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's ...

. A closely related concept and term is nearcation, which is taking a vacation to a location relatively close to home. "Nearcation" and "staycation" may be used interchangeably since the travel destination may be in the same metropolitan region in which one resides and it is unclear how far away a destination needs to be until it becomes no longer a "staycation".

Lake Superior State University Lake Superior State University (colloquially Lake State, Lake Superior State, Soo Tech, and LSSU) is a public college in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. It is enrolls approximately 2,000 students. Due to its proximity to the Canadian border, and th ...

added the word to its 2009 List of Banished Words. The citation noted that ''vacation'' is not synonymous with ''travel'', and thus a separate term isn't necessary to describe a vacation during which one stays at home.

Benefits

Staycations are likely to be less costly than a vacation involving traveling. There may be no lodging costs and travel expenses may be minimal. Costs may include

transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...

for local trips, dining, and local attractions. According to the American Automobile Association, "the average North American vacation will cost $244 per day for two people for lodging and meals.... Add some kids and airfare, and a 10-day vacation could top $8,000." Staycations are likely to avoid some of the stress associated with travel, such as jet lag, packing, long drives, or waits at

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

s. Staycations may be of economic benefit to some local businesses, who get customers from the area providing them with business. In 2008, the tourism bureaus of many U.S. cities also began promoting staycations for their residents to help replace the tourism dollars lost from a drop in out-of-town visitors. Air travel's environmental impact is significant. By avoiding travel, a staycation may reduce the

carbon emissions Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities strengthen the greenhouse effect, contributing to climate change. Most is carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. The largest emitters include coal in China and l ...

associated with travel greatly.

Risks

As staycationers are close to their places of employment, they may be tempted to go to work at least part of the time, and their bosses may feel their employees are available to be called into work. Staycationers also have access to their

email Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

(whether personal or business) at home as they would regularly, allowing them to be contacted, and feeling the temptation to keep up with this contact (whether business or social). These risks can be balanced by strictly adhering to rules that make the experience feel like a real get-away, such as "no checking email," or "no watching television." Staycationers may spend money they had not planned as retailers and other advertisers offer "deals" to encourage staycationers to spend money. These may include

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

s making package deals in hopes of luring planned staycationers to do some travel. Staycationers can also finish a stay-at-home vacation feeling unsatisfied if they allow themselves to fall into their daily monotony and include household projects, errands, and other menial tasks in their vacation at home or near home.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Staycation 2008 neologisms 2000s neologisms Types of tourism Tourist activities Neologisms

Etymology

Benefits

Risks

See also

References

External links