Staycation...

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A new word has entered the English language; the ‘staycation’ is now officially recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary.  What nonsense!



For those of you who might have missed it, according to Wikipedia a ‘staycation’ is ‘a period of time in which an individual or family stays at home and relaxes or takes day trips from their home to local attractions’.  In other words, it’s what you do in your week off when you can’t afford a holiday.



In the same way that brunch is both breakfast and lunch, a ‘staycation’ is supposed to be both a stay (at home) and a vacation.  I have a few issues with this not least the fact that nobody this side of the Atlantic ever goes on a vacation anyway.  Everybody knows that the correct local term is holiday, so in fact the proper word for a holiday at home should be a ‘homoliday’ – a home holiday.  Say it out loud, ‘Homoliday’.  This is a much more satisfying word.

Now that we have a better word for it, let’s examine the risks associated with homolidays.  As a homolidayer you’re going to be way too close to your place of work, and if your boss knows you’re not really away you can be sure that the odd thing or two might just pop up that needs your input.  Worse still, your home broadband connection will work perfectly (for free) so you know you’re going to stay on top of those work e-mails.  Watching CNN and BBC World would have to be compulsory, and each morning you would need to sneak a pain au chocolate and a banana away from your breakfast table… just to see you through till lunch.

A number of UK tour operators have jumped at the chance to promote their holidays as ‘staycations’ but homolidays are not to be confused with UK Breaks.  As we all know, UK Breaks are when you still do all your own cooking… just with other people’s pans.  At least on your homoliday you can use your own kitchenware.

Despite the hullabaloo about this phenomenon in the newspapers I’ve yet to meet anybody who has genuinely decided to holiday at home this year.  I know plenty of people who are ‘just going to spend a week at home in the garden’, which is fine.  But pretending you’re on holiday when you’re not is just bonkers. 

The credit crunch has brought about some strange changes amongst the traveling classes.  For years we’ve been going on holiday and pretending we’re at home; eating pies, drinking beer, falling down.  Now we’re all broke it appears we want to stay at home and pretend we’re on holiday; visiting museums, mixing with the locals, eating out.

As Travel Agents you have a duty to nip this thing in the bud before it spirals out of control.  Kuoni has a week at Kuramathi Village in the Maldives available in August for just £638 (no washing up required).

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