R.I.P. ‘Staycation’
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 08.29.08 | 1:25 PM ET
Not even in peace. Just take a rest. Yes, we all had a lot of fun with this clever new word this summer. We—travel writers, bloggers, even TV networks—lamented the high price of gas and the slow economy and declared it the perfect summer to stay home and explore our own backyards. We’ll take a staycation, we said, so pleased with the expression that self-satisfied grins followed its every use. Somewhere along the way, we lost our marbles.
We offered stupid tips on planning a “great staycation.” (”Declare a choratorium.”) We even gave it its own Wikipedia page that traced its origins back to a Canadian comedian in 2005. Thanks for nothing, Canada.
Enough is enough.
In April, when its use was just beginning to take off and we declared it a New Addition to the Travel Lexicon, “staycation,” was still a novelty. Today, Google returns more than half a million citations.
Familiarity has bred contempt.
This weekend marks the end of the summer vacation season. With it, let’s declare an end not just to the staycation trend, which was overrated to begin with, but the use of this tired and lamentable term. Let’s call this a New Subtraction from the Travel Lexicon.
Goodbye, staycation.
Photo by indichick7 via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
Paul Brady 08.29.08 | 11:02 PM ET
OMG, thank you for writing this!
TambourineMan 08.30.08 | 5:57 AM ET
Nice. The word “voluntourism” needs to die as well.
Michael Yessis 09.03.08 | 3:42 PM ET
Guess Salon didn’t get the message:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2008/09/01/staycation/index.html