I agree with the sentiment. I’m afraid that I have to get away from home to regard it as a holiday, especially with the British weather. Skintcation doesn’t quite slip off the tongue as well as holistay, but I can’t think of anything better right now.

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I prefer the Word ” Minted” Darren. As far as we’re concerned Our October sales have surpassed those of 2007!

We’re getting enquiries every day and are converting them to bookings.

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I like it. For me though it more about being cautious due and lack of stability and confidence. Very newsy item today Darren as the pound slumped more than six cents against the dollar to $1.621 – the biggest one-day drop since “Black Wednesday” in September 1992. (ref daily telegraph 22 Oct)

I had booked flights two months ago for travel next April with Virgin Atlantic but they have cut the route due to a downturn in demand, so I have canceled with full refund (I have to wait up to 5 weeks for the refund though). I can’t afford to rebook anything at the moment for the same price and shorthaul prices are looking just as expensive. So I might be on Skintcation myself.

I am reluctant now to book any holiday arrangements before Christmas now. I think there will be more confidence after Christmas and airlines and travel companies that can ride the storm will still be around.

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How about Rantcation?

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Why don’t we stop using crappy tabloid/marketing buzzwords. I like English. Why do people do this to it?!

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I don’t know of many Travel agents that are “Minted” Darren!! It’s more of a love for the Job and the pleasure of sending people away on the holiday of their dreams.

I disagree that it’s looking like the 70′s where holidays are only available for those well off! There are some great bargains still to be found. We have some great offers for Next May already on Sale and a lot of these are at affordable prices to suit everybody’s pockets.

Let’s face it, it’s still less expensive to holiday abroad than holiday in the UK. There are some Cruise Bargains offering you Bed, Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch, Afternoon tea, Evening Meal, Midnight Buffet, Entertainment, Lectures, New City each day etc etc, that per day work out less than staying in your average 3 Star High street local hotel in the UK on B&B

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Isn’t that the beauty of English, it’s ability to adapt, mold, and reinvent itself?

Many English words we commonly use now weren’t used 20 years ago, and 20 years before that, and so on.

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I hate the term too. I can’t afford to travel abroad very often, but I resent the industry trying to make it trendy or fashionable to stay home. (It’s not the “in” thing to do for me — It’s my financial reality).

The only think I “like” about the trend is that it encourages people to visit new restaurants and explore their area a little more closely (as a former retail and hospitality worker, I see the value in this). However, I think people should do that anytime they want and they don’t need a made-up word for it.

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@Anil: That is my point. English is a beautiful, adaptive living language. Why feed it poison? I love to see English growing, but “staycation” is a brain-damaged bastard child of media and mediocrity.

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Personally I like the term ‘staycation’, but I am in the US so we don’t normally use the term ‘skint’.

Or perhaps we could use ‘cheapskatecaction’

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Darren,

You know how people like to run with new words! I think there’s another word to describe the exploration of things close to where you live – the kind of places where you send visitors but have never actually visited yourself. Many of these places are great but because they’re so close, you never think of going.

Mark

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I agree with Mark that’s it’s amazing what there can be on your doorstep that you choose to ignore. We spent last weekend in Perthshire in central Scotland, we did have some rain but we had waterproof clothes and had lovely walks admiring the Autumn colours.

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I’m guilty of having used the term “staycation”. Wrote a post about that travel trend in May if I remember correctly.

As Mark and Karen said, there really is plenty of opportunities for new experiences close to one’s home – it’s just a matter of paying attention and not dismissing any sites just because they are on your doorstep.

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I suppose “Being Sensible about the Household Budget – ation” doesn’t feature, then? I seem to recall that in the last downturn, (1990 something) people didn’t trade down (someone who normally goes to, say, Mauritius, going to Benidorm – or vica versa, depending on your point of view) they just stay at home – and last time there was no word developed for it. So what’s changed?

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To be honest I have never heard of the term, but it sounds very American so I have no idea why the UK press would want to use it.

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