A staycation refers to a period in which travelers choose to take a holiday in their home nation instead of traveling abroad. The term itself is a portmanteau of “stay” and “vacation” and has become more or less synonymous with domestic tourism in British English. Staycations generally entail leisure activities that are within a day trip of one’s home and do not require overnight accommodation. Such leisure activities can include visits to local attractions, such as
. Some staycationers like to plan out their trip in advance by establishing a start and end date, planning ahead, and avoiding routine. This is done with the goal of maintaining the feel of a traditional vacation. Staycations are an effective alternative to traveling abroad when, for whatever reason, international
proves to be too much of a challenge.
COVID-19 impact on UK staycations
During the
coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, travel restrictions and efforts to control the spread of the virus meant that long-distance or international trips were no longer feasible for many UK travelers. Therefore, staycations became especially relevant during this time. Domestic travelers accounted for 96 percent of the
UK’s total travel and tourism expenditure in 2021, while two years prior, in 2019, domestic travelers represented 81 percent of the total expenditure. Following the COVID-19 lockdown, the
holiday-related search term with the highest growth in the UK was “staycation”. This term soared in popularity and saw year-over-year growth of over 500 percent in 2020. Many of the other fastest-growing search terms were for holidays in various regions within the UK, such as Northumberland and the Peak District.
Outlook for staycations in the UK
Despite the regulations on international travel having largely returned to normal since the beginning of the pandemic, staycations are likely to remain an integral part of the travel sector in the United Kingdom. After some travel restrictions were lifted in 2021, one of the top five
holiday destinations with the highest YoY growth in Google searches was the UK. Google searches for domestic vacations within the country increased by nearly 63 percent in November 2021 when compared to the same month of the previous year. Meanwhile, when looking at the
average spending on staycations taken by Britons in the UK in 2021, it was estimated that British citizens would spend an average of nearly 770 British pounds on staycations. As of September 2022, the
leading region for winter staycations in the UK was the north west.
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