This year’s summer holidays have seen the cancellation, or postponement, of many planned foreign vacations, forcing British holidaymakers to take their much-awaited holidays closer to home, on so-called “staycations”. The term staycation refers to a phenomenon of our times and was first used in a Washington Post article on 4 August 2005, before entering the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary in July 2009 in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Concocted from the words “stay” and “vacation”, in its original form it refers to the practice of staying at home while partaking of leisure activities within day-trip distances from one’s usual place of residence. It has since been widened to encompass all holidays within one’s country of residence, including those that involve overnight stays, often several, away from home.
The annual holiday is an integral, and almost non-negotiable, part of British life. The paid annual holiday was in fact a French creation, dating back to two-week holidays introduced by Leon Blum’s Socialist government in 1936. Soon after, the Holidays with Pay Act of 1938 delivered paid one-week holidays to Britain’s working classes, who had already begun their annual migrations to seaside resorts during the inter-war period. The paid annual holiday finally took off during the 1950s. Following Horizon Holiday’s first successful experimental package holiday to Corsica in 1956, the masses began to reap the benefits of cheap charter flights and inexpensive hotel accommodation as part of hassle-free all-inclusive holidays. With the democratisation of travel, package tours increasingly conveyed Brits to sunnier climes, in Southern Europe, while seaside resorts at home gradually lost their appeal. A yearning for traditional sand-and-bucket holidays was soon replaced by a newly-found desire for sun, sand, sea and possibly the other ‘S’ elsewhere, even though this often meant staying in ugly tower blocks that soon blighted previously unspoilt coastlines. Longer holidays on pay even allowed many, by the 1970s, to embark upon second yearly holidays, pursuing the winter sun in the Caribbean, North and East Africa, the Near and Middle East, Central and South America, and other exotic locations progressively further away.
The Covid-19 pandemic has applied brakes to a steadily growing global tourism economy and also prompted a rethink about touristic behaviour in the light of the climate change crisis. These considerations, coupled with an imperative to revive national economies crippled by the pandemic, make the staycation, especially in the more liberal use of the term, particularly relevant to post-pandemic economic recovery.
The tourism economy, like many other sectors of the economy, is driven by the forces of demand and supply. The demand for holidays has been growing steadily ever since the end of the last global recession, with increasing numbers of holidaymakers opting for far-flung destinations, reachable only by long-haul flights, and seeking adventure and adrenaline-generating activities in place of passive basking by the sea. There is undoubtedly a need to escape from the routines and stresses of daily work, even though some workplace stresses may have already been reduced by the emerging practice of working from home.
The reported problems of British staycations appear to have arisen from supply-side issues. While the British Isles benefit from an abundance of sea and sand/shingle, sunshine unfortunately cannot be guaranteed in these northern realms. The cooler and unduly wet weather this summer has thus put a dampener on many traditional outdoor aspects of holidaymaking. In addition, there have been many reports of overcharging by accommodation facilities, hoping to cash in on an increased demand for their services and possibly hoping to recoup earlier pandemic-related losses. There is also the matter of over-subscribed destinations, such as in Devon and Cornwall and the Lake District, with all the usual problems of insufficient public transport, road traffic congestion, lack of parking spaces, antisocial behaviour, and other effects of the mass movements of pleasure-seeking people. There also seems to be some ignorance of what is available as many less known, and yet equally scenic, tourist attractions on these isles continue to be ignored in favour of well-frequented destinations.
At a time when many of us plan to reduce our carbon footprints when it comes to leisure travel, the tourist infrastructure in parts of the UK also needs to be updated, as for example in the many tired-looking seaside resorts. A boost to the local economy, through the creation of new jobs and the setting up of new businesses, as well as wider benefits to the nation from additional tax revenues, can be expected as tourist facilities are developed in a sustainable manner, while ensuring the environment is protected from further assault. Britain’s tourist economy would be expected to grow just as travel restrictions, hikes in fuel prices and airfares, and increasing climate awareness prompt a change in touristic behaviour in the years to come, and this would all be to the nation’s ultimate benefit.
Ashis Banerjee