T’is the season for silly words. As travel companies gear up for the busy January booking period, a host of new holiday buzzwords is being unleashed.
The travel industry has form when it comes to dreaming up terrible portmanteaus that creep into everyday use – see staycation and glamping. Other inventions – flashpacking (posh backpacking), poshtel (fancy hostel) and bleisure (a combined business and leisure trip) – have remained the preserve of travel websites and blogs – so far.
This autumn “microgapping” entered the travel lexicon, with Visit England launching a £2.5m #mymicrogap campaign aimed at encouraging millennials to take what anyone over the age of 35 would call a short break.
But 2019 looks set to be a particularly daft year, thanks largely to the boom in wellness trips which, according to the 2018 Global Wellness Institute report, is growing twice as fast as general tourism and is now worth an estimated $639 billion globally.
Among the new offenders is the “painmoon”. While its linguistic predecessor, the babymoon, refers to the break couples take before their baby arrives – Harry and Meghan’s imminent parenthood prompted a flurry of excitable babymoon headlines in October – the painmoon has been conceived for those who need an emotionally healing holiday during a difficult time in their lives. Nobody’s arguing with the idea behind it, but a replacement word that doesn’t make the user cringe is urgently needed.
Another new entry for 2019 is the “zen-do”, the latest incarnation of the hen-do. It’s out with boozy weekends and in with pampering and yoga. Blame TV presenter Chloe Madeley – soon to be married to rugby star James Haskell – who posted snaps of her own Ibiza zen-do on Instagram. Once you’ve had your zen-do and babymoon, start saving for your “mumcation” to get away from your child. While you are enjoying some ‘me time’, the grandparents can bond with their grandchildren on a “skipgen.”
Happy holidays.
