A staycation (a portmanteau of "stay" and "vacation"), or holistay (a portmanteau of "holiday" and "stay"), is a period in which an individual or family stays home and participates in leisure activities within day trip distance of their home and does not require overnight accommodation. In British English the term has increasingly come to refer to domestic tourism: taking a holiday in one's own country as opposed to traveling abroad. Common activities of a staycation include the use of a backyard pool, visits to local parks and museums, and attendance at local festivals and amusement parks. Some staycationers also like to follow a set of rules, such as setting a start and end date, planning ahead, and avoiding routine, with the goal of creating the feel of a traditional vacation. Staycations achieved popularity in the U.S. during the financial crisis of 2007–2010. In 2020, staycations became common due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Etymology The word staycation is a portmanteau of stay (meaning stay-at-home) and vacation. The terms "holistay" and "daycation" are also sometimes used. The earliest references to this term as coming from a 2003 article by Terry Massey in The Sun News. Hotel impresario Paul Ruffino who is credited for coining the word "infomercial" has also been credited for his incarnation of the word. According to a Connecticut travel blog, the word "staycation" was originally coined by Canadian comedian Brent Butt in the television show Corner Gas, in the episode "Mail Fraud", which first aired October 24, 2005. The word became widely used in the United States during May 2008 as the summer travel season began with gas prices reaching record highs, leading many people to cut back on expenses including travel. Merriam-Webster cites the earliest use in the Cincinnati Enquirer, July 18, 1944. However, it had already been published a few weeks earlier in another Cincinnati newspaper. The term was added to the 2009 version of the Merriam–Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. A closely related concept and term is nearcation, which is taking a vacation to a location relatively close to home. "Nearcation" and "staycation" may be used interchangeably since the travel destination may be in the same metropolitan region in which one resides and it is unclear how far away a destination needs to be until it becomes no longer a "staycation". Lake Superior State University added the word to its 2009 List of Banished Words. The citation noted