COVID-19 staycations and the implications for leisure travel

• Published in: Heliyon 2022-10, Vol.8 (10), p.e10867, Article e10867
• Main Authors: Muritala, Babajide Abubakr, Hernández-Lara, Ana-Beatriz, Sánchez-Rebull, Maria-Victoria
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Big data; Construal level theory; COVID-19 infection; economic crises; ecotourism; Google trends analytics; income; Internet; pandemic; people; Social media; Social media analytics; Topic modeling; travel; Twitter; User-generated content (UGC)
• ISSN: 2405-8440; 2405-8440
• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10867

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the re-emergence of staycations to the fore, as many people were forced to spend their vacations at or close to home due to travel restrictions. This phenomenon first went mainstream during the 2008 financial crisis, and has now been further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigated the growth and practice of staycations during the first two years of the pandemic by analyzing social media and internet search data using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling and Google Trends analytics. Key findings suggest that, while spatially close to home, people tried to achieve a psychological distance away from home. This was demonstrated by a strong global search interest in spending staycations at hotels close to home. The optimal LDA topic model produced 38 topics which were classified under four aggregate dimensions of antecedents, attributes, activities, and consequences of staycations. The findings provide useful insights to managers and policymakers on boosting revenue through this practice, and the role of staycations in promoting leisure activities close to home and sustainable tourism. •We investigate the practice of staycations during the COVID-19 pandemic from conversations on Twitter and analysis of Internet search trends.•The LDA topic model produced 38 topics which were classified under four aggregate dimensions.a•Findings point to a strong interest in spending staycations at hotels to achieve a psychological distance away from home.•Critical insights are drawn on the role of staycations in promoting tourism closer to home and sustainable tourism. Twitter; Topic modeling; User-generated content (UGC); Construal level theory; Big data; Social media; Social media analytics; Google trends analytics.