As more and more countries reopen their borders to eager tourists, a new buzz phrase has emerged on social media: “revenge travel”.
The term has been used to describe trips as varied as family reunions, grand luxury vacations and trips to favorite places, which begs an important question: what is it, anyway?
“Revenge” often has a negative connotation, which contradicts the happy, excited feeling many people have about taking their first vacation in over two years.
But the idea of a “revenge trip” seems to be more about loving to travel than making peace with a specific destination. Unless Romania “stole” your boyfriend or girlfriend or Peru got you fired from your job, it sounds pretty weird to take revenge on a place.
Perhaps “revenge trip” can be interpreted as revenge against the pandemic, or against Covid itself.
That’s not it either. So what is it?
“Revenge trip is a media buzzword that originated in 2021, when the world started to reopen and people decided to make up for lost time,” says Erika Richter, vice president of American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) .
Part of the problem is that there’s no good way to describe the current climate of travel around the world. “Post-pandemic travel” is not very accurate, as the pandemic is still not over in many places. Different countries and regions are operating on different schedules, with some eliminating all barriers to entry, while others remain strictly controlled or even closed to foreign visitors.
Erika Richter agrees with the general sentiment behind the concept, even if she doesn’t use the term “revenge trip”.
“I think it’s another way of saying, ‘Hey, life is short. I want to book this trip. I want to spend more time with the family. I want to connect with humanity and with nature. I want to explore the world and seek out experiences that make me feel alive.”
She’s not alone in the tourism industry struggling to figure out how to talk about “revenge trip” as a trend.
“I don’t think the prefix ‘revenge’ is appropriate for what the trip should be,” says Rory Boland, editor of Which? magazine. He calls “revenge trip” a “strange and ugly term”.
However, it recognizes that the phrase has a clear connection with people.
“What it’s trying to capture, I think, is the desire that many people have to travel again, see new places and meet new people, after a period that felt static and dark.”
People who are “traveling for revenge”
Whether or not they use the term “revenge trip,” many travelers report that they are taking their first major trip since the start of the pandemic.
Deborah Campagnaro, who lives in British Columbia, Canada, is one of them.
She retired from her 30-plus-year job in investment services during the pandemic and was looking forward to taking a celebratory vacation with her husband. The couple took a group trip to Nepal in 2016 to hike the Annapurna Circuit, a challenging hike through some of the highest peaks in the country.
They loved the trip so much that they planned to return to Nepal, this time on a personalized itinerary. Pandemic-related closures and weather difficulties meant they had to postpone multiple times. Finally, they confirmed reservations for September 2022.
Deborah and her husband are dedicating themselves to more time and experiences rather than high-end resort stays. They will stay in Nepal for a whole month and have added a few days in the lakeside town of Pokhara.
“This wouldn’t have happened before,” she says of the side trip. “We are doing it now because we can. It’s really, really nice to have some downtime after a hike.”
Brittney Darcy, a resident of Rhode Island, is also looking forward to a trip that was ruined by the pandemic.
The 26-year-old has dreamed of going to Paris since she was a little girl to watch her favorite movie, “Sabrina”. But the planned summer 2020 trip with her boyfriend was canceled when Covid broke out.
Now, she’s finally rescheduled her dream vacation — but with more stops and a few upgrades. Instead of five days in Paris, she will spend two weeks abroad, in France and Italy.
“I took a cross-country trip during Covid but it wasn’t enough and I always wanted to go to Paris and Italy and never went. We are young and why not?” she told CNN.
The money she saved from not traveling for two years is being invested in some vacation upgrades. Instead of stopping in Iceland or Ireland, Darcy and her boyfriend paid more for a direct flight from Boston.
Darcy admits he had never heard the term “revenge trip”, but once he did, it was a perfect term to apply to his trip to Europe.
“Covid has made me less frugal. We only live once, so I can spend my money on experiences.”
making up for lost time
One thing is clear: as vaccination progresses and doors reopen, people around the world are eager to get back on the road again.
Travel booking company Expedia tracks online survey data related to travel and tourism. In 2021, the biggest increase in average travel search traffic – 10% – was in May, a week after the European Union voted to extend its contract with Pfizer and approve the vaccine for use in teenagers.
Expedia’s research found that 60% of consumers had plans to travel domestically and 27% to travel internationally in 2022.
And many of these travelers are willing to spend more money on vacations than they would have in the past.
Two years of staying at home means that some people have saved money and can now splurge on a fancier hotel, a first-class plane ticket, or a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
In addition, more and more companies have permanently changed their post-pandemic remote work policies.
A Pew survey published in February showed that 60% of workers with jobs that can be done from home said they would like to work from home all or most of the time when the pandemic is over, if they can.
For some people, working from home doesn’t necessarily mean being at home – it might mean trying out an Airbnb in another country and spending several weeks there combining work and travel.
Some destinations are openly courting remote workers. Caribbean islands such as Barbados and Anguilla have offered visas specifically for remote workers or “digital nomads” as a way to boost tourism.
So call it a “revenge trip” or not. Either way, it’s evident that people have changed their travel mindsets since the start of the pandemic, and that “oh, finally!” feeling. has a lot of power to sell airline tickets and hotel packages.
One of the people participating in the trend is Christie Hudson, Expedia’s head of public relations, who worked on the company’s travel research.
“Honestly, I wasn’t too surprised. [pelos resultados da pesquisa] simply because the findings resonated so strongly with the way I feel personally,” she says. “During my last weekend getaway, I booked several spa appointments and upgraded our flights to first class. I felt I deserved it.”
Source: CNN Brasil
