vacationer

vacationer — noun

1. someone who travels to a place away from home for rest, fun, and relaxation duri

1.nounB1
Definition

someone who travels to a place away from home for rest, fun, and relaxation during a break from work or school

Example

The beach resort was full of vacationers enjoying the warm sun and calm water.

During peak season, vacationers crowd the small towns along the coast.

during [season], vacationers crowd [place] — seasonal movement pattern

Common collocations
  • summer vacationers
  • beach vacationers
  • vacationer destination
  • vacationer crowd
  • vacation season
Synonyms
  • tourist

    more narrowly focused on sightseeing and visiting attractions; vacationer has a broader rest-and-relaxation feel

  • holidaymaker

    British English equivalent; identical in meaning

  • traveler

    much broader — includes business trips, backpacking, and any journey

  • visitor

    can imply a short stay for any purpose, not necessarily leisure

Usage Note

More common in American English than British English, where holidaymaker is the usual equivalent. Refers specifically to leisure travel, not business trips.

Common Mistakes

The business traveler was a vacationer in town for a conference.
The business traveler was in town for a conference, but a vacationer would have come for sightseeing.
vacationer implies leisure, not work.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Vacationer, tourist, holidaymaker, traveler, and visitor all describe people who go somewhere away from home, but with different emphasis. A vacationer is primarily focused on rest and pleasure during time off from work or school — the emphasis is on relaxation rather than sightseeing. A tourist is more narrowly a person visiting a place to see its sights and learn about its culture; the word is often associated with famous landmarks and guided tours. Holidaymaker is simply the British English term for vacationer, with no difference in meaning. Traveler is the broadest category — it covers anyone on a journey, whether for business, study, adventure, or leisure. Visitor is also broad but implies a short stay at a specific location, possibly visiting friends or family rather than traveling for its own sake. For example, a vacationer might spend a week lying by a hotel pool with a magazine, while a tourist in the same hotel would be out every day visiting museums.

tourist ↗holidaymakertraveler ↗visitor ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • peak vacationer season
  • vacationer-friendly resort

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Vacationer comes from the noun vacation (meaning a break from work or school) combined with the agent suffix -er, which turns a verb or noun into 'a person who does or is associated with that thing.' Vacation itself entered English through Old French from Latin vacatio, meaning 'freedom, leisure,' from vacare 'to be empty, free, at leisure.' So a vacationer is literally 'a person enjoying freedom from work.'