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The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep‎. Cunard has edited the article and provided numerous sources here. While votes are a part of this discussion but providing explanations per policies cited for a vote is generally required. Cunard's additions here is the only strong argument that is detailed and considerable on either side. In favour of Cunard's additions, it has been discussed that the subject is encyclopaedic content. Suggestion - inclusion of these sources in the article (non-admin closure) HilssaMansen19 (talk) 21:32, 21 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Short break

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Short break (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log | edits since nomination)
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I have been looking for sources to designate and identify this phrase as a standalone encyclopedic subject, and I'm not finding anything. Any subject this phrase could refer to is mentioned at Break, but the inclusion of the word "short" in the title disqualifies this title from being redirected there per WP:PTM. Also, Wiktionary:short break exists. Either way, as an encyclopedic subject, there seems to be a lack of information to define it in such a notable fashion. Steel1943 (talk) 20:09, 14 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Also, see Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 May 1#Short break for how this article ended up being restored after its 18-year-old WP:BLAR. Steel1943 (talk) 20:17, 14 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
  • Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.
    1. Edgar, David A. (2003). "Strategies for Optimising Revenues from Short Breaks: Lessons from the Scottish hotel markets". In Laws, Eric; Faulkner, Bill; Moscardo, Gianna (eds.). Embracing and Managing Change in Tourism: International Case Studies. London: Routledge. p. 385. ISBN 978-1-134-72167-2. Retrieved 2025-05-16 – via Google Books.

      The book notes: "Despite the fact that the short break phenomenon is not new, and not restricted to the UK (Loverseed 1992, Cockerell 1989, Potier and Cockerell 1992), there is still no standardised definition for short break, short holiday, short holiday break, short break holiday or bargain break. A short break is essentially characterised by the duration of stay (Lohmann 1991), and the form of accommodation used (BTA 1989). Since the 1940s short holidays have been described as 'trips of up to three nights away from home, primarily for holiday purposes' (Beioley 1991). While this duration of stay is the most commonly accepted for defining short break holidays (BTA 1989, UKTS 1991, Law 1990, 1991, Beioley 1991, Bailey 1989, Davies 1990), a more current stream of thinking is that short breaks are actually characterised by a duration of stay of one to four or five nights (Schidhauser 1992, MEW Research 1994)."

    2. Pike, Steven (2021). Destination Marketing: Essentials (3 ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-46953-5. Retrieved 2025-05-16 – via Google Books.

      The book notes: "One of the best market segment opportunities for repeat visitation and relationship marketing is short break holidays. The term short break is firmly entrenched in the travel industry vernacular and has regularly been the topic of articles in trade publications and in the popular press. In the tourism literature, Fache (1990, p. 5) referred to short breaks as a "new form of recreation". . Short breaks emerged relatively recently as a significant holiday trend in Europe (Euromonitor, 1987; Fache, 1990), Australasia (Pike, 2002, 2007), North America (Plog, 2000), and the UK (see, for example, Edgar, 1997; Edgar et al., 1994). Domestic weekend-break packages, by UK hotels, was one of a range of initiatives to counter static domestic and international visitor growth during the late 1970s. By the 1990s commercial short breaks in the UK had evolved from an off-season contribution towards fixed costs, to an all-year growth market (Edgar et al., 1994)."

    3. Sharma, R. D. (2011). "The short-break holiday: assessing its understanding in the Northern Territory, Australia". In Brebbia, Carlos (ed.). The Sustainable World. Vol. 1. Southampton: WIT Press. pp. 771–778. doi:10.2495/SW100691. ISBN 978-1-84564-504-5. ISSN 1743-3541. Retrieved 2025-05-16 – via Google Books.

      The book notes: "‘Short break’ has emerged as a significant holiday activity in various global market segments. In Australia ‘destination marketing organisations’ (DMO) aggressively promote key destinations for short break holidays. Many industry stakeholders including accommodation and transport providers have used short break holidays in their promotional campaigns. Murphy et al. [1] argue that ‘short-break holidays’ are an expanding global phenomenon, attributed to more complex and stressful lifestyles within affluent societies. It is pertinent to note that most short-break holidays are undertaken in addition to the traditional annual family holiday. This therefore represents additional demand and opportunities for new tourism products. Short break holidays are motivated by consumers’ desire to get away for a few days, away from home in a nearby regional or national destination for relaxation and fun." Striking as this is not a reliable source. Cunard (talk) 09:14, 17 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

    4. Packer, Jan (May 2021). "Taking a break: Exploring the restorative benefits of short breaks and vacations". Annals of Tourism Research Empirical. 2 (1). Elsevier. doi:10.1016/j.annale.2020.100006.

      The abstract notes: "This paper applies Attention Restoration Theory to explore the restorative benefits of short breaks and vacations among Australian university staff (N = 156). Three groups (Vacation, Short Break and No Break) were compared using both objective (physiological and cognitive) and subjective (self-report) measures. ... Short breaks have an advantage over longer vacations on some measures, and this may be explained by attributes of the environment and activities in which vacationers engaged."

      The article notes: "The restorative benefits of short breaks (defined as 3–4 days away from home and work) and vacations (defined as 1–5 weeks away from home and work) were investigated using a causal-comparative research design to compare the effects of three conditions (taking a vacation; taking a short break; and taking no break) on measures of restorative outcomes (i.e. changes over time in physiological, cognitive and self-report measures)."

    There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow short break to pass Wikipedia:Notability#General notability guideline, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject".

    Cunard (talk) 07:41, 16 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • I rewrote the article and added sources. Based on the significant research into short breaks, there likely is enough content to support a standalone article. However, I am not opposed to a merge to another article like Vacation if that is not deemed to be undue weight. Cunard (talk) 07:41, 16 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    @Cunard: Thank you for you in-depth analysis on this phrase. I know your impact is great here on Wikipedia, so I appreciate it and will continue to do so. However...
    ...The references used in this way to validate the term "short break" being encyclopedic seems to have potential WP:SYNTH issues and/or partial title matches for subjects we already have articles for on Wikipedia; the phrase seems to have inadequate encyclopedia value as a phrase other than to have its first word be used as an adjective to describe other topics we already have, such as Vacation, Holiday, Break (work), etc. In other words, my de facto "delete" vote still stands. Steel1943 (talk) 20:14, 16 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
    Thank you for you in-depth analysis on this phrase. I know your impact is great here on Wikipedia, so I appreciate it and will continue to do so. – thank you for the kind words. I appreciate it.

    The references used in this way to validate the term "short break" being encyclopedic seems to have potential WP:SYNTH issues – I don't see any WP:SYNTH issues. The sources I've provided define a "short break" as taking a trip of a few days' duration for leisure purposes. A violation of WP:SYNTH happens when an article "combine[s] material from multiple sources to state or imply a conclusion not explicitly stated by any of the sources"? Does the current version of the short break article violate WP:SYNTH? I rewrote the previously unsourced article to incorporate the sources I listed here.

    and/or partial title matches for subjects we already have articles for on Wikipedia – regarding "partial title matches", that is a policy-based reason to support deletion of a disambiguation page under Wikipedia:Disambiguation#Partial title matches but not a policy-based reason for supporting deletion of an encyclopedia article.

    the phrase seems to have inadequate encyclopedia value as a phrase other than to have its first word be used as an adjective to describe other topics we already have, such as Vacation, Holiday, Break (work), etc. – the concept of "short break" with the definition of "taking a trip of a few days' duration for leisure purposes" has been the subject of numerous academic studies (Edgar 2003) and has been discussed by the popular press and trade publications (Pike 2021). Under Wikipedia:Notability#General notability guideline, this means that the subject does have encyclopedic value. The articles about the topics you listed are about distinct topics from the definition of "short break" sources are using:

    1. Holiday is defined as "a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation". The article then lists public holidays, secular holidays, religious holidays, and unofficial holidays. This is a different topic from "short break".
    2. Break (work) is defined as "a period of time during a shift in which an employee is allowed to take time off from their job". This is different from "short break", which is taken outside of a working shift.
    3. Vacation is defined as "a leave of absence from a regular job or school or an instance of leisure travel away from home". It cites examples like staycation, sabbatical, gap year, and career break. Vacation is the article that is most closely related to a short break. A short break is a vacation where a person takes a trip for a few days .
    Based on the extensive academic research on the "short break" phenomenon, I don't think short break should be a red link. I think there is enough material to support a standalone article but a merge to vacation is a potential approach too. Cunard (talk) 09:14, 17 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

  • Comment: Here are more academic sources about the term "short break". For each source, I've bolded the text of how the sources define "short break" to show how they define it as "a trip of a few days' duration for leisure purposes":
    1. Huybers, Twan (December 2003). "Modelling Short-Break Holiday Destination Choices". Tourism Economics. 9 (4). Sage Publishing: 389–405. doi:10.5367/000000003322662989.

      The article notes: "This paper reports the results of an application of choice modelling to short-break destination choices by prospective tourists from Sydney, Australia. Short breaks are defined as trips of two or three nights’ duration undertaken for holiday or leisure purposes. ... As Australia’s largest city, Sydney provides a large target market for short-break destinations. Sixty-five percent of all Sydney short-break tourists choose the surrounding New South Wales regions or Canberra as their destination (National Visitor Survey, 1999). These regions have a particular interest in the short-break holiday preferences of Sydney residents."

    2. Wang, Di; Kotsi, Filareti; Mathmann, Frank; Yao, Jun; Pike, Steven (2022-05-26). "Short break drive holiday destination attractiveness during COVID-19 border closures". Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management. 51: 568–577. doi:10.1016/j.jhtm.2022.05.013.

      The article notes: "A short break holiday is defined as a stay away from home between one and four nights (White, 2000). In this ongoing project, several surveys of consumers in Auckland and Brisbane since 2000 have consistently confirmed this. As suggested in the introduction, domestic tourism has taken on increased importance for tourism stakeholders in many parts of the world during the 2020 COVID-19 global pandemic, and yet only 10 out of 418 destination image publications (2.4%) considered short break holidays. For instance, Davison and Riley (2010) investigated short break preferences of low-cost airline users in the East Midlands. However, our literature search did not identify any previous studies that attempted to the determinant attributes of short break holiday destination attractiveness or any that attempted to segment the market."

    3. Hamann, Antonieta; Hernani-Merino, Martin; Tarazona Vargas, Enver Gerald (2022-12-30). "Perspectives on short break destinations and their contribution to local-regional economic development: a literature review". Revista Interamericana de Ambiente y Turismo [Interamerican Journal of Environment and Tourism]. 18 (2). ESAN University: 207–221. hdl:20.500.12640/3324.

      The article notes: "In the current tourism context, evidence suggests a progressive reduction in the length of stay at tourist destinations (Alegre & Pou, 2006; Moll-de-Alba, Pratts, & Coromina, 2017; Williams & Shaw, 2009), and, based on this, the concepts of “short break” and “city break” are used for short trips. Authors like Davis (1990); Murphy, Niininen & Sanders (2010); Sharma (2010); Dunne, Flanagan & Buckley (2007); and Moll-de-Alba et al. (2017) indicate that a consensus has not been reached regarding the definition of short breaks or of city breaks; current definitions place these two types of trips within a range of stays varying from 1 to 6 nights. This difference in definitions presents difficulties for strategically planning the development of these destinations. Murphy et al. (2010) and Enne & Schofield (2011) mention that short breaks have become increasingly and significantly more common in recent years, and it is hoped that this trend will continue inasmuch as people select this type of vacation to closer destinations, in part because tourists will probably spend proportionally more on this market segment than on other tourism products (Schmidhauser, 1992). However, few studies have been carried out regarding the length of these trips (Tsiotsou & Vasioti, 2006; Yang & Zhang, 2015)."

    4. Pike, Steven (February 2003). "The Use of Repertory Grid Analysis to Elicit Salient Short-Break Holiday Destination Attributes in New Zealand" (PDF). Journal of Travel Research. 41 (3): 315–319. doi:10.1177/0047287502239054.

      The article notes: "Few destination image studies have focused on short breaks to date. For this study, a short break has been defined as a nonbusiness trip of between one and three nights."

    5. Moll-de-Alba, Jorge; Prats, Lluís; Coromina, Lluís (2016). "Differences between short and long break tourists in urban destinations: the case of Barcelona". European Journal of Tourism Research. 14. Varna University of Management [bg]: 29–46. doi:10.54055/ejtr.v14i.241. ISSN 1994-7658. Retrieved 2025-05-16 – via Google Books.

      The article notes: "This article focuses on short duration travellers (short breakers) and those of long duration (long breakers). In general, short breaks are recognised as a differentiated type of trip. The most widely accepted definition, also used in this article, considers a short break to be a stay between 2 and 4 nights with a non-professional motivation (Murphy, Niininen & Sanders, 2010). Despite the importance of the length of stay, usually practitioners use short breaks even there being a lack of agreement concerning what a short break is. Nevertheless, a certain amount of research into the short break, such as for example the previous study, has been carried out. Meanwhile, the long break has not been specifically studied as an aspect of city tourism. Therefore, the main contribution of this paper is to explain the differences between the between the two levels of tourist length of stay, an approach that has not been adopted before now."

    6. Murphy, Peter (2014-02-28). "Potential Synergies for the Short-Break Holiday and Rural Tourism Markets: Evidence from a National Australian Survey". Tourism Planning & Development. 11 (3). Taylor & Francis: 261–274. doi:10.1080/21568316.2014.889520.

      The article notes: "A review of the literature reveals the present commercial short-break holiday format developed in Europe during the 1970s and 1980s (Law, 2002; Teare, Davies, & McGeary, 1989). In the first instance they were promoted by business hotels in major cities which had underused room capacity during the weekends, when the business people had returned home. ... There is no common agreement on how to define a short-break holiday. Not surprisingly with a new research area, Tsiotsou and Vasioti (2006, p. 65) claim “short-term visitors have not been studied adequately in (the) travel and tourism literature” and this has led to a variety of descriptors (Boerjan, 1995; Davies, 1990). The lack of a universal definition is compounded by whether the topic is viewed from a demand or supply perspective. Most references take a consumer demand perspective, defining short-break holidays as being one to six nights with a motivational emphasis on a “short break from normal routine”. In contrast holidays of a week or more are viewed as long or traditional holidays and have a greater “rest and relaxation” atmosphere along with a slower pace. The supply-side of the tourism business has a tighter definition of one to four nights, according to the findings of a recent Australian study (Murphy, Niininen, & Sanders, 2010); but many are not sure where the short-break holiday-makers fit in, since they are viewed as being different from “overnight” or “in-transit” visitors, and nor do they behave like traditional long holiday visitors."

    7. Edgar, David A.; Litteljohn, David L.; Allardyce, Myrtle L. (1994). "Strategic Clusters and Strategic Space: The Case of the Short Break Market". International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 6 (5). Emerald Group Publishing: 20–26. doi:10.1108/09596119410065923. ISSN 0959-6119.

      The article notes: "A literature review revealed little systematic study on the subjects of short breaks or strategic clusters. Most coverage was in the form of trade press articles, specialist journals, conference papers, government publications, and industrial research documents. A computerized database was therefore constructed from primary and secondary data drawn from company and market specific sources, containing the 30 largest hotel companies (by room stock, 1991) operating in Scotland. This allowed cross comparisons to be made of companies, regions, performance, and short break segments."

      The article notes: "As the research concentrates on commercially centred activities, short breaks are defined as “hotel packages of one to three nights, which for a single price together with accommodation include one or more of the following: meals; transport; entertainment; or a programme of activities”. This definition allows for the use of secondary sources for structural analysis, and primary sources for detail of supply and strategic clusters."

    Cunard (talk) 09:14, 17 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.
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