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Travel Industry Dictionary Travels to New Site

TID becomes stand-alone resource for industry terminology

The Travel Industry Dictionary, at 4,000 entries and counting, the most extensive free glossary of industry terms available anywhere, now has its own home on the World Wide Web. It can be browsed at http://www.travel-industry-dictionary.com.

The dictionary was previously part of the HomeTravelAgency.com web site but had grown so large that its publisher, The Intrepid Traveler, decided to give it broader visibility as a stand-alone site.

“This is our way of giving back to the industry,” said Kelly Monaghan, publisher of The Intrepid Traveler and the author of an online course for home-based travel agents. “The Travel Industry Dictionary has proven to be a valuable resource to students of travel and tourism as well as longtime travel agents who sometimes have a hard time keeping up with the rapidly expanding jargon of the industry.

“We expect the new site to appeal to ordinary travelers as well as travel professionals from every part of the globe,” said Monaghan “In most months, the site gets visitors from every country in the world.”

The Travel Industry Dictionary is an exhaustive collection of travel industry terms, abbreviations, acronyms, slang, and nicknames and it continues to expand and evolve. From “a la carte” to “Zulu time,” the dictionary contains both ordinary words that have a special meaning to the travel trade (book, board, zebra) as well as industry-specific terminology that would baffle the average person (azipod, open jaw, magrodome, sponson).

An especially entertaining aspect of the dictionary is its documentation of industry slang terms. For example:

bagonize. To wait in agony at the airport luggage carousel for your luggage to appear.
blue room. The lavatory on an aircraft.
crew tea. In the airline industry, alcoholic beverages disguised as tea, especially when used as a means of avoiding prohibitions on alcohol consumption during layovers.
I-95. In the cruise industry, a broad service corridor, wide enough to accommodate two forklifts side by side, that runs the length of the ship below the water line and provides access to all (or most) of the ship's support areas.
security theater. Derogatory term for the screening procedures instituted by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at U.S. airports. The term was coined by security consultant Bruce Schneier, a TSA critic.
torture class. Economy class or coach on an airline.

Those who fail to find the term they were looking for in the dictionary are invited to submit the term for review and the staff of The Intrepid Traveler will research it and post the definition on the site.

The Intrepid Traveler is a publisher of travel books including guides to the many attractions of central Florida. Its online store is located at www.intrepidtraveler.com/store/

It also publishes the Home-Based Travel Agent Success Course, a seven-module home study course for those who wish to start a successful travel marketing business from home. It is available only via the Internet at http://HomeTravelAgency.com.

The Intrepid Traveler
POB 531, Branford, CT 06405
(203) 469-0214
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