You Must Be Trippin'

What is a "Road Warrior?"

January 27 2010 by Chris McGinnis

Last week, I was flipping through the newspaper and came across an article that caught my eye immediately because it referred to "road warriors."

As it turned out, the article was not about the kind of road warriors you read about here. Instead, it was about a new breed of young, homeless panhandlers, now referred to as "road warriors," who travel between West Coast cities with pit bulls in tow, causing trouble along the way.

Nonetheless, it got me thinking about the term "road warriors" and how its meaning has changed over the years.

The first time I ever heard the term was back in the early 80's when Mel Gibson starred in "Mad Max 2, The Road Warrior" a film in which a drifter saves a small post-apocalyptic Australian town from bandits.

Later in the 80's and early 90's, business travel as a genre was really coming into its own. Airlines had recently deregulated, and frequent flyer and loyalty programs were nascent. The division between leisure and business travel became much more distinct.

That's when writers, advertisers and marketers began using "road warrior" as a colorful replacement to the bland term, "business traveler." There were newspaper columns, books, luggage, clothing, promotions and ad campaigns, all aimed at this newly-named group. Soon, every business traveler was considered a "road warrior" whether they spent much time hitting the asphalt or not. If you traveled a lot on business, or even if you flew or took the train, you were still considered a "road warrior. "

As the term fell into great overuse, I began to cringe a little every time I heard or read it. These days, I do my best to use the term only when referring to business travelers who spend a lot more time in a car (on a road!) rather than on a plane--just like most of the readers of this, Best Western's Road Warriors blog on youmustbetrippin.com!

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