Laviators: A true travel trend or just a strange way to kill time?

Like a bad case of indigestion, hopefully this fad has passed, but in March Gadling‘s Heather Poole uncovered what she called the “hottest trend on the airplane since the mile high club“: airplane passengers taking self-portraits in the lavatories.

On a subsequent post Poole referred to these photographers as members of the “laviators club” and posted a second slideshow of this emerging sub-genre of the self-portrait.

But is it a trend? Or is it just bored airplane passengers looking for entertainment having already finished reading the SkyMall catalog?

Evidence that’s it’s an emerging fad:

• 185 results on a search for “lavatory airplane” on Flickr
• t-shirt in the works
• mention on another blog
• YouTube video

There’s also ample proof that this concept of laviators has fizzled (if it ever took off in the first place):

• no entry in Urban Dictionary
• no entry in Wikipedia
• eight results on a search for “laviator” on Flickr

Now, I’m not anti-photographing lavatories–and I have a slideshow of historic European toilets to prove it.

But what’s the attraction of an airplane’s restroom? If a visit to one is memorable, it’s usually not for a good reason. And taking a self-portrait in one? That’s just evidence that you didn’t do a better job preparing for your flight by using the bathroom in the airport.

(Photo: Flickr/davitydave)

One Comment

TravelPRgirl  on August 5th, 2009

Hi Zach,

Favorite part of this post: Being a “laviator” is “just evidence that you didn’t do a better job preparing for your flight by using the bathroom in the airport.” Hilarious.

~Caitlin

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