The story of modern travel
We’ve seen it all over the past 30 years. Here are just some of the revolutions in travel that are still making waves…
Wanderlust hit the shelves
After scheming the idea on a flight to Ecuador, Lyn Hughes and Paul Morrison publish the first issue of Wanderlust, now the UK’s longest-running consumer travel magazine.s is a Scrollpoints section.
The original 'travel blog'
Facebook was ten years away when US journalist Jeff Greenwald posted a series of ‘live’ online travel pieces called ‘Big World’ on the now-defunct Global Network Navigator site. He even uploaded the first image from Kathmandu – it took 14 hours to send!
E-Travel launched
The USA’s Southwest Airlines rolled out e-tickets for the first time in 1994. The following year, a start-up in Palo Alto called Internet Travel Network claimed to have overseen the first online ticket booking. It would become the first of billions.
We crossed the Channel by train for the first time in 1995 (Shutterstock)
We crossed the Channel by train for the first time in 1995 (Shutterstock)
We took the chunnel
The first Eurostar service between London and Paris left St Pancras. For Brits, flightless train travel to Europe via the Channel Tunnel opened up trips to France and beyond without queuing at Dover.
Our travel snaps got better
While digital cameras had been around since the late 1980s, the long-forgotten Casio QV-10 introduced the first LCD screen, finally letting us preview the images that we’d just taken – something we do now without even thinking.
We roamed Europe freely
On 26 March 1995, the Schengen Agreement came into effect, allowing border-free travel among seven European countries for the first time in the modern age. Today, this area has extended to 27 nations, making continental travel a doddle (for some).
We slowed down
‘Slow travel’ found its feet with the birth of the Cittaslow movement – an Italian idea to improve towns by slowing traffic and life within them. Its ethos crept into tourism as books and tours built on the idea of moving less and staying in one place longer.
We broke travel’s final frontier in (appropriately enough) 2001 (Alamy)
We broke travel’s final frontier in (appropriately enough) 2001 (Alamy)
Space tourism began
Dennis Tito visited the International Space Station for a cool $20 million as the first fee-paying astronaut. Now, sub-orbital hops have been around since 2018, and the launch of new climate-friendly space-balloon trips promise even longer ascents.
The last concorde
The supersonic transatlantic dream ended with a brief flight from London to Bristol. Cost and restrictions due to noise signalled the death of an era when flying still felt aspirational, as the budget airlines grew.
Facebook sparked FOMO
Little changed travel quite so much as when Facebook launched. Before social media became all influencers, TikTok dances and FoMo, it offered one simple, beautiful thing: a way to keep friends and family close while we saw the world.
We ate our first underwater meal (without getting wet) in 2005 (Justin Nicholas)
We ate our first underwater meal (without getting wet) in 2005 (Justin Nicholas)
We sank to new depths
The first underwater restaurant arrived in the Maldives in 2005 with the opening of Ithaa at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, which launched its first stay beneath the waves in the same year. Now we even have underwater museums!
Google Maps changed the way we navigate (Shutterstock)
Google Maps changed the way we navigate (Shutterstock)
A blue dot became our guide
Suddenly we didn’t have to stand in the street twisting old maps around any more, as the first mobile version of Google Maps became available on Blackberry and Palm (2008 Android; 2012 iOS). We’ve been following a blue dot around the world ever since.
Economic downturn hits
The global recession took its toll on airlines and travel companies still recovering from the post-9/11 downturn in demand, meaning baggage check-in fees and other extra charges that had been seen as temporary were now here to stay.
The WiFi got turned off
In late 2011, an article in The New York Times identified the trend of people wanting to ditch their screens. Travel was quick to catch on; now digital detox escapes aren’t just a hut in the woods but luxury stays in incredible settings.
Planes turned on the no smoking sign (Shutterstock)
Planes turned on the no smoking sign (Shutterstock)
The no-smoking sign was on
Although commercial airlines began getting rid of smoking sections in the 1980s, it wasn’t until August 2000 that Air France eventually kicked the habit. Meanwhile, one of the last hold-outs, Cuban national airline Cubana, finally quit in 2014.
Queues to the view at Athens' Acropolis (Shutterstock)
Queues to the view at Athens' Acropolis (Shutterstock)
Overtourism erupted
The word ‘overtourism’ had been around a while, but in 2016 it took form in a march by Venice locals against the choked streets and high rents caused by visitors. As other cities did the same, it highlighted the impact of tourism on local people.
The e-scooter invasion
The now-ubiquitous dockless e-scooter schemes were first launched in Santa Monica, California, by Bird, in turn prompting endless angry articles about them clogging our streets. They are now in cities across the world, for better or worse, allowing travellers to hop short distances for a small fee.
We hit the rails...
In 2018, the ‘We stay on the ground’ movement began in Sweden and the word flygskam (flight shame) took off, as people around the world considered their carbon footprint. Train travel has been the big winner, with a deluge of new sleeper trains in Europe, in particular, changing how we travel long distances.
We can now touchdown in Australia without stopping anywhere else (Shutterstock)
We can now touchdown in Australia without stopping anywhere else (Shutterstock)
...Then we flew further
Direct flights between the UK and Australia began with Qantas’ London-Perth route creating the world’s longest (14,478km) flight. This record has since been overtaken twice, but all comers will be blown out of the water by the London-Sydney route (17,020km) mooted for 2025.
Tour operators spied a trend for women-only trips in 2018 (Shutterstock)
Tour operators spied a trend for women-only trips in 2018 (Shutterstock)
Women went it alone
Tour operators cottoned on to the fact that the majority of solo travellers are women, with many feeling safer in single-sex groups. It set a trend among tour ops for not just providing female-only trips, but also ushered in a rise in tours targeting ever more special-interest experiences, from eclipse tourism to train-only escapes.
The world changed forever in 2020 (Shutterstock)
The world changed forever in 2020 (Shutterstock)
Lockdown happened
It seems a lifetime ago but China was the first nation to initiate a lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19, and the world followed. The effects are still being felt by the travel industry, but nothing made us cherish our freedom more than when we lost it.
Brits will need an ETIAS just to enter Europe
One of the many upshots of Brexit is that Brits will soon pay around €7 to apply for entry to Europe via its European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS). This had been due to happen in 2024, but it is now set for 2025.
