Important Moments in the Past 50 Years of Travel
From the launch of the Concorde to the start of Airbnb….
I always love time lines. Sometimes you can’t believe how much time has passed and other times you can’t believe when things really started. When do you think they stopped smoking on flights? Or that expedia was launched before the stop smoking ban?
As Travel + Leisure is celebrating its golden anniversary, the editors spent months digging through the archives. We found nostalgic ads, incredible covers, iconic contributors (Slim Aarons, Authur Miller, Joan Didion, Julia Child, and many more), but also noticed how much the travel industry has changed since 1971. Read on to see the 25 plus events that have affected the way we travel forever.
1971: Travel + Leisure magazine was established
70’s: American Airlines had a piano bar in the economy class cabin of their 747-100 — because nothing says cruising in style quite like in-flight live music.
1971: Amtrak incorporated and debuted with 21 routes
1971: Southwest airlines took to the skies
1971: Walt Disney World opened
1972: Rolling luggage patent awarded
1973: Launch of Concorde with British Airways
1973: Security screenings at the airport were first required
1974: The first hotel minibar was installed at the Hong Kong Hilton
1974: Invention of the electronic hotel key
1974: GPS patent awarded
1975: The first digital camera was invented
1978: The first 12 UNESCO World Heritage Sites were announced
1980: -The movie “Airplane!” came out — and Aeromexico was the only airline to buy the movie to show in flight.
80’s: Wish you could check more than one bag? You should’ve been flying in the ’80s, when you could check as many bags as you wanted.
-You could also bring liquids aplenty onto a plane — including wine from Bordeaux or Napa Valley, and full-size shampoo bottles.
-Passengers were allowed to visit the cockpit while commercial aircrafts were flying in the ’80s.
1988: Royal Caribbean International launched the first “megaship”
1988: Construction on the Chunnel starts (or the “Channel Tunnel”) — which connects Folkestone, England, with Coquelles, France, and runs under water for 23 miles. It cost $16 billion and the tunnel finally opened in 1994.
1989: Berlin Wall falls
90’s: Interest in Australia travel surged in the ’90s because of “Crocodile Dundee.”
-The ’90s was the era of traveler’s cheques and cash. We hadn’t quite hit the golden age of credit card points.
1991: The closure of Pan Am
1992: Opening of the Rhine-Main-Danube canal — a catalyst for river cruising to start
1996: Launch of Expedia
1997: The first hybrid car hit the roads in Tokyo, Japan.
1998: The Federal Aviation Administration banned smoking on all U.S. planes
1998: The Bellagio Las Vegas is inspired by Bellagio, a lakefront city in Italy, and the hotel’s fountain holds 22 million gallons of water. The hotel cost $1.6 billion to build.
2001: 9/11
2003: Concorde’s last flight
2005: Google Maps were established in February. Google Maps’ ability to display real-time traffic congestion came two years later in 2007. The platform went mobile in 2007 and 2008 — and became available offline in 2015.
2008: American Airlines became the first major airline to begin charging for luggage
2008: Airbnb hit the web
2014: The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
2019: Longest non-stop flight: JFK to Singapore (18 hours and 40 minutes) In the ’40s, the longest flight was more than 30 hours from Australia to Sri Lanka.
2020: Coronavirus lockdowns
https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-tips/fun-facts-about-last-50-years-of-travel
JULY 26, 2021
BY SCOTT BAY
AUGUST 01, 2021
