tourism has changed a lot

The Future of Tourism: Can the pandemic change how we visit popular sites for the better? 

Many of us have spent the past months yearning to travel, but we’ve also had time to reflect on our collective travel habits. Businesses won’t be eager to resume flying after successfully shifting meetings online, and that will be a good thing when it comes to carbon emissions. As for leisure travel, increased engagement with our local environs will probably have led many of us to question what tourism is for. If the global tourist economy is going to ratchet back into high gear, how can it be done more sustainably, with greater understanding of cultural diversity, and with fewer negative impacts on sought-after sites? This semester at the Harvard GSD, studios in architecture and urban planning led by Toshiko Mori , Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu , and Daniel D’Oca explored these questions both directly and indirectly. All four professors are wary of tourism even as they acknowledge its seemingly inextricable role in so many aspects of our lives.

I caught up with Lyndon Neri and Rossana Hu via videoconference in Shanghai, where they’ve been for most of the pandemic. Neri and Hu are the John C. Portman Design Critics in Architecture and co-founders of Shanghai-based Neri&Hu . Like most of us, their travel has been significantly curtailed these past months, and what tourism they’ve engaged in has been mainly within China. Hu observes that, with few options for traveling abroad, “People are just restless, so they’ve started traveling inland to visit cultural landmarks. I feel like everyone I know in Shanghai has gone this past year to Jingdezhen, the ceramics town.” Neri also notes “a conscious effort to travel within China and understand all the great places in this country.”

Tourism within China has been facilitated by a boom in infrastructure development, much of it built as part of the so-called Belt and Road Initiative that began in 2013. (The “belt” refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and “road” to the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road—these are the land-based and sea-based parts of the initiative.) Transportation infrastructure of all types has been rapidly modernized. “The extension of major roadways has meant that places that would have taken you days to get there now take hours,” Neri says. “Before the train that takes 40 minutes from Shanghai to Hangzhou, it used to take three-and-a-half hours by car.” This increase in speed has “definitely increased tourism to places that would not have been easily accessible.”

How do you bring about an authentic connection to culture? How do you bring people together rather than isolating everyone? How do you prevent experience from being entirely commercialized?

A particular type of cultural tourism in China has grown dramatically as a result of this intensification of speed and accessibility. Imagine staged scenes of farmers leading cattle across picturesque bridges—with rows of tourists lined up in the right spot to catch the perfect photo. Neri describes how “developers have picked up on the idea that if you add culture to a common itinerary for tourists, it adds value.” This cold economic logic raises questions: “How do you bring about an authentic connection to culture?” Hu asks. “How do you bring people together rather than isolating everyone? How do you prevent experience from being entirely commercialized?”

Neri and Hu’s studio, “ De/constructing Cultural Tourism ,” looks at these questions as the impetus to exploring ways of creating more meaningful engagement with tourist sites. The problem they pose begins with John Ruskin, the 19th-century architecture theorist and philosopher of travel. Neri recites a famous Ruskin quote, which acts as a riddle: “I would rather teach drawing that my pupils may learn to love nature, than teach the looking at nature that they may learn to draw.” Neri explains that, “For Ruskin, drawing is the catalyst to seeing and understanding the things around us. In Ruskin’s argument, when we see something beautiful, our natural tendency is to want to possess it. But if we don’t understand it, the possession is meaningless.” Generating such understanding is difficult, Hu says: “The state of our contemporary reality involves taking out your iPhone to photograph something rather than sitting there and spending the time to sketch out a building. Nobody really writes in journals anymore. They just take films of themselves that go into the cloud, and they never have time to look at them again.”

The studio’s two locations are UNESCO-listed heritage sites, Ping Yao and the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. The latter is a Buddhist sanctuary first constructed in 366 AD and located at a strategic point along the Silk Road, and the former is an “exceptionally well-preserved example of a traditional Han Chinese city, founded in the 14th century.” [1] These are among the most visited tourist sites in China, and thus are more likely to become checkboxes on itineraries than places for thoughtful engagement.

The studio focuses on a particular building type, the kezhan, or travelers’ rest stop. Neri describes one elaborate architectural form that serves as a precedent: “The typology of the caravanserai from the Middle East actually came to China along the Silk Road and became a different form,” he says. “It’s a city in itself. It’s usually round, very much like the famous Tulou in Fujian province, except much bigger. There are buildings inside—it’s a bazaar—and there’s always a hotel component. It’s a place where people come in and not only are they resting, but they’re also trading. It’s also a place of business, a safe environment.” Taking time is a key aspect of the architecture. “The longer you’re there, the more you come to know the inner circle of who’s actually in charge of the place,” Neri says. “It’s not just about fast transactions. It’s about layering. It’s also about hierarchy and vertical relationships. People sleep above and do their commercial activities on the ground floor.” The external orientation is equally nuanced. “Ultimately, our goal is for you to understand all the things around it,” Hu says. “There’s a lot of architectural strategy that students can use: framing views, staging interactions, opening up the layers of culture.”

Neri and Hu’s studio may ultimately provoke more questions than it answers. “The best part of the studio is that no one is traveling, so everyone is itchy to embark on that first trip after things open up,” Hu says. “The studio is like a rest stop for the students as well.”

Daniel D’Oca’s studio, “ Highways Revisited ,” focuses on a slice of American urban history that at first glance has little to do with tourism. D’Oca is an associate professor in practice of urban planning and co-founder of the New York–based firm Interboro Partners , and I talked to him while he was on the road. His studio zeroes in on the local impacts of America’s interstate highway system, which was expanded dramatically beginning with the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. The changes brought about by the act were enormous, including an explosion of suburban growth, the emptying of downtowns, and the solidification of automobile culture in the American psyche. Many freeways were routed through low-income minority neighborhoods, changing them profoundly, usually in negative ways. Examples are scattered across the country. D’Oca lists a couple his studio has investigated: “In Detroit, a highway was routed through Black Bottom, a Black neighborhood, more or less destroying it,” he says. “We’re also looking at a situation in El Paso where the fight is not whether to remove a highway, but whether or not to expand it beyond its current sixteen lanes.”

Tourism is not the most pressing issue in these neighborhoods, but it is an inextricable component of the urban dynamics the studio is considering. “The communities we’re working on care primarily about housing, stability, and quality of life issues,” D’Oca says, “but I suspect that tourism would be a desirable feature of a lot of these plans, as long as it turns out equitably.” One way tourism might help is by providing a boost to local economies. Take the Greenwood neighborhood in Tulsa. “This was a thriving Black neighborhood—it was called Black Wall Street—and it was the site of a massacre in the 1920s, an unspeakable tragedy. The second tragedy was the highway, which went right through the neighborhood when it was rebuilding itself,” D’Oca says. “You have a lot of efforts now to remember the past as part of revitalizing this community and others like it—both past tragedies and the history of when it was thriving. I suspect they want tourists, and tourists might want to see the history of Black Wall Street.”

There is a serious conflict between what the community needs and the effects of tourism.

Daniel D’Oca

Although tourism can bring a welcome influx of people, it has the potential to overwhelm. This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in New Orleans, where the Claiborne Expressway runs through the Tremé neighborhood. “You can imagine that if the freeway comes down, the neighborhood will be more desirable, and there will be a feeding frenzy with speculators buying up shopfront houses and turning them into Airbnb rentals,” D’Oca says. “Nobody in the community wants that. There is a serious conflict between what the community needs and the effects of tourism.” D’Oca advises that planners should take care when unleashing the force of tourism. “New Orleans is a cautionary tale,” he says. “The city has been eaten alive by Airbnb speculation. Entire neighborhoods have been bought up by speculators who turn houses into short term rentals. In the Tremé, it is the freeway that is keeping property values low. Fighting for the freeway to come down is only half the battle. The real battle is to make sure there’s an equitable plan for when it does come down.”

Another tricky question: What happens when tourists stay? D’Oca has noticed that “something interesting has happened in the pandemic” in the small town in upstate New York where he lives. “Some people have moved here as remote work has become more plausible, and a lot of people are buying up second homes to get out of the city. I guess it’s a form of tourism—these are people who aren’t moving here but all of a sudden have houses here.” This has created cultural conflict. D’Oca continues: “It becomes a different vision of what the place should be, and sometimes it’s a zero-sum game. For example, if this is your second home, you don’t want to see growth; you want it to remain a 19th-century pre-industrial hamlet. But a lot of other people don’t have the luxury for their hometown to be that. They need jobs, they need housing.”

D’Oca describes a scene that has played out in similar small towns across America: “In a neighboring town there was a huge fight over a dollar store,” he says. “It was basically local people against weekenders. Some people thought it was the apocalypse—a dollar store coming to town. People like us need to check our class privilege. It’s about the image of the place: whether it will remain an agrarian landscape with hardly any houses in it, or somewhere more livable for working-class people.”

Among the lessons of D’Oca’s studio is how tourism can shade into gentrification. “The connection to tourism that’s really important is that this is a region with a declining population that is desperate for economic development,” D’Oca says. “And the tourist economy is thriving. The town is twice as busy on the weekends now, and increasingly amenities are geared to tourists—business that are only open Thursday to Sunday, selling $15 deli sandwiches. It comes at the expense of people who don’t see this as a boutique town but just as a regular place.”

The studio project of Toshiko Mori is set in Maine, so it is inevitable that tourism factors in. Mori is the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the GSD and principal of Toshiko Mori Architect , and I reached her at her office in New York. Tourism has long been a major part of Maine’s economy, and it was hit hard by pandemic travel restrictions: the number of visitors and total tourist revenue each fell by about one-quarter last year. Mori’s studio, “ Between Wilderness and Civilization ,” is set in the small town of Monson, near the Hundred-Mile Wilderness, which is considered to be the wildest section of the Appalachian Trail and is thus a major hiking destination. But the studio is not about tourism. The brief asks students to “balance progress with respect for its ecology” on an abandoned 72 acres of farmland near town, and Mori is interested in other, deeper ways of thinking about the relationship between a place, local people, and visitors.

The studio brief begins with story: “Over one hundred and fifty years ago, Henry David Thoreau was introduced to this forest by a Penobscot guide and chronicled his journey in his collection of essays The Maine Woods. At the end of his journey when he asked his guide if he was glad to have returned home, the guide replied, ‘It makes no difference where I am.’ To him, he belonged to the land, and the land did not belong to anyone—a fundamental mindset for living in balance with nature.”

Playing out the architectural implications of this mindset is a central goal of the studio. There don’t appear to be easy solutions. Monson has suffered job losses as local industries have shifted in recent decades, and it is not clear that plugging into Maine’s flow of tourists would revitalize the town. Hikers equip elsewhere, and the area is packed with picturesque locales. With support from the Libra Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Mori has instead set up an experiment in symbiosis with Monson Arts , an artists’ and writers’ residency program. “The foundation bought up housing stock that was in decline, renovated them, and started an artists’ and writers’ residency program—bringing in a total of 90 people in the last couple of years,” Mori says. “They have a restaurant and a general store. The foundation previously bought a building in New Gloucester, Maine, which used to be a horrible institution—they called it an institution for the mentally feeble—that really just placed marginalized people in terrible living conditions. The organization renovated the building and converted its program to an agricultural facility.” The question of the studio: How can one intervene in one of the poorest places in New England to attract young people and propose a new and viable economic base?

Tourism is consumption-based—humans going somewhere to take and take and take. We don’t give back and we don’t even think of the symbiosis that’s necessary to sustain human life in the forest.

Toshiko Mori

Monson Arts does draw tourists of a sort, although they are different from those who come to hike. Instead, Monson is being recognized as “a good laboratory for solving the major problem of how to deal with poverty in rural areas in the United States, and how to save towns from obsolescence,” Mori says. “It’s a kick-starter kind of a program. Because of the artists’ residency, people like museum curators and cultural commissioners have been drawn to see what is going on in Monson. Even in the short time we were involved with Monson, we heard of many different organizations coming to see it as an example, perhaps to consider investing.” For Mori, one idea is to “create a new resource for these visitors.” She notes that “the artists themselves are interested in certain types of tourism. They may want to visit the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture or the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association , the oldest and largest organic farming organization in the country.”

This circulation of people and ideas will hopefully serve the larger goal of connecting people with the Indigenous way of existing on the land. Monson is situated among the lakes and forests alongside the Piscataquis River, which flows into the Penobscot River, along which the present-day Penobscot Nation is located. Before European settlers, the tribe called the vast watershed of the Penobscot River home. “[The Penobscot] have a very different ethos and understanding of engagement with the place where they live,” Mori notes. “Tourism is consumption-based—humans going somewhere to take and take and take. We don’t give back and we don’t even think of the symbiosis that’s necessary to sustain human life in the forest.”

For the studio, Mori invited an ambassador from the Penobscot Nation to speak to the students about their life. “They travel by canoes on the Penobscot River; it’s a survival technique,” she says. “Which season to go to the coast or the river to fish, and when to forage in the forest. In the past they suffered a great deal because they were forbidden to forage in the forest, they were given ration foods, and their lifestyle was completely changed, leading ultimately to a public health crisis.” Fortunately, “They’re slowly gaining back their way of life,” Mori continues. “It depends on respecting land, not exploiting it. They think of the forest and human society in terms of equal coexistence.” This mindset manifests in all sorts of ways, large and small. Some examples came through in a visit to the exhibit of Penobscot birchbark canoes in Harvard’s Peabody Museum around the corner from the GSD. “For the birchbark canoes, there are ways to peel the bark without damaging the trees,” Mori says. “Another idea is that, when harvesting bark, it is better not to harvest from the best trees, but rather from the second best. That way the best trees can continue to sustain younger trees and protect other species. This is a very important piece of Indigenous wisdom.”

When emphasizing the sense of connection with nature, Mori is quick to point out that we should not be misled by simple distinctions between city and wilderness. “I live in New York, and this is our nature,” Mori emphasizes. “This is the place we live. We have to work with an ecosystem of this particular density, with the lives of people collapsed together in this way.” Mori is ultimately pessimistic about the capacity of tourism to allow connections to such wisdom. “In a real analysis, you would see that tourism is a colonial activity,” she says. “We really have to think twice about it. I think climate change is helping people to see this. The pandemic has helped us realize how high the energy consumption of travel is, and how unnecessary it is. Tourism in a city is similar to tourism in nature: people just skim the surface of glamour of a place like New York. But the people who lived through the pandemic in a city really got to understand its true nature and what makes it work. That’s similar in some ways to how Indigenous people live: living with the land, in good times and bad, then not just leaving because it’s not a fun time. Going through different seasons and difficult predicaments and embracing all the circumstances of a place and people—that is very different from the voyeuristic mentality of tourism.”

So, can the mentality of tourism shift? Mori’s conclusion also summarizes the sentiments of her colleagues D’Oca, Neri, and Hu: “Going forward from the pandemic, we have to be very wise and conscientious tourists. To get away from tourism as consumption, we have to be open-minded to learn from other people and their environments.”

[1] “Mogao Caves,” UNESCO [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/440]. “Ancient City of Ping Yao,” UNESCO [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/812].

• Sustainability
• De/constructing Cultural Tourism – Ke Zhan (Traveler’s Rest Stop) Case Study
• Highways Revisited
• Between Wilderness and Civilization: Monson, Maine

How the Pandemic Changed Traveler Behavior in 5 Major Destinations: New Skift Research

Haixia Wang , Skift

February 1st, 2022 at 10:30 AM EST

The pandemic has greatly disrupted travel, both in volumes, and for those who did manage to travel, how they traveled. Read our new survey findings from the U.S., UK, Australia, China and India to understand what has changed and what new habits will last post-pandemic.

Haixia Wang

The disruption of the pandemic means not only less travel, but also different travel. How have people traveled in the past two years? What are the changes? Will the changes last when the pandemic is over? And what are the new inspirations for people when they can finally travel freely again?

Skift Research surveyed travelers in five major tourism markets — the U.S., UK, Australia, China and India — in December 2021 to understand these crucial questions as we prepare for a full recovery. The 2022 Travelers: A Multi-Country Survey Report presents and analyzes the findings from this survey.

This data-intensive report delves into all major components of the global tourism industry—outbound travel, accommodation, transportation, destination, and tourism activities. For each component, we reveal key trends pre-, during-pandemic and explore potential changes and shifts post-pandemic, from both global and country-specific perspectives.

What You’ll Learn From This Report

• Economic Outlook
• Travel Rate, Frequency and Purpose
• Outbound Travel Trends and Shifts
• Accommodation Types and Shifts
• Transportation Types and Shifts
• Destination Considerations and Shifts
• Activity and Inspiration Trends and Shifts

2022 Travelers: A Multi-Country Survey Report

We conducted a survey of travelers in five major tourism markets to understand what has changed and what new habits will last post-pandemic.

This is the latest in a series of reports and data products that Skift Research puts out to help you understand the trends in the travel industry. Tap into the opinions and insights of our seasoned network of staffers and contributors. Over 200 hours of desk research, data collection, and/or analysis goes into each report.

After you subscribe, you will gain access to our entire vault of reports conducted on topics ranging from technology to marketing strategy to deep dives on key travel brands. You will also be able to access our proprietary Skift Recovery Index and Skift Health Score data and reports.

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Tags: consumer sentiment , consumer travel trends , skift research , surveys , tourism

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The Pandemic Changed The World Of 'Voluntourism.' Some Folks Like The New Way Better

Malaka Gharib

Last summer, Becca Morrison, 21, was all set to volunteer at a community arts nonprofit in Zomba, Malawi. She'd work with the marketing team as a copywriter and social media manager.

Then the pandemic hit, and the trip got canceled. "I was peeved," she says. "I was so excited to travel. I had the whole thing planned."

Still, Morrison was determined to find a volunteer gig, which she needed to graduate as an international development major at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, U.K. So she found another opportunity in Zomba, this time with a nonprofit group called the Sparkle Foundation . And it would take place virtually.

For three months last summer, Morrison helped the group — which runs a school and a medical facility for children in the community — do tasks remotely. She even personally raised $7,000 for the cause.

"I've done so much without even leaving my house, my room," she says. "I think the pandemic has changed the game completely for volunteering."

Becca Morrison, 21, at home in Norwich, U.K. She has been volunteering virtually with an arts nonprofit in Zomba, Malawi from her bedroom. Becca Morrison hide caption

Becca Morrison, 21, at home in Norwich, U.K. She has been volunteering virtually with an arts nonprofit in Zomba, Malawi from her bedroom.

The pandemic has indeed transformed the landscape of international volunteering, say researchers. A February survey of 130 volunteer organizations and 239 international volunteers by the International Forum for Volunteering in Development found that the pandemic had spurred volunteer groups to offer more remote volunteering opportunities and consider expanding national volunteer membership in the future.

Even as some groups gear for a return to the way it was, others are changing their modus operandi — and some of these new ways of working are a step in a more sustainable direction.

"The pandemic has shown us there are different innovative ways volunteers are able to provide services," says Christopher Millora , an academic based in Iloilo City, Philippines, who is leading research for the U.N.'s next State of the World's Volunteerism report. This could lead to a "paradigm shift as to what kinds of relationships international volunteer organizations have toward local communities."

That's an important move in an industry riddled with criticism. Over the past few decades, critics and activists have been urging volunteer abroad organizations to rethink their business model.

They say sending volunteers from rich nations to low-income countries perpetuates the white savior complex by portraying volunteers as superheroes who will rescue the poor from their misery.

"There's this postcolonial narrative of young, aspirational, light-skinned people from the West thinking they can go to Africa for two weeks and change the world," says Konstantinos Tomazos , a senior lecturer in international tourism management at the University of Strathclyde. "That's the main criticism of the sector that plays into the idea of the white messiah."

They say projects can be harmful and exploitative.

One of the most popular activities for volunteers, say the experts, is helping children in orphanages. That demand, as a result, has created perverse economic incentives . "In places like Kenya and Cambodia, Nepal and Tanzania, orphanages are prolific. But the children within them are not orphans and in many cases are being placed in orphanages in order for orphanage directors to profit from the [volunteer] tourism demand to engage with orphans," says Leigh Mathews , founder of Alto Global, an international development consultancy group and the co-founder of Rethink Orphanages, a group that helps volunteer groups terminate their orphanage programs and repatriate children with their families.

Volunteering Abroad? Read This Before You Post That Selfie

And some critics question the helpfulness of volunteers.

In Ours To Explore: Privilege, Power and the Paradox of Voluntourism , author Pippa Biddle writes about a shocking discovery she made while volunteering in Tanzania as a teen. She and a group of young, inexperienced volunteers were assigned to help local workers build a small library at an orphanage. Days into the project, she found out that every morning, the local workers were taking apart the volunteers' shoddy work from the day before and redoing it correctly before they woke up.

"While my intentions to be helpful and encouraging and to give back came from a good place, my time at the orphanage did not even begin to address their real needs," writes Biddle.

A major industry

Despite these criticisms, international volunteerism is a big business.

Since the mid-1800s, when trains and ships made it possible for the public to travel cheaper, faster and farther than ever before, people have strived to "voyage to less-resourced nations for pleasure and purpose," says Biddle.

The phenomenon of volunteer tourism is now a $3 billion a year industry, says Tomazos. The funds paid by participants go to the thousands of groups that coordinate the trips along with the development programs they support.

The money also benefits local economies. The volunteer organization Habitat for Humanity, for example, says their trips alone bring in an estimated $6.9 million to the drivers, hotels, restaurants and gift shops that serve international volunteers when they visit.

And while it's hard to pinpoint how many international volunteers there are in the world, the U.N. estimates that if volunteering were a full-time job, it would account for 109 million workers.

It's easy to understand the appeal of overseas service, says Biddle. There's a sense of adventure, and people feel good about helping those who are less fortunate. Studies have found that volunteers perceive the trips as a meaningful and transformative life experience . People often come away from the trips with feelings of improved well-being, purpose and happiness.

Advice To Parachuting Docs: Think Before You Jump Into Poor Countries

On a more practical note, "voluntourism" is a practical way for people — like Morrison — to gain experience in international development. Maia Gedde, author of Working in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance , says people hoping to start a career in the field "volunteer as a steppingstone to build skills, knowledge and networks to put them in a much stronger position when applying for humanitarian jobs in the future."

But not all volunteer programs are the same. In the world of international volunteerism, there are two kinds of gigs. One is volunteering with development programs, such as the Peace Corps in the U.S. and Voluntary Service Overseas in the U.K. These groups, often funded with government aid, assign volunteers to long-term projects around the world — a year or two or more working at a school in Malawi, for example, or supporting helping small business owners in India. Such programs typically provide the volunteers with basic accommodation and a modest allowance for food and other living expenses.

Then there's volunteer tourism — nicknamed "voluntourism" by academics. People pay to take part in shorter-term projects abroad, which can range from tutoring kids in Nepal for a week to spending a few months conducting nutrition workshops in Thailand to traveling with a church mission group to the Philippines to dig wells. Volunteers must pay for their journey, including flights and transportation, meals and lodging as well as fees to the organizations and the programs they support.

In-person trips not required?

During the pandemic, both the development programs and volunteer tourism groups have had to recalibrate their efforts. And some groups have been surprised by how eager volunteers were to stay involved — even though their trips to the field were canceled.

One of the most well-known groups in the latter category is Habitat for Humanity . Its Global Villages program invites people — mostly from Western countries — to help out in 30 mostly low- and middle-income countries. Over the course of about two weeks, groups of 15 people, half volunteers, half local staff, build homes, hand-washing and health-care facilities as well as participate in other kinds of projects. Volunteers do not need special skills but do need cash. There's a fee of about $1,650-$2,500 per person to participate, often raised through donations from friends and family. About 12,000 volunteers participate each year. During the pandemic, that number dropped to zero.

Despite that, many of the 800 projects planned for 2020 still got done, says Jacqueline Innocent , senior vice president of integrated programs at Habitat for Humanity. Local staff and paid contractors — mason workers, for example — pitched in. It just took a little longer because there were fewer helping hands.

Innocent was also pleased to see that many of the volunteers whose trips were canceled did not ask for a refund. They let Habitat keep the funds as a donation. And many organized their own virtual workshops, events and music festivals — to raise funds.

Dave Kovac, a 20-year veteran volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, speaks to students from his international service class at Oregon State University. For 10 weeks last fall, the class conducted a virtual Habitat build. Each week, the students checked in with Habitat staff in Vietnam as they built a house for a family in need. Natalie Kovac hide caption

Some volunteers even arranged "virtual builds." Dave Kovac is a 20-year Habitat volunteer veteran and teaches courses on international service at Oregon State University. He was scheduled to go on three trips with Habitat in 2020, including one with a cohort of students. When the trips were canceled, he worked with Habitat to create an online program where students "adopted" a Habitat build in Vietnam. Over 10 weeks, Kovac and his students met weekly to fundraise, learn about Vietnamese culture, get updates from local staff about the project's progress and speak to the family whose house was being built.

The program was so successful that Kovac says he is trying it out again in August, this time with Habitat Brazil. He says he likes the model because it targets "people who are interested in some kind of experience but can't go abroad due to timing, job, personal issues, family. So maybe they can tag along virtually."

The virtual engagement made Habitat realize something, says Innocent. "We're not as dependent upon cross-border volunteers as one would have previously thought. It has been surprising how much people are willing to do [for Habitat] even though they don't get that reciprocal experience" of being there.

"I suspect," she adds, "what we're going to see when we're able to come back is more hybrid approaches" — creating opportunities like the virtual builds for international volunteers, for example.

But, she says, "I don't see a scenario at the moment where we would want to eliminate the [field] experience." The trip is what people love, she says — and local staff rely on those volunteers to help carry out the projects more quickly.

These virtual opportunities with reputable organizations offer "a wonderful alternative to on-the-ground voluntourism," says Biddle. They "bypass so many of the issues voluntourism creates and require the volunteers to show true commitment to a cause and a community — even from afar."

Greater appreciation for local volunteers

For other organizations, the pandemic has affirmed a decision they've made well before the crisis: recruiting more local volunteers instead of Westerners, says researcher Millora. And the pandemic has driven home the importance of these helpers.

Voluntary Service Overseas is a U.K.-based development organization that hires and places skilled volunteers in long-term projects in nearly 30 low- and middle-income countries.

But over the last few years, the group has been recruiting more in-country volunteers. "They're the ones who can hold the government accountable, who know the context," says Papa Diouf , who heads VSO's global work in health and is based in Kigali, Rwanda. Many of these volunteers are graduates from the School of Education at the University of Rwanda.

In the first few months of the pandemic, VSO Rwanda had to send its 50 international volunteers home. Because the group had a preexisting membership of 200 national volunteers, it was able to carry out its education program, says Diouf — training public school teachers to improve literacy and numeracy skills among primary school students.

OPINION: Volunteering Abroad Is Popular And Problematic. Let's Fix It

The international volunteers, who were brought on for their expertise in school leadership and education development, stayed involved ... virtually. Using Zoom and WhatsApp, they checked in with local volunteers, who were doing much of the in-person work — visiting schools and mentoring teachers. And when schools were shut in Rwanda due to COVID-19, it was the local volunteers who kept in touch with the schoolteachers via WhatsApp.

Diouf doesn't think VSO is going to end its practice of sending volunteers abroad anytime soon. The international volunteers have crucial expertise that the organization's projects need. In fact, now that some travel restrictions have been lifted, some of the international volunteers who were sent home from Rwanda at the start of the pandemic have returned.

But, he says, the pandemic helped him see how crucial local volunteers are, especially in times of crisis. VSO's Rwandan volunteers mobilized to spread COVID messaging in their country and track essential health services disrupted by COVID. Supporting "those local volunteers had already been a shift in our program thinking, but COVID-19 has only helped us move faster in that direction," he says.

Benjamin Lough , an associate professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a global volunteerism researcher, says VSO Rwanda's emphasis toward local service in the pandemic is "a great turn." But he has a caveat.

"The pandemic revealed both the strengths of relying on local volunteers as well as the limitations when support from abroad is lacking," he says. "We can't just pass on more responsibility to domestic volunteers without providing additional support" in the form of funds or manpower.

Booking again ... but with a difference

As vaccination rates soar in the West and more countries loosen COVID travel restrictions, volunteer groups have started offering trips again.

For many overseas service operations, those trips abroad are their bread and butter, says Tomazos, the tourism researcher from University of Strathclyde. "They have a business model. No volunteers means no money."

Volunteers also bring important knowledge into the mix, says Lough. Local staff from some volunteer abroad groups have told him: "We value the skills those volunteers are bringing into this community. We want them to come in."

And people have begun booking trips again.

But things are definitely different.

Kovac sees real promise in the virtual Habitat builds, because it may help people focus on the real reasons they're volunteering. "It's really for people who want to help because they want to help, not because they want to travel."

As for Morrison, she says she "feels lucky" that she was able to accomplish so much with the Sparkle Foundation last year even if she wasn't physically in Malawi. In fact, the group liked her work so much that they asked her back this summer as a paid intern working remotely.

In her bedroom in Norwich, she says that without the distraction of feeling "mesmerized" by an exotic location, she's been more honed in on her true purpose as a volunteer. And that's made her reevaluate the concept of overseas service.

"It's almost [discriminatory] that to make a real difference, you have to pay all this money to travel somewhere very far away," she says. "That's not how charity works."

• volunteerism

• Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

How Covid Changed the World's Top Tourist Destinations

The tourism industry is slowly recovering from the pandemic after having experienced its deepest shock in history, according to a newly published UN World Tourism Organization report .

Needless to say, a lot has changed in the industry since the pre-pandemic year of 2019, including which countries have been able to attract the most tourists. As the following chart shows, where France, Spain and the United States have managed to retain their places as the top three travel destinations worldwide, China and Thailand have disappeared from the roundup, so that all top ten ranks are now taken by countries in Europe and the Americas.

According to the report, reasons for the countries’ changes in performance include the varying impacts of the health crisis per country, the travel restrictions policies put in place there and the "inherent brand strength and resilience"' of each destination.

Description

This chart shows the number of international tourist arrivals in the world's most popular travel destinations in 2019 and 2022 (in millions).

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 English Listening Lesson on  Tourism

 listen a minute.com.

   More 60-Second Listenings

   PDF | Word | Quiz 1 | Quiz 2 | Help my site

THE LESSON ON TOURISM

Try the online quiz, reading, listening, and activities on grammar, spelling and vocabulary for this lesson on Tourism . Click on the links above or see the activities below this article:

THE ACTIVITIES

Listening gap fill.

Tourism has _____________________ the past few decades. It is actually quite a new thing. It _____________________ fifty years ago. The only people who travelled then were rich, and they _____________________. I guess tourism started in the late 60s and early 70s when airplane travel became cheap. The _____________________ suddenly became very _____________________. Everyone wanted their two weeks of sun in the summer. Tourism today is a multi-billion-dollar industry. There _____________________ the Earth untouched by tourism. The number of tourists _____________________. Millions of people from Russia, India and China are now taking vacations. Tourism really is making the world a global village. I’m not sure _____________________ or a bad thing.

CORRECT THE SPELLING

Tourism has changed a lot over the past few edacdes . It is ctaualyl quite a new thing. It probably didn’t exist fifty years ago. The only people who travelled then were rich, and they were called travelers. I guess tourism started in the late 60s and early 70s when raaneipl travel became cheap. The idea of foreign travel snuddley became very popular with millions. Everyone wanted their two weeks of sun in the summer. Tourism today is a multi- loilinb -dollar ndtuysir . There is hardly a ncrroe of the Earth dthouncue by tourism. The number of tourists is also rtcginkoe . Millions of people from Russia, India and China are now taking antsaoivc . Tourism really is making the world a global village. I’m not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.

UNJUMBLE THE WORDS

Tourism past a few lot decades over has the changed . It is actually quite a new thing. It probably didn’t exist fifty years ago. The rich were then travelled who people only , and they were called travelers. I guess tourism started in the late 60s became early when travel and 70s airplane cheap. idea foreign suddenly The of travel became very popular with millions. weeks their Everyone two wanted of sun in the summer. Tourism today is a multi-billion-dollar industry. of corner a hardly is There Earth the untouched by tourism. The number of tourists is also rocketing. Millions of people from Russia, India and China are now taking Tourism . vacations making is really the world a global village. if a a sure is or not this good I’m bad thing.

DISCUSSION (Write your own questions)

Student tourism survey.

Write five GOOD questions about tourism in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper.

When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

• Now return to your original partner and share and talk about what you found out. Change partners often.
• Make mini-presentations to other groups on your findings.

Write about tourism for 10 minutes. Show your partner your paper. Correct each other’s work.

______________________________________________________________________________

1. VOCABULARY EXTENSION: Choose several of the words from the text. Use a dictionary or Google’s search field (or another search engine) to build up more associations / collocations of each word.

2. INTERNET INFO: Search the Internet and find more information about tourism. Talk about what you discover with your partner(s) in the next lesson.

3. MAGAZINE ARTICLE: Write a magazine article about tourism. Read what you wrote to your classmates in the next lesson. Give each other feedback on your articles.

4. TOURISM POSTER Make a poster about tourism. Show it to your classmates in the next lesson. Give each other feedback on your posters.

5. MY TOURISM LESSON: Make your own English lesson on tourism. Make sure there is a good mix of things to do. Find some good online activities. Teach the class / another group when you have finished.

6. ONLINE SHARING: Use your blog, wiki, Facebook page, MySpace page, Twitter stream, Del-icio-us / StumbleUpon account, or any other social media tool to get opinions on tourism. Share your findings with the class.

Check your answers in the article at the top of this page.

Copyright © 2008-2023 by Sean Banville | Privacy Policy | Links

UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

Tourism – an economic and social phenomenon, share this content.

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Why Tourism?

Over the decades, tourism has experienced continued growth and deepening ‎diversification to become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in the world. ‎Modern tourism is closely linked to development and encompasses a growing number ‎of new destinations. These dynamics have turned tourism into a key driver for socio-‎economic progress.‎

Today, the business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, ‎food products or automobiles. Tourism has become one of the major players in ‎international commerce, and represents at the same time one of the main income ‎sources for many developing countries. This growth goes hand in hand with an ‎increasing diversification and competition among destinations.‎

International tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) grew 4% in January-March 2019 compared to the same period last year, below the 6% average growth of the past two years.

This global spread of tourism in industrialised and developed states has produced ‎economic and employment benefits in many related sectors - from construction to ‎agriculture or telecommunications.‎

The contribution of tourism to economic well-being depends on the quality and the ‎revenues of the tourism offer. UN Tourism assists destinations in their sustainable ‎positioning in ever more complex national and international markets. As the UN agency ‎dedicated to tourism, UN Tourism points out that particularly developing countries stand to ‎benefit from sustainable tourism and acts to help make this a reality.‎

How Travel Has Transformed Over the Course of 100 Years – A Complete History

By: Author Valerie Forgeard

Posted on Published: January 12, 2023  - Last updated: December 27, 2023

Categories Travel

Travel has come a long way in the last 100 years. In 1920, Britain was still connected to India by an empire, and Mexico City was only accessible by ship or train.

Today, travelers can take advantage of new technologies like airplanes and cruise ships that have opened up a world of travel opportunities. From exploring ancient ruins in Peru to road-tripping through New Zealand, modern travelers can experience places that were inaccessible or unknown just a hundred years ago. The evolution of travel in the last century is remarkable, allowing anyone with access to transportation to explore distant lands and discover cultures different from their own.

Before Air Travel

Travel has changed a lot in the last century. In the early 20th century, people traveled by train, steamship, and horseback. Today, we can travel to any part of the world anytime.

Travel by air was still in its infancy at that time. It wasn’t until 1919 that the first successful transatlantic flight occurred between Newfoundland and Ireland. The trip took more than 16 hours – a far cry from today’s flights, which take less than eight hours from New York City to Europe.

As more people gained access to air travel, it became much cheaper and accessible to everyone. Today, you can fly round-trip from New York to Paris for less than $500.

Advances in aviation technology also accompanied the development of modern air travel. In 1947, Chuck Yeager became the first to fly faster than sound.

The Early Days of Air Travel Were a Time of Adventure

Air travel has come long since the first plane took off in 1903.

The early days of aviation were a time of adventure. In the 1920s and 30s, air passengers could enjoy the thrill of flying at higher speeds than on land or water. Air passengers were often greeted by a flight attendant who served them food and drinks during the trip.

The first business travel flight took off from New York City on May 15, 1927, when Charles Lindbergh flew a single-engine biplane across the Atlantic to Paris. Pan American Airways offered commercial flights between New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico, two years later. But it wasn’t until after World War II that commercial aviation took off. With this growth came more modern aircraft designs with improved safety features and more comfort for passengers.

In the decades that followed, air travel became increasingly affordable and convenient. In 1954, Boeing introduced the 707 jet airliner – the first passenger aircraft with a complete cabin pressurization system – allowing airlines to fly in thinner air at higher speeds and greater distances.

In 1957, Pan Am inaugurated its first scheduled transatlantic service from the West Coast to the United Kingdom with its new DC-7C jets. By 1958, Pan American Airways had a schedule of 47 weekly flights from Idlewild Airport to destinations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

Other Advances in Transportation

Since the beginning of time, people have been traveling to new places and meeting new people. Today, we can travel much faster and more efficiently than ever before.

The earliest forms of transportation were walking and running. Later, people learned to use horses and other animals to travel faster and farther.

The invention of the steam train in 1908 allowed people to travel long distances in a short time. Airplanes allowed people to cross oceans in a few hours, which would have taken weeks or months by ship. Cars enabled people to travel great distances at high speeds, which is why many highways exist today.

Significant advances in transportation technology have been made, such as the widespread use of high-speed trains. High-speed trains are quick and efficient forms of transportation that can take passengers from one city to another in hours instead of taking entire days to travel by car.

From Freight to Cruise Ships

The most apparent change in the last 100 years has been the rise of the cruise ship industry. Cruise ships have become the dominant form of maritime transportation, and they’re an excellent example of how technology has changed not only what we do at sea but also how we think about it.

Cruise ships also represent another major shift in how people think about travel: they’re being marketed as destinations in and of themselves rather than just a means to get from point A to point B – or even just an excuse to get away from work for a week or two. But that’s not all they offer. Many cruise lines also offer excursions in ports of call, so you can explore new cities without leaving your ship for more than an hour or two (and only if you want to).

Infrastructure

Travel infrastructure has also greatly improved by constructing highways, airports, and train stations. Airports have expanded capacity with more gates and runways, allowing more flights to take off and land safely. Airlines have also increased their fleets and flown to more destinations to meet passenger needs.

Through mobile apps like FlightStats or FlightViews, or websites like FlightAware, travelers now have real-time flight information so they can stay informed before leaving for the airport or during a layover in an airport terminal while waiting for their next flight.

Travelers can also use these tools to plan their trips by comparing fares between airlines or booking hotels directly through sites like Expedia or Orbitz rather than dealing with booking agents at hotels or airlines.

Railroads have been around for more than 200 years, but their impact on travel has only changed dramatically recently. Before the late 1800s, most people traveled on foot or horseback. Travel by rail was standard but not affordable for most people.

The railroad changed that, making travel faster and cheaper than ever before – and allowing people to leave their hometowns and see the world. Today’s modern rail system is very different from the early days: Today’s trains are faster, safer, and more comfortable than 100 years ago.

Ports have also evolved. Most ports today have terminals where passengers can check their luggage before arriving at the terminal building. Terminals are often designed so passengers don’t have to walk far after leaving their cars or planes – they can get off the bus or train and go directly to an air-conditioned waiting room.

Highways are also an excellent example of how infrastructure has changed over time. In the early 1900s, no highways existed: People traveled on horseback or foot. As cars became more popular in the 1920s , roads began to be built so people could drive around town and between cities. But to get from one place to another, they had to use dirt roads until they were paved with asphalt in the 1930s. Today, highways are multi-lane, and interstates connect cities across state lines.

Globalization

The globalization of travel has allowed people to travel to more destinations worldwide and more easily connect with other cultures.

The Internet and social media have made it possible for people from different countries to communicate with each other and share information about places they have been or want to visit.

In addition, it’s easier for travelers to find online communities of people with similar interests and want to travel together. This can be helpful for those who are afraid to travel alone or meet new people in a foreign country.

Although travel has always involved risks, especially when traveling abroad, today’s travelers have access to more information about those risks than ever before. This can help travelers decide where and how to protect themselves.

For example, if you’re taking a walking tour in an unfamiliar place or country, you can find out about reviews of local hotels and restaurants, so you know where not to eat or stay. You can also find reviews of attractions or landmarks along your route so you know which ones are worth stopping at on your trip.

In the early 20th century, travel was a luxury reserved for the wealthy. Travel was expensive and took a lot of time. People who weren’t wealthy had to rely on public transportation such as trains and buses.

Today, travel is more accessible to everyone. With the advent of airplanes, crossing oceans at speeds that trains or cars could never match has become possible. The cost of air travel has also become more affordable for the middle class, making it accessible to more people.

In 1900, a person could travel from New York City to Los Angeles by train in about four days. Today, the same trip by plane takes less than nine hours – and at a much lower price than a train ticket!

The rise of tourism as a significant industry has led to the development of hotels, resorts, and business travel. These facilities are critical to the needs of travelers, providing them with comfortable accommodations, dining options, and various forms of entertainment.

It is easy to take for granted the ease and convenience of travel that we enjoy today. However, it is essential to remember that travel was a much more complex and arduous endeavor just a century ago.

Your journey was arduous if you traveled in a horse-drawn carriage or even the first automobiles in the early 20th century . Not only did you have to cope with rough and often unpaved roads, but you also had to make sure your horse was well-fed and rested throughout the journey or that you had enough gasoline for the road, as gas stations were relatively rare.

We rely on public transportation such as buses, trains, and planes to travel long distances. Introducing these modes of transportation has dramatically increased the speed and convenience of travel, making it accessible to a more significant number of people. In addition, the development of roads, highways, and airports has also played a crucial role in making travel more accessible.

Travel today is different from what it was 100 years ago. Some things have remained the same; for example, people still enjoy visiting tourist destinations worldwide and taking photos. But many new things make travel more convenient and enjoyable than ever before.

For people with disabilities, seniors, and families with children who were previously unable to take a more extended trip due to age or health reasons, traveling is now easier than ever.

Development of the Tourism Industry

The development of tourism into a primary travel industry has led to the emergence of hotels, resorts, and other tourism-related businesses. This, in turn, has led to the growth of the service sector and the creation of jobs in the industry.

The rise of tourism as a significant industry has also increased international travel between countries. This has increased cultural exchanges between people from different countries as they travel to share experiences and learn about each other’s cultures.

Tourism also plays a vital role in economic development and poverty alleviation by providing more employment opportunities for locals who provide food preparation, transportation, and accommodation for tourists visiting their country or region. In addition, tourism also helps improve infrastructure, such as roads and airports, to help tourists access remote destinations.

Economic Impact

Travel increased sharply in the first half of the 20th century, with most people using trains and steamships to reach their destinations. The more people traveled, the more hotels and other lodging establishments were needed. This led to new jobs, especially in the travel industry, such as hotels, restaurants, and airlines.

The economic impact of the travel industry is not limited to those in the tourism industry. The money people spend on travel affects the entire economy. For example, when someone spends money on an airline ticket, they may buy groceries or clothing at a local supermarket before leaving town. This extra spending creates jobs for other people in the local community who work in grocery stores or clothing stores.

Tourism has also played an essential role in the growth of some cities worldwide. For example, tourism has helped Miami grow from a small coastal town to one of the United States’ largest cities, attracting millions of visitors yearly for the beaches and nightlife.

Safety and Security

Security measures have been the most significant change in travel over the past 100 years. In the early 20th century, people traveled without considering their safety. Today, there are security checkpoints at every airport, and we are constantly reminded that travel is a dangerous thing.

Airport security has increased significantly in recent years, and security checks with metal detectors and baggage screening machines are now commonplace at airports worldwide. Passengers are also personally searched and patted down.

Nowadays, there are several checkpoints that you have to pass through before you can board a mode of transportation. When you arrive at an airport or train station, you must go through security checks before entering the terminal building. Once inside the terminal building, you must pass through another checkpoint before boarding your flight or train. This process is repeated for each mode of transportation you use after arriving at your destination.

The development of technology and the Internet has made it easier for people to plan and book their trips and more accessible for them to stay connected while traveling.

In previous generations, travelers had to go to a travel agency, talk to a travel agent in person or on the phone, and wait for the agent to book flights, hotels, and rental cars. Today, travelers can do all this themselves from home or anywhere in the world with an Internet connection through websites like Expedia.

The Internet has also made communicating with family and friends easier while away from home. Cell phones allow travelers to stay in touch 24/7 with anyone with a cell phone number or email address – even if they’re on the other side of the world!

However, with so many review portals like Trip Advisor, there’s no longer an element of surprise when you arrive at a new destination. You know which places to avoid and which to visit before you get on the plane. It’s hard to find those ‘hidden gems’ anymore…

Contact With New Cultures

Learning about new cultures can be a life-changing experience. Travel allows people to immerse themselves in different cultures and learn about and appreciate the world’s diversity. Through travel, people can develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for other cultures and even adopt elements of those cultures into their own lives.

As travel becomes more accessible and affordable thanks to advances in technology and transportation, more people can explore the world and learn about different cultures.

This can help break down prejudices and assumptions people have about others who are different. Travel makes people realize that despite our cultural differences, we have many things in common, such as hopes, dreams, desires, and fears.

Tourism is the largest industry in the world, and travel is an integral part of it.

The past century has seen tremendous changes in how people travel, and significant advances have been made in transportation and communications. These developments have enabled people to travel farther, faster, and safer than ever.

The Internet has also played an important role, providing access to information worldwide and breaking down language barriers through translation apps. This allows people to learn about new cultures and places without traveling there.

Travel has helped break down barriers, bridge cultural differences , and help us appreciate the beauty and diversity of the world around us. As travel has become more accessible, it has played an essential role in fostering greater understanding and acceptance of different cultures and promoting peace and harmony among people of all backgrounds.

Dissemination of Ideas

Travel has changed dramatically over the past 100 years. In the first half of the 20th century, it was all about discovery and adventure. People were fascinated by new places and cultures around the globe. They wanted to see them with their own eyes. But travel was also a way of escaping one’s own life – whether on a grand tour or on a steamer bound for Europe.

The early 20th century was also a time when people were looking for ideas outside their own borders. Travelers brought back souvenirs and stories from their journeys around the world. They shared these stories with friends and family members at home and abroad, helping to spread ideas and cultures around the globe.

With the advent of the Internet, the way people search for new ideas has changed, and today travel is usually for tourism or work. People still explore new places, but they do it much faster than in years past.

Changing Attitudes and Values

In the early 1900s, most people traveled by rail or water. Travelers were adventurous and willing to take risks to reach their destinations. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to travel across the country on a trolley (a small wagon without an engine) pulled by fellow passengers. People also traveled by boat across seas and rivers. They had no idea where they’d end up or what would happen along the way – but they didn’t care because it was an adventure!

There were no computers back then, so the maps weren’t very accurate. The only way to find out what lay ahead was to talk to other travelers or read guidebooks – if you could find any!

Today, thanks to our mobile devices and online travel sites like TripAdvisor and Lonely Planet, we can access information about anywhere. We know exactly where we’re going and what we’ll see along the way – at least, most of us do.

We have also become more aware of environmental issues, such as pollution and conservation, and cultural issues, such as racism and sexism.

Raising Awareness

Travel is for personal growth and enjoyment and is vital in raising awareness of many social, environmental, and political issues today. When we travel to other parts of the world, we learn about other ways of life, challenges, and perspectives. This can help us understand the world’s complexity and its inhabitants’ interconnectedness. For example, when we visit a developing country, we can develop a better understanding of poverty and inequality. Visiting an area affected by climate change can give us a better understanding of the problem’s urgency. Visiting a place where human rights are violated can help us better understand the importance of protecting those rights.

Travel Has Changed a Lot in the Last Century

Travel has changed dramatically in the last century and continues evolving with technology and globalization.

The most apparent changes are the advances in transportation that make it easier and faster for people to get around. Planes, trains, automobiles, cruise ships, busses, and other forms of transportation have opened the world to domestic and internationally travelers.

Travel has continued to evolve over the past century. With more people traveling, the need for convenience and comfort is more significant than ever. That’s why airlines have invested in technologies that allow travelers to book tickets online, check in remotely, and even print their boarding passes at home.

Travelers also have more options than ever before when it comes to accommodations. Hotel chains, Airbnb, and hostels offer accommodations for every budget and need, making it easier for travelers to find a place to stay that fits their needs and budget. There are also new forms of transportation, such as ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft, which make getting around much more straightforward,

Technology has dramatically changed how we travel over the past 100 years. From steamboats and hand-drawn carts to planes, trains, and cruise ships, there is now an incredible range of transportation options for travelers.

Access to travel has also become much easier in the last century for people of all classes and income groups. Only those with enough money could travel in the past – today, even people on a tight budget can discover new destinations.

Travel is much more affordable in the last century. A hundred years ago, it was too expensive for most people to travel far from home. Today, airfares have dropped significantly, and budget airlines offer cheap flights, making it possible for almost anyone to travel.

Airfares have dropped dramatically over the last century, drastically changing travel over the last 100 years due to technological, transportation, and globalization advances.

The invention of the airplane was one of the most significant changes in transportation, as it allowed people to travel long distances in less time. Airplanes have made international travel much more accessible and affordable, making long-distance travel a reality.

How I Imagine Traveling in the Next 100 Years

I envision travel evolving over the next 100 years in response to new technologies and changing social and environmental conditions.

First, I believe that transportation technology will continue to improve, making travel even faster and more efficient. Electric and autonomous vehicles may become commonplace, reducing emissions and increasing safety.

We will see the development of new sustainable technologies such as vertical gardens, floating cities, and eco-friendly accommodations.

It is also possible that new forms of transportation will be developed, such as high-speed trains and hypersonic aircraft, which will make travel even faster and more convenient.

In addition, I believe space travel will become more feasible and accessible, allowing people to travel to space for recreational, research, and other purposes.

I envision airplanes being perceived like buses once space travel becomes a luxury item, as airplanes were in the 20th century.

Second, I believe technology will make travel increasingly accessible and sustainable. Virtual and augmented reality technologies could be widely used, allowing people to experience different places and cultures without leaving home. Sustainable tourism will become more mainstream as more people become aware of their travels’ impact on the environment and local communities.

Finally, travel will continue to play an essential role in promoting global understanding, peace, and harmony among people of diverse backgrounds.

With the rise of technology and globalization, we will see a greater exchange of ideas, cultures, and perspectives between people from different parts of the world. We may also see the development of new types of travel that promote cultural exchange and understanding, such as cross-cultural travel, language learning programs, and educational travel.

In summary, travel will evolve over the next 100 years in response to new technologies and changing social and environmental conditions. Transportation technology will become more efficient and sustainable, technology will make travel more accessible, and travel will continue to play an essential role in promoting global understanding and peace, and harmony among people of all backgrounds.

Alternative to Physical Travel

As the gap between rich and poor continues to widen, I also believe virtual travel using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) will become an increasingly popular way to experience new places and cultures without leaving home, much like the movie Ready Player One by Spielberg.

Virtual reality technology will allow people to be fully immersed in a virtual environment, making them feel like they are in another place. This technology can create virtual tours of famous landmarks, historical sites, and natural wonders.

VR can also create virtual reality experiences such as visiting ancient ruins, exploring the ocean’s depths, or even traveling into space and imaginary worlds, meaning our virtual destinations will be endless!

Augmented reality technology, on the other hand, will allow users to overlay virtual elements on top of the natural world, making it easier to share our surroundings with our loved ones without traveling physically.

Virtual and augmented reality will also give travelers a more personal and interactive experience. For example, using virtual and augmented reality, travel companies can create customized virtual tours catering to their customer’s interests and preferences.

I have had a few virtual experiences, such as visiting the set of a favorite movie or exploring backstage at a favorite concert, and I have to say, it’s fantastic!

Virtual and augmented reality can enhance the educational aspects of travel by allowing students to explore different parts of the world, and they will promote conscious and responsible tourism.

Useful Links

Airport Security – The New York Times

Early Commercial Aviation | National Air and Space Museum

International Air Transport Association (IATA) – SKYbrary

Transportation Security Administration | USAGov

Related Posts

For those intrigued by the transformative journey of travel over the last century, you may find these articles equally fascinating:

• Explore the evolution of automobiles at How Cars Have Changed Over 100 Years .
• Delve into technological advancements with How Has Technology Changed in the Last 100 Years .
• Understand the global impact of the telephone at How Did the Telephone Change the World .
• Discover the profound influence of the printing press in The Social Impact of the Printing Press .

These readings offer a comprehensive view of the inventions and innovations that have reshaped our world in the past century.

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Travis Kelce's Barber Says Taylor Swift Caused a Lot of 'Change'

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are one of the most talked-about couples in 2024. Before Swift and Kelce started dating, Kelce was only known as the tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. However, a lot has changed in his life since dating the billionaire pop star — and his barber, Pat Regan, confirmed this in an interview. Here’s what Regan said about the changes that have taken place in Kelce’s life.

Travis Kelce’s barber, Pat Regan, explained that ‘things have changed’ for Kelce since dating Taylor Swift

Travis Kelce’s barber, Pat Regan, has been close friends with Kelce for six to seven years. Regan spoke on the Your Day Off podcast about his longstanding friendship with Kelce and what he’s noticed about Kelce’s relationship with Taylor Swift . Regan noted that getting to know Swift “as a person” has been “kind of cool,” as she doesn’t come off as one of the world’s biggest stars.

“It’s kind of cool to see because I know her as a person now,” Regan explained. “She’s just a really nice person. She’s very interested in what you’re saying. She doesn’t act like the most famous celebrity in the world; she’s a very nice person. And she’s a very good girlfriend to my friend, so it’s pretty cool. It doesn’t seem too crazy to me.”

While Regan supports Kelce’s relationship with Swift, he admits that Kelce has had to adjust his life due to the newfound fame. Regan explained that Kelce had to move to a new home in Kansas City, Missouri.

“However, things have changed,” Regan said. “He had to change houses. So, things have changed for me. Now, I have to drive further. There’s more security. Travis is one of my bros; I used to go sleep at his house every weekend. So, things have changed a little bit now. But, I’m happy for him in seeing the stardom that he’s getting, because he’s just a normal guy, too. You guys would love him. He’s just a regular dude.”

Regan adores Kelce’s family and describes them as “really nice, low-key people.”

Pat Regan said the famous couple’s wedding is ‘hopefully soon’

Travis Kelce to Join Taylor Swift in $4 Million Cottage During ‘The Eras Tour’

Travis Kelce’s barber, Pat Regan, is rooting for Kelce and Taylor Swift to tie the knot .

“When’s the wedding?” the podcast hosts asked Regan.

“Hopefully soon,” he answered.

Unfortunately, fans will likely have to wait awhile for Swift to walk down the aisle. A source told Us Weekly in May 2024 that Kelce has no immediate plans to propose to Swift . In fact, “it’s not even on his radar.”

 “Travis has no plans on proposing to Taylor anytime soon,” the insider stated. “It’s not even on his radar. Marriage is something he takes very seriously and not something he would ever just jump into without giving it some careful consideration.” The source added that Kelce “cares very deeply” for Swift but isn’t “there yet” regarding marriage.

Jason Sudeikis seemingly made Travis Kelce uncomfortable with a marriage joke

Everyone has marriage on the brain regarding Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift — including Jason Sudeikis. Kelce, Sudeikis, Robert Smigel, and George Wendt took the stage for the Big Slick Celebrity Weekend charity fundraiser in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 1, 2024. While onstage, Sudeikis, Smigel, and Wendt joked about Swift’s enormous income. Sudeikis also poked fun at Kelce.

“Travis, real talk, OK, just the guys here,” Sudeikis said. “When are you going to make an honest woman out of her?” Sudeikis riled up the crowd with his comment. “Taylor doesn’t need to be working anymore and, again, I know your kicker agrees with me. He gets it,” he continued.

Kelce laughed off the joke without a response.

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Why You’ll Pay More and Behave Better When You Travel This Summer

From Barcelona to Bali, higher fees and new rules are targeting overtourism and unruly behavior. Some locals are worried the changes will keep tourists away.

By Paige McClanahan

A new tourist fee in Bali. Higher hotel taxes in Amsterdam and Paris. Stricter rules on public drinking in Milan and Majorca. Ahead of the summer travel season, leaders in many tourist spots have adopted measures to tame the tourist crowds — or at least earn more revenue from them.

All of this may pose headaches for travelers, although in most cases, the new fees or tax increases represent only a tiny fraction of the total cost of a trip. The goal is to ensure that tourism functions smoothly for visitors and locals alike, said Megan Epler Wood, managing director of the Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program at Cornell University.

“All tourism is dependent on beautiful natural and cultural resources. You have to protect those resources in order to be a viable tourism destination — and if you don’t, they degrade,” Ms. Epler Wood said.

In some places, proposals for new fees or visitor rules have drawn opposition from residents, who fear they might scare away the tourists who bolster the local economy. But destinations need to find ways to counteract what Ms. Epler Wood calls “ the invisible burden ” of tourism, which includes strains on a community’s infrastructure, utilities and housing stock, as well as tourists’ carbon footprint and any challenges they might impose on residents’ daily lives.

“You put so much pressure on the place that the people who live there become unhappy, and then they don’t present a very good face to tourists,” Ms. Epler Wood said. “The longer you wait, the higher the cost to fix it.”

Here is a look at new measures that travelers can expect this summer, and where others might be coming in the future.

New visitor fees

Since February, visitors to the Indonesian island of Bali have been asked to pay a levy of 150,000 Indonesian rupiahs, or about $9.40 per visit. Revenue will be used to support the preservation of cultural and natural assets on the island, where tourism has brought major challenges related to litter, water supply and overcrowding. Visitors are encouraged to pay the new fee online before departure, although it’s also possible to pay on arrival at the airport.

Beginning Aug. 1, most foreign travelers to the Galápagos Islands — which had a record-breaking 330,000 visitors last year — must pay a $200 entry fee, double the current rate. The money raised will be used to support conservation, improve infrastructure and fund community programs.

The change is the first increase to the entry fee since it was introduced in 1998, said Tom O’Hara, communications manager for the Galápagos Conservation Trust . Mr. O’Hara noted that the increase comes a year after the UNESCO World Heritage Committee urged the government of Ecuador to work toward a “zero-growth model” for tourism in the Galápagos.

“It’s quite a complicated topic,” Mr. O’Hara said, noting that the fee increase has been viewed “as part of the solution to overtourism.” On the other hand, he added, “everyone is trying to reassure the local tourist industry that this isn’t going to kill tourism on the islands.

In April, Venice began imposing a fee — 5 euros, about $5.40 — on day-trippers visiting on peak days, with the goal of striking “a new balance between the tourists and residents.”

But the new Venice Access Fee has drawn criticism from residents. “This project is a disaster for us. We are a city, not a park,” said Matteo Secchi, the president of Venessia.com, an association of Venice residents. Mr. Secchi said that a communications campaign would have been more effective.

The possibility of a new tourist fee has also drawn local opposition in Hawaii, where Gov. Josh Green has proposed a “climate impact fee” for visitors to the state. The measure failed during a recent meeting of the State Legislature, but Governor Green has persisted in calling for visitors to help fund the state’s preparation for future climate shocks.

“We have to get this tiger by the tail,” he told journalists in May, adding that $25 per visitor could raise $250 million a year, which the state could use to guard against climate disasters, manage erosion, strengthen infrastructure and protect parks.

Hotel fees and other taxes get a bump

Hotel taxes, also known as occupancy or accommodation taxes, are widespread in the United States and Europe, where they were on the rise for a decade leading up to the pandemic. With tourism’s rebound to prepandemic levels, several destinations have increased or adjusted the tax to capture more revenue.

Like Hawaii, Greece — which also suffered severe wildfires last summer — is looking to steel itself against climate disasters, and the government wants tourists to help foot the bill. Greece is calling the charge a climate crisis resilience fee , and it will be collected by accommodation providers. The tax will be higher from March to October, when it will top out at €10 per night at five-star hotels. The rate drops from November to February, and for hotels with fewer stars. The fee replaces the previous hotel tax, which ranged from €0.50 to €4 per night.

In Amsterdam, the hotel tax, which was already one of the highest in Europe, rose to 12.5 percent from 7 percent on Jan. 1. City lawmakers have also raised the tax on cruise passengers to €14 from €11 per person per night.

The hotel tax in Barcelona also rose this year, increasing to €3.25 per night. The measure was the final step-up in a gradual increase that began before the pandemic. A spokesman for Barcelona City Hall said that further tax increases would be aimed at tourist rental apartments and cruises that make short stopovers, which contribute less to the city’s income. The spokesman also noted that revenue generated by the tourist tax is being used, among other things, to fund the installation of solar panels and air-conditioning in Barcelona’s public schools.

Ahead of this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris, lawmakers in the Île-de-France region have imposed a new tax, on top of the normal hotel levy. With the new tax, which will fund public transportation in the region, a guest in a five-star hotel now owes a total of €10.73 in tax per night stayed, while a stay in a two-star hotel incurs a tax of €3.25 per night.

Though the measure was adopted by the regional government, it was not supported by the leadership in Paris itself. A spokeswoman for Paris City Hall called the move “a democratic power grab” that “in no way benefits the city of Paris.” She noted that even with the funds generated by the new tax, the region still raised the price of tickets for public transportation in the city during the Olympics — a measure that has disgruntled many Paris residents.

Introducing new rules

In other tourist spots, the focus is on curbing behavior that pollutes the local environment or harms residents’ quality of life.

In Japan, authorities at Mount Fuji will cap visitors at 4,000 per day. They have also imposed a new fee of 2,000 yen (about $13) for access to the iconic summit. Elsewhere in the country, a community council in the Gion neighborhood of Kyoto has closed some small roads to tourists, after complaints that the area, home to the city’s geisha district, was suffering from crowds.

“We will ask tourists to refrain from entering narrow private streets in or after April,” Isokazu Ota, a leading member of the community council, told Agence-France Presse in March. “We don’t want to do this, but we’re desperate.”

A spokeswoman for the city’s tourism board described the road closures as “a local initiative,” adding that “neither Kyoto City nor the Kyoto City Tourism Association are aware of any details beyond what is reported in the media.”

Rowdy visitor behavior has been the target of new rules in Milan. In some areas, city leaders have banned outdoor seating after 12:30 a.m. during the week and 1:30 a.m. on the weekend in response to resident complaints. They have also limited the late-night sale of takeaway food and drinks.

And in certain areas on the Spanish Balearic Islands of Majorca and Ibiza that are overrun with drunk tourists, the government has imposed a ban on late-night sales of alcohol and the consumption of alcohol in the street. New restrictions have also been imposed on party boats in the same areas.

“Tourism has negative externalities that must be managed and minimized,” Marga Prohens, the president of the Balearic Islands, told a local gathering this month , according to The Majorca Daily Bulletin. Local tourism, she said, “cannot continue to grow in volume.”

Paige McClanahan, a regular contributor to the Travel section, is author of “The New Tourist: Waking Up to the Power and Perils of Travel,” forthcoming from Scribner on June 18.

Open Up Your World

Considering a trip, or just some armchair traveling here are some ideas..

52 Places:  Why do we travel? For food, culture, adventure, natural beauty? Our 2024 list has all those elements, and more .

The Alaska Highway:  On an epic road trip, a family plots a course from Alaska to the Lower 48, passing through some of Canada’s most spectacular scenery .

Minorca:  Spend 36 hours on this slow-paced Spanish island , which offers a quieter and wilder retreat than its more touristy neighbors.

Japan:  A new high-speed train stop unlocks Kaga, a destination for hot springs, nourishing food and traditional crafts , as an easy-to-reach getaway from Tokyo.

London:  The Victoria and Albert Museum is a treasure trove of art and design. Here’s one besotted visitor’s plan for taking it all in .