How has travelling changed?

09/09/2016

People all over the world look back fondly on some of their memories of a simpler time, saying things like, "Those were the good old days" and even wishing they could go back. That being said, this may not be the same across the board. For instance, plenty of industries - think about those that revolve around health care, electronics and indoor plumbing - have certainly benefited from the passage of time and the emergence of new technologies.

This is certainly the same for travel. The industry, and everyone who's interested in going to foreign places, has seen a lot of change throughout the years. Just think, there was a time when you couldn't just book a flight and go to a tropical island - you had to drive or take a train to a port and then get on a relatively slow-moving boat.

But how, exactly, has travel changed - largely for the better?

Smoother flights

According to USA Today, in the early days of air travel, it used to be an unpleasant experience - on a different level than people might complain about today. For instance, because there wasn't automatic pressurization of cabins, those travelling often experienced altitude sickness and had to use oxygen tanks. On top of that, clunkier planes encountered turbulence, prompting people to use sickness bowls. When planes evolved and could fly higher - and keep the people inside breathing normally - flights became smoother.

You can go farther

Think about how limited travel was a century ago. Cars weren't as widespread, and you can only go so far on a horse. These days, even if you want to go to the other side of the world, it's usually no more than a day's travel, even with layovers. In the early to mid-20th century, if you wanted to go from Eastern Canada to Asia, you had to dedicate weeks on ships, and that's if you were even able to secure transportation. After all, as a Forbes article celebrating the 75th anniversary of transatlantic flights noted, the very first overseas flight of this kind was competed in 1938, though this didn't become popular for decades.

Ships became safer

There aren't many people who haven't heard of the Titanic. Per shipping laws in 1912, the ship wasn't required to have enough places on lifeboats to fit the passengers - which cost over 1,000 people their lives during that disaster. Since then, regulations have been amended and passengers on cruises now have to run through drills to make sure everyone knows what to do in the event of an issue. Plus, with the advent of GPS systems and other information technology, actually avoiding icebergs - and other ships, submarines, land masses and different obstacles - is much easier.