Travel has changed a lot over the past decades. Especially the Internet opened the world of travel with bookings, destinations and communication becoming extremely easy online. Before the Internet travel may have been more challenging, but also more rewarding.
Paul van Schaik
09-avr-2025
A world trip in 1990, so much different from today
In 1990 my Swiss girlfriend (who I had met in Egypt) and I did a world-trip. We had saved money and quit our jobs at young age to see the world. For close to 2 years we travelled with a backpack from Mexico City, overland through Central and South-America, via Tahiti, New-Zealand, Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia to Bangkok. Pure time off, without work. It was a great time and something to never ever forget. The only worries you had, were how to get to the next location, what to do there and where to eat and sleep.
Of course we were on a strict budget and only stayed in no-star hotels and used overland public transportation where possible. During 5 summer months we camped in a small tent. We travelled cheap, but also learned scuba diving in Belize, spotted Quetzals in the Costa Rica cloud forest, visited Venezuela before the economic collapse and explored unique locations like the one-of-a-kind Galapagos Islands, splendid Iguassu Falls, remote Easter Island and island paradise Bora Bora. We hitch-hiked through New Zealand and climbed sacred Uluru (Ayers Rock).
More people have travelled like this, it is no longer exceptional. But today, it is no longer possible or necessary to travel the way we did and this just because of the date: 1990-1992. This is just before the Internet and long before Smart Phones and Social Media changed travel completely and truly enabled mass-tourism.
Tourism and Travel has changed significantly since our world trip. As a reminder of the good old days…
Airplanes had a smoking and a no-smoking section. When checking-in at the airport you had to tell the land stewardess whether you smoke or not and a seat was assigned to you in the front or the back of the plane. Since 1990 smoking is prohibited in all airlines worldwide.
We stayed in touch with our families just to let them know where we are and that we are safe, or to send birthday congratulations. You had to find a phone with a land-line where foreign calls were possible and then either got charged US$1 to $5 per minute, or “call collect” an
Our friends and family liked to stay in touch with us and they sent us mail either to the Main Post Office in a major city (Poste Restante) or at the Swiss or Dutch embassy. We visited several consulates to collect our mail and this was fun. Not too many people travelled like us yet and we were welcome for a cup of tea or coffee and a chat.
Taking pictures is a must-do to keep the good memories of locations, experiences and faces. We used a typical analogue Canon camera with changeable lenses, where you put in a roll of film, take 36 shots, get it developed at the photo store, hope for the best and pay $1 per picture. We passed our many rolls to reliable (?) fellow Swiss travellers to take home on a plane, because we did not trust the mail. Note: the expression “take a selfie” did not exist yet!
Making travel movies during a world trip was almost impossible, because the cameras and tapes were really big, mechanical and cumbersome to take along and the quality was not really great. (Digital) Cameras or phones with this capability weren’t invented yet.
To find the next destination or place to stay we used travel guide books like Lonely Planet or the South America Handbook. They were written by people who presumably had been there and wrote positive or negative reviews about destinations, markets, hotels or restaurants. Since most travellers used the same book, these guides were quite powerful: a good review could create a lot of business. Of course the reviews were not quite reliable or up-to-date because they were printed at least a year ago and may have had some very subjective (sponsored) input. Talking to travellers about where you were going to or came from was not only fun, but also very informative.
For bookings of any kind we had to visit a travel agent or go to the bus station or train station 2-3 days before departure to get the ticket in person. In Central & South-America people speak Spanish and Portuguese. Few people spoke English at the time. We took 6 weeks of 1:1 Spanish classes in beautiful Antigua Guatemala and stayed with local families at the start of our trip, to overcome this obstacle. Even though I am not fluent whatsoever, I can still communicate well in Spanish, a valuable skill.
We needed to stay in touch with the world a bit and therefore carried a small short wave radio along where we could listen to the “Deutsche Welle” (DW), with news in the – for us - familiar German language. Newspapers mostly covered local news or politics, in Spanish, or were as expensive as a meal…
We carried traveller cheques in value of US$ 25.000 hidden in a pouch under a T-shirt (equivalent to US$ 50.000 in 2025). For so many months you needed quite a bit of money for daily expenses like food, bus, accommodation and attractions. Online banking didn’t exist yet. American Express and Thomas Cook traveller cheques were costly, but widely accepted at local banks and insured against theft and loss. We did have a credit card and a mum at home in case of emergency.
After any travel to a far-away destination – incl. this world trip - we shared memories with friends and family at home. I can still recall several slide-show sessions with projector, beer, chips, smiles, lots of questions and all. Some travellers even earned extra money / financed future travel by marketing their trip, renting a venue and asking entrance fees to look at their slides and hear travel stories in person.
Travel with the Internet
Those were different days. For the generation under 30 years of age this must sound like ancient times, but it isn’t all that long ago. The Internet and World Wide Web took off only mid-1990s. Before Google, Facebook, Amazon and Wikipedia there was a different life with printed encyclopaedias, real friends and face-to-face conversations, without a mobile phone, without being online or playing games all day long, without herds of mobile-phone Zombies crossing the roads.
The Digital Revolution and the Internet changed the world completely. We are now all connected, whether we like it or not. Our daily life is filled with technology. And more is yet to come.
- The world wide web in combination with social media, emailing and chatting make communication and sharing of information and experiences across the globe a piece of cake. Normal phones with land-lines have become obsolete.
- Websites and online payment make booking or purchasing of almost anything possible. E-Commerce and global shipping have found their place in the shopping process.
- Excellent smart phones and digital cameras revolutionised picture and video taking and image editing, especially for travel where we like things small, lightweight and portable.
Travel & tourism changed completely with travel websites, Online Travel Agents (OTAs), Comparison Platforms, Blogs, Translation Tools and applications like Google Maps and YouTube. You can now preview most destinations before packing your bags and review those places for others who may follow in your footsteps.
Travel has become easy, affordable and main-stream. It is so easy to prepare yourself for your next adventure whether it is an organised tour, cruise, expedition or a self-organised trip. Organised tours are of course the easiest, but booking your own hotels, transportation and activities as-you-go isn’t difficult either. The Internet and the whole world are always within easy reach.
More and more people travel. Increasing wealth and mobility, especially in Asian countries, have created the phenomena called over-tourism. Certain destinations have become so crowded that it has become a problem for locals. Housing cost, drinking water shortage and garbage are only a few of the issues. Especially large cruise ships are no longer welcome everywhere.
Digital Nomads
Most office jobs are Internet based where work involves websites and apps. People earn an income with software, marketing and online content. Job Titles like Digital Marketer and Influencer are relatively new. Your employer and customer can be anywhere. If you are adventurous enough, qualified and can work remotely, you could consider living somewhere nice like Thailand or Portugal and work from there. Or better: move between locations and see the world!
To earn a living you don’t always need a job. A well visited website or online video (Youtube) can attract sufficient advertisers to pay your bills. Some travellers combine fun with work, write stories and create content with their GoPro cameras while travelling. They can be on the road for a long time without breaking the bank.