25 ways travel has changed this century

Remember paper maps?

Or carrying a salon’s worth of hair products through airport security?

Cruise ships used to be about sailing and the sea. If you wanted to rent a room, you went to a hotel. People wore hard pants on planes.

Those were such quaint times.

The past quarter-century has been a whirlwind of change. In the world of travel alone, there have been innovations and inventions, sobering tragedies and surprising trends.

Smartphones and other technological advances have completely altered how we move around the world and communicate with one another. New experiences have opened up for more diverse populations and in places once accessible only to penguins and extreme explorers.

In 2026, we can’t imagine traveling like it was 1999.

As we enter Q2 of the 21st century, our staff discussed the biggest moments and advances that took place between 2000 and 2025. Then we asked industry stalwarts for theirs. The list of 25 is a reminder that the business of travel takes us to places that we couldn’t imagine — and then makes them a given.

1. Smartphones put maps in our hands

In the old days, there was paper. Drivers referred to road atlases or marked routes on giant maps. Tourists explored new cities with walking routes laid out in guidebooks. Later, we printed out turn-by-turn directions from MapQuest.

Smartphones equipped with Google Maps gave us a new way to get around the world, on foot or by bike, car or public transportation.

“All of a sudden, it’s there at your fingertips,” said Samantha Brown, host of “Places to Love” on PBS. “It’s like this whole world becomes opened to you.”

2. Everyone sees your vacations

Social media has forever altered travel — for better and for worse. It has widened the audience for your vacation photos from a slideshow party to everyone you’ve ever friended on Facebook.

With one click, you can keep tabs on a travel fling for the rest of your digital days. (Weird!) It has allowed us to learn about pockets of the globe we’d never find otherwise and has given a voice to the often-overlooked, such as disenfranchised locals and behind-the-scenes industry workers.

On the darker side, social media has fueled overtourism, FOMO and trip envy. Influencers disrupt peaceful natural wonders. Viral posts cause long lines and traffic jams, and travel selfies have led to countless — and sometimes fatal — accidents. (Don’t get us started on AI travel influencers.)

3. The demise of customer service

Flight’s canceled? Wrong charge on your rental car bill? Good luck dialing zero: The age of the helpful human operator is over.

Talking to a human to solve your hotel, airline, cruise or vacation package problem has become Kafkaesque. Unless you’re traveling at the luxury level, the decline of front-desk workers and customer service centers in favor of artificial intelligence “solutions” is now ubiquitous — and often infuriating.

4. Cruises become floating theme parks

When the world’s largest cruise ship debuted in 2009, it visited some islands, but many people considered the behemoth Oasis of the Seas a destination of its own: The ship held 5,400 passengers at two to a room.

Megaships have gotten even bigger since — Icon of the Seas and Star of the Seas are now the world’s largest — and operators battle for onboard thrills. You can ride a roller coaster around the top of some Carnival Cruise Line ships, simulate skydiving on Royal Caribbean or navigate a go-kart on Norwegian. And yes, there are still pools and buffets if you’re old-school like that.

5. The ‘bucket list’ gives us a new framework

In the 2007 film “The Bucket List,” two men diagnosed with terminal cancer set off for an around-the-world trip to have as many adventures as possible before they “kick the bucket”: Visit the Taj Mahal. Go skydiving. Eat fine food in France. View wildlife on an African safari.

Before long, travelers and marketers turned “bucket list” into an adjective, applying the term to destinations, festivals and natural phenomena. Travel became a checklist item in a new way — for better or for worse. (See: No. 6)

6. Overtourism clogs Europe’s icons

Europe has long had a popularity problem, but it has accelerated over the past 25 years. Blame it on social media or blame it on Hollywood, but these days, “everybody goes to the same places at peak times,” said guidebook author and tour company owner Rick Steves, “and it’s just insanity.” Travelers flock to Amalfi to get the same aesthetic beach-umbrella photos; they clog the streets of Santorini at sunset; they’re using up all the water in Sicily. Overtourism has become so untenable in European hot spots that authorities are now charging entrance fees for the Trevi Fountain and banning Airbnbs in Barcelona.

7. You can pay to skip the line

Hate waiting in line? Join the club. Have extra money to burn? Skip right on past the club through airport security and onto your plane, or through the throngs and onto your favorite theme-park ride.

TSA PreCheck, Global Entry and Clear reduce airport waits for qualifying travelers willing to pay more. Some airlines offer priority boarding for a fee. At Disney parks, visitors who shell out extra cash can use “Lightning Lanes” to bypass lines.

The budget-minded among us can only wave and wait.

8. 9/11 creates the security state

Tragedy struck in 2001, and the airport experience has never been the same. The creation of the Transportation Security Administration and heightened security checkpoints — body scanners, X-ray machines, pat-downs, bomb-sniffing dogs — marked the end of regular-size liquids, foot modesty and emotional send-offs at gates.

9. Your house is my hotel

Somewhere between the 2008 launch of AirBed & Breakfast and the global proliferation of Airbnb, short-term rentals transformed from a frugal traveler’s way to meet locals to rule-happy hosts’ way to get their linens washed before housekeeping arrives.

Like ride-hailing for car owners, short-term rentals gave anyone who owned property the ability to enter the hospitality business, creating new revenue streams — and new headaches for destinations with overtourism concerns and housing crises. Today, Airbnb’s market value is just a few billion shy of Marriott.

However, some bohemian networks (Couchsurfing, TrustedHousesitters, Reddit groups for apartment swaps) keep the dream of bed-bartering alive.

10. Anthony Bourdain becomes the world’s travel host

In 1999, a brasserie chef gets published in the New Yorker, and all of his dreams come true. That article turns into a book. That book turns into another book, and then multiple TV series. “Bourdain” becomes bigger than life.

No television host before or since has connected with audiences the same way. Tall, devious and handsome, Bourdain disarmed viewers with swagger and snark, then endeared himself to them with earnestness and humanity. He lauded haute cuisine and holes-in-the-wall with equal reverence. Behind the gross-out jokes and knife-sharp takes, there was a champion of the working stiff, a keen observer of history, a self-conscious artist with a deep love for writing and filmmaking.

He was a caricature in cowboy boots, a never-ending stomach, the collective id for everyone who dreams of going everywhere. He made us feel like we knew him. We didn’t.

11. Airlines abandon the middle class

Carriers once welcomed regular Joes and Janes with reasonable fares that included a seat roomy enough for their limbs. Carry-on bags, seat selection, and food and beverage service were on the house.

Then ultra-low-cost airlines — looking at you, Spirit and Frontier — upended the social order with a la carte pricing for nearly every amenity and transaction. The major carriers, meanwhile, adopted the unbundling model, turning the cabin into a real-life version of “Downton Abbey.”

12. Covid takes the workcation mainstream

The coronavirus pandemic sent many of us home. When we got tired of our own walls, we realized we could work from anywhere. It turned out that we liked the change of scenery.

Enter Zooms from the beach house, workdays wrapped up in time for sunset walks and notes typed up from a sidewalk cafe. Some of us were brazen enough to take a “quiet vacation.”

Return-to-office mandates might be on the rise, but workcation habits will probably stick around, creating a new perk (or pain) for employers.

13. Points people gamify rewards

Gone are the days of mileage runs to nowhere and cashing in rewards for flights. Today’s Jedi masters of points and miles open new credit cards (those signing bonuses!) and charge all of their restaurant meals, groceries, travel reservations and dog grooming appointments on high-yield cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Capital One Venture X.

You can find these winners gloating in the airport lounge or in their premium seats at a World Cup match.

14. Anybody can explore Antarctica

Antarctic explorers don’t need Endurance — just several thousand dollars, seasickness patches and a bathing suit for the polar plunge aboard an expedition cruise from Argentina.

15. The rise of the layover trip

Once considered dreaded pit stops, layovers have emerged as destinations unto themselves. Airlines such as Icelandair, Turkish Airlines and Qatar Airways now pitch their hubs as a side trip or bonus adventure.

For the same ticket price, travelers can sample the local cuisine, soak up some culture and sleep horizontally before returning to the airport and resuming their regularly scheduled vacation.

16. In-flight Wi-Fi ends the age of unplugging

The airplane used to be one of our last sanctuaries from the connected world. A flight — or a cruise or a hike or a trip aboard — once offered a break from texts, emails and conference calls. But thanks to advancements in technology, the untethered era is over.

Today, multiple airlines offer “fast, free” in-flight Wi-Fi, and satellite internet makes it possible to work everywhere, whether on a yacht or in a yurt.

17. Hotel brands multiply like rabbits

We knew what we were getting into with a Courtyard by Marriott, a Hilton Garden Inn or a Motel 6. But then came the hotel brand explosion: Your destination might offer an Aloft, a Spark, a Motto or a Moxy.

You might wonder, Aren’t those just nouns? No, they’re part of hotel companies’ ever-growing ambition to get more heads into their beds.

18. Airlines tell passengers: BYO screen

Once upon a time, airlines put on a movie for the whole plane to watch from dangling monitors or, on a long-haul flight, a big, boxy TV screen. The in-flight entertainment situation got more glamorous when airlines began installing screens in seat backs in the late ’80s.

It was a luxurious shift, one that led to the discovery of a new societal phenomenon: the absolute pleasure of watching someone else’s airplane movie. But in the past decade, we’ve started seeing those screens disappear. Airlines claim they’re following passenger behavior: If we’re more likely to watch reruns of “Lost” on our personal devices than engage with seat-back screens, why keep investing in them?

19. Boeing tests our faith in air travel

Back-to-back crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets in 2018 and 2019 killed 346 people, shaking travelers’ confidence in the company while triggering the temporary grounding of the jet and years of scrutiny. Investigators pointed to flaws in a flight-control software system.

In 2024, a door panel missing key bolts broke off from a Max jet midflight, leading to new questions about the plane manufacturer’s safety culture. The company agreed to plead guilty to fraud later that year in a criminal case connected to the crashes, but instead reached a nonprosecution agreement with the Justice Department last year.

20. Athleisure takes over

The hordes of people flying, cruising and sightseeing in yoga pants, moisture-wicking tops, sweatpants and tracksuits are not part of a fitness flash mob. They’re today’s comfy travelers.

As millennials became the generation of leggings, the world followed suit. Some see this as a decline in civility, but travelers aren’t sweating it.

21. Southwest sells out

Southwest Airlines was always proud of standing out.

It didn’t do boarding like other carriers, didn’t slice up its cabins to charge more for the fancy front. It kept offering two (two!) free checked bags long after its competitors were raking in the cash for luggage.

But under pressure from investors, Southwest announced that it would shed its quirks and start acting like every other airline. Farewell, seating scrum. We miss you, free bags.

22. YouTube replaces travel TV

Turn on the Travel Channel, and you’re more likely to catch an episode of “Ghost Adventures” than your typical hosted travelogue. That sort of content has been democratized by social media.

Now, when travelers need information and inspiration for an upcoming trip, they’re turning to DIY creators on YouTube and TikTok. It’s where they’ll find (sometimes) realistic reviews alongside expert insights from the pros, no monthly subscription fee necessary.

23. Tripadvisor trumps guidebooks

Since Tripadvisor launched in February 2000, it has racked up more than a billion reviews, travel tips, photos, comments and forum threads, making it one of the most abundant travel resources on the internet. (One of its most reviewed destinations? Pastéis de Belém in Lisbon, famous for its egg tarts.)

The website and tour marketplace has been criticized for driving travelers to tourist traps, but it has also provided essential information to travelers since its founding. It’s one of the many crowdsourced platforms — like Yelp, Google Maps and Reddit — that have turned guidebooks from must-have resources to old-fashioned extras.

24. More accessibility for people with disabilities

Innovations such as lightweight power chairs, adaptive adventure gear, sensory rooms and navigational devices have cracked open the world for travelers with disabilities.

Travel is slowly becoming more inclusive as destinations, hotels, the transportation industry, parks and attractions invest in accessible features for their tours, trails and guest rooms.

25. Climate change

Where some see an existential threat, the travel industry sees an opportunity. Tourists are traveling to see “dying glaciers.” In Venice, Steves, the guidebook author, recently went on a walking tour with the theme “indicators of climate change.”

“This is something that really is taking its toll on Europe and impacting the way people travel,” Steves said.

Every year, Steves’s tour company takes tens of thousands of travelers to Europe, and every year, he notices that extreme weather is increasing. Now, as his company plans guided trips, it must factor in the potential for wildfires in Greece, heat waves in London and sudden storms in Germany.