106 innovations that made travel easy

Technological changes have deep impact on many aspects of our lives, including the way we travel. Some technological innovations take a lot of time for massive adoption. Because of that the recent developments that we see today may look less significant than they actually are.

But, when we look back into history we see that our predecessors did amazing job in making travel a lot easier and convenient today. It also sheds light on the greatness of some innovations that may seem to be only a small step forward, but without which travel would be impossible. In fact today we are witnesses and users of radical innovation.

What is radical innovation?

Radical innovations are developing revolutionary new technologies, markets, and business models that change the world, according to Maru/Matchbox. To define radical innovation even better, you can contrast it with incremental innovation which tries to improve existing systems and products, to make them better, cheaper or faster, according to Maru/Matchbox. The key difference among both types of innovation is the focus. The former is focused on something new, the latter on improvement of existing systems.

Radical innovation examples

In this article, we’ll provide you a chronology and 106 examples of radical innovations. While you read the list you can also get yourself reminded how much and how long it took us to get where we are now:

Year	Innovation
1414	Passport
1640	Taxicab
1643	Barometer
1683	Museum
1714	Thermometer
1772	Travelers’ check
1800	Battery
1804	Lifebelt
1818	Ocean liner
1820	Quinine
1820	Bus
1825	Railway
1832	National park
1837	Sleeping car
1837	Indoor swimming pool
1839	Bicycle
1844	Telegraph
1847	National weather service
1850	Ski technology
1854	Elevator
1854	Luggage
1864	Travel insurance
1865	Medical emergency service
1869	Suez Canal
1873	Electric street light
1875	Automobile
1877	Telephone
c. 1880	Restaurant car
1893	Glass fiber
1885	Gasoline filling station
1895	Discount coupon
1896	Escalator
1900	Zeppelin
1900	Michelin guide
c. 1900	Gliding
1902	Air Conditioning
1907	Caravan
1914	Passenger aircraft
1916	Snowmobile
1916	Instant food
1919	Air traffic association
1922	Highway
1929	Sunglasses
1930	Air hostess
1936	Paid holiday
1936	Shopping cart
1938	Credit card
c. 1940	Air bed
1944	Sunscreen
?	Bivouac
1946	Computer reservation system
1947	Microwave
c.1950	Electric sauna stove
1950	Minibus
1950	Snow canon
c.1950	Immunization program
?	Travel voltage converter/adapter
1951	Backpack
1952	Kettle grill
1954	Solar cells
1956	Shopping mall
1958	Carbon fiber
1959	Automatic teller machine (ATM)
1960	Automatic door
c.1960	Family dome tent
c.1960	Dry ski slope
c.1960	Recreational drug
1963	Instamatic pocket camera
1963	Inflatable life raft
1965	Snowboarding
1966	Bar code
1967	Pool-cleaning robot
1968	Computer tablet
c. 1970	Scents technology
c. 1970	Space tourism
1972	Loyalty program
1972	Lonely planet
1973	RFID
1974	Sous-vide (under vacuum)
1974	Mini-bar
1976	Gore-Tex
1978	Airline deregulation
1978	Hotel Key Card
1983	Camcorder
1983	Mobile phone
1983	Selfie stick
1987	Rolling luggage
1989	Robotic lawn mover
1989	World Wide Web
1990	Consumer protection
1993	Online maps
1994	E-ticketing
1994	QR code
1995	Schengen Agreement
1997	Social media
1997	Blogging
1998	Viagra
1999	Common currency – euro
1999	Augmented reality
2000	GPS
2003	Genetically modified golf turf
2006	Micro blogging
2007	Body scanning
2008	Artificial weather
2008	AirBnb
2012	Avatar – embodied agent
2019	5G

Closing thoughts

If you are a fan of modern adventures, family travel, or just want to have a relaxation and rest at some remote destination, could you imagine how hard it would have been for you to realize your desire without the travel inventions above.

That’s why the examples above represent true disruptive innovation examples. Let’s see if the inventions of the 21st century will also bring such positive drastic changes into our lives.

For additional up to date insight into the travel-tech world you can read the top 5 travel and tourism trends in 2020 article or you can go to the travel facts article to find out interesting and curious facts.

References

Hjalager, A., (2016). Innovations That Transformed Tourism. [online]. Semantic Scholar. [Viewed 27 September 2020]. Available from: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Innovations-That-Transformed-Tourism-Hjalager/0c719df0abeb94a0e737172134ec21fe74bf597e

Dorsi, S., (2020).  Things That Have Emerged in Tourism Over The Last 10 Years. [online]. Tourism Review News. [Viewed 27 September 2020]. Available from: https://www.tourism-review.com/inventions-that-emerged-in-tourism-news11338

Stimac, V., (2020). A Definitive History of Space Tourism & Human Spaceflight. [online]. Space Tourism Guide. [Viewed 27 September 2020]. Available from: https://spacetourismguide.com/history-of-space-tourism/

Venema, V., (2015). How the selfie stick was invented twice. [online]. BBC. [Viewed 27 September 2020]. Available from: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32336808

Youn, S., (2020). Discover 7 brilliant inventions that changed travel forever. [online]. National Geographic Society. [Viewed 27 September 2020]. Available from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/lists/7-brilliant-inventions-that-changed-travel/

Wikipedia., (2020). 5G. [online]. Wikipedia. [Viewed 27 September 2020]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5G

Vidal, B., (2019). The New Technology and Travel Revolution. [online]. We Are Marketing. [Viewed 27 September 2020]. Available from: https://www.wearemarketing.com/blog/tourism-and-technology-how-tech-is-revolutionizing-travel.html

American Oil and Gas Society., First Gas Pump and Service Station. [online]. American Oil and Gas Society. [Viewed 23 October 2020]. Available from: https://www.aoghs.org/transportation/first-gas-pump-and-service-stations/#:~:text=S.F.,station%20opened%20in%20Pittsburgh%2C%20Pennsylvania.