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1970 - Introduction of the Boeing 747 'jumbo jet'.
The Boeing 747 is a commercial widebody aircraft that is commonly referred to as the "Jumbo Jet". It is one of the most memorable planes in the world and the first widebody ever made. The original 747 was 2.5 times larger than the Boeing 707, a popular commercial aircraft of the 1960s. With its first commercial flight in 1970, the 747 set a record for passenger capacity that it held for 37 years. It has effected the travel industry because more people are able to travel due to the larger plane. -
1970 Car Ownership in the UK reached 11 million
Seventy-five percent of passengers travelled in private cars in 1970. Approximately 13.5 million individuals held licences to drive in Britain in 1970. In 1972, 1,971,311 vehicles were manufactured in Britain. Nearly every home owner had one or more cars by the start of 1970. Around 7,000–8,000 people died on the roads in 1971. The popularity of vehicles stems from the fact that many people use them for inbound travel. -
Concorde Came into Service.
The Concorde marked the commencement of scheduled supersonic passenger travel globally. On September 26, 1973, the Concorde made its first transatlantic voyage. One advantage of the Concorde was that it shortened the flight duration, allowing passengers to reach their destinations more quickly. Nevertheless, the Concorde aircraft was too expensive and loud to continue operating, consequently it was withdrawn. -
Ryanair was introduced
The first Ryanair flight took place on July 8, 1985, with a 15-seater aircraft. Every day, the aircraft would depart from London Gatwick and travel to Waterford, in Southeast Ireland. The company was known as Danren Enterprises prior to being renamed Ryanair in 1984. Having developed and expanded over the years to become one of the most popular airlines with 169 million passengers in 2022 and 2023, Ryanair has had a significant impact on the travel industry. -
The number of package holidays topped 10 million.
In 1986, there were more people travelling the world and technology was developing. Because travel is so costly, many people found it difficult to travel. But in the 1980s, package holidays became more popular, making travel more accessible. Promoting package holidays was a popular service provided by Thomson & Horizon. This has had a significant impact on the travel industry because more people can now afford holiday packages, which means that the number of flights will increase substantially. -
Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet.
The World Wide Web is generally credited to computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee. Following his graduation from Oxford University in 1976, Berners-Lee worked for Plessey Telecommunications Ltd. for two years as a software creator. People can now book holidays both online and at a travel agency, which has an impact on the travel industry. -
EasyJet Launched
EasyJet was established and introduced in the UK in 1994. The first aircraft operated by EasyJet was a Boeing 737-200, which had 130 seats. Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou founded easyJet to provide cheap flights throughout Europe. This has had an effect on the travel industry because it is now a large company that many people use on a daily basis, enabling more people to travel inbound, outbound and domestically. -
Channel Tunnel Opened.
One of the UK's largest engineering projects was the construction of the Channel Tunnel. The world's longest underwater tunnel is this one. Over 4.5 million visitors from the UK travel through the Channel Tunnel annually. Because people could now drive outward and workers could ship goods like food and clothing instead of taking planes, this had an effect on the travel and tourism sector. -
Holiday Destinations.
The top destinations on the list haven't changed much between 1996 and 2016, people still like travelling to France and Spain for holidays. However, France is one of the few destinations we are visiting less frequently than we did in 1998, even though the number of holidays to Spain has increased 87% in the last 20 years. One possible explanation for this could be due to budget airlines. -
9/11
The terrible events that transpired in New York City on September 11, 2001, had a lasting impact on the city's tourism sector. Following the incident, the number of visitors dropped, from 6.8 million in 2000 to 5.7 million in 2001. The majority of the 2001 shortcoming occurred right after 9/11. The city has prospered ever since, although it took nearly five years to return to pre-9/11 levels. In 2018, there were 13.5 million international visitors. -
Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami.
Tragic events occurred in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004, when an underwater earthquake produced a sequence of enormous tsunami waves that reached a height of 30 metres. The disaster, which was estimated to have cost $508 million, affected 14 countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, and India. It also caused extensive destruction. The tsunami caught many tourists off guard, forcing many more to postpone their travel plans. -
Global Recession.
2008 saw a global financial crisis, which resulted in numerous market downturns and tight budgets for tourists. In the immediate wake of the recession, staycations in the UK rose by 17% while outbound travel fell. Not until 2014, a year that saw a 1.3% decline in staycations and a 4% increase in foreign travel, did UK visits abroad start to rise once more. -
Icelandic Ash Cloud
2010 saw a string of volcanic eruptions in Iceland, which produced an ash cloud that severely disrupted European air travel. A large portion of the air around Europe was close due to concerns that the ash would harm airplane engines if they attempted to fly through it. The biggest air traffic shutdown since World War II was brought on by the ash cloud. Following the incident, data revealed that 107,000 flights were cancelled over the course of eight days, affecting almost ten million passengers. -
Arab Spring
Egypt's 2011 Arab Spring political upheavals negatively impacted the number of British tourists visiting the country. From a peak of 186,000 in 1996, the number of visitors from the UK dropped to 47,000 in 2018. In total, international visitors to the country decreased from 9 million in 2011 to 5.4 million in 2016. -
Brexit
The full impact of Brexit remained largely unknown as the decade came to an end. Following the UK's decision to exit the European Union, the country saw a 5.3% decline in international visitors in 2018. How Brexit will actually impact the travel sector, domestically, inbound and outbound, is still up in the air. -
COVID-19
Businesses that operate in tourism have been severely impacted by the disastrous effects of COVID-19 on the economy. During the 24 months of the pandemic, the tourism sector effectively lost 12 months of revenue from sales. Over £1 billion in tourism spending is predicted to have been lost by the sector. The number of air passengers arriving in the UK every month decreased by 98.3%, from 6,804,900 in February 2020 to 112,300 in April 2020. -
Bibliography
https://www.britannica.com/technology/Concorde
https://www.boeing-747.com/
The Economist Newspaper "Tourism will rebound after the pandemic"
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/leisureandtourism/articles/holidaysinthe1990sandnow/2017-08-07 https://gwent.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/SchoolofServicestoPeopleCrosskeys/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc=%7B3B6BB36B-BE3D-4FCA-B0FB-70E482CA88B2%7D&file=Unit%201%20-%20Task%203%20%20Part%201%20handout.docx&action=default&mobileredirect=true