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25 ways travel in Asia has changed in 25 years – the pros and cons of progress

A quarter of a century ago we were visiting the travel agent, cashing in our travellers’ cheques and waiting to see our holiday photos

Today, food has improved across the board, there’s a festival to suit any taste and, courtesy of Kindle, reading matter is lightweight and endless

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A plane over Kowloon en route to Kai Tak Airport. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 7:45am, 9 Dec 2019Updated: 11:38am, 30 Dec 2019

Hong Kong, 1994: the governor’s two Norfolk Terriers, Whisky and Soda, gambol about the verdant grounds of Government House while the Union flag flutters above. Across Victoria Harbour, a sprinkling of aviation geeks cluster in the top-floor bar of the Regal Hotel to watch aircraft swoop in on their final approaches to Kai Tak Airport.

Twenty-five years later, gone are the days of strolling across the footbridge from Kai Tak into Kowloon City for a pre- or post-flight pint. Now we are booking our tickets online, using translation apps instead of dictionaries, and TripAdvising our stories about mildewed rooms, soiled sheets and cockroach counts. But with all this digital help – what any traveller a quarter of a century ago would have considered cheating – has travel actually become any better?

Well, yeah, obviously, and here are 25 reasons that the past 25 years have proved it. You want to go back to wheelless luggage and travellers’ cheques? Go right ahead, sunshine.

And then everyone did fly

In the beginning was the word, or rather two words run together. AirAsia was formed in 1993 and took to the skies in November 1996, then puttered along for five years until Tony Fernandes bought it (one ringgit + US$11 million in debt). Today the pathfinder for Asia’s low-cost carriers (LCC) flies to more than 150 destinations and is trailed by a host of whimsically named copycats – 9, Colourful, Lion, Lucky, Peach, Scoot, Spring, Vanilla.

LCCs now account for almost a third of the region’s plane seats: a Hong Kong to Bangkok return works out at less than 50 HK cents per kilometre – more Star Ferry than Cathay Pacific.

Airport upgrades

Before Suvarnabhumi opened in 2006, passengers taking off or landing at Don Mueang, then Thailand’s main international hub, were usually greeted by the refreshing sight of a golfer or two playing on the course beside the runway. Suvarnabhumi may be bigger and tech-ier (and like so many other airports, encumbered with ever yet more security checks) but it has none of its predecessor’s endearing curiosities.

It could be argued that Chek Lap Kok lacks the intimacy of Kai Tak and Kuala Lumpur’s sprawling, anonymous Sepang is duller than cosy, accessible Subang. However, Beijing’s brand-new Daxing “Starfish”, the world’s largest single-building airport terminal, can only be classed as a vast, Zaha Hadid-designed improvement.