Only 4% of Americans owned a passport in 1990

[Cloutius Maximus]

social media changed the game

 

[Phantum]

Cheap flights wasn't a thing like that back then. Like others said you had to go to a travel agent, maybe someone older can explain what went on in there because I was just in there looking at pictures while my mom handled it. They even let minors travel by themselves internationally I remember get sent out for the summer to see my dad, it was wild.

 

[old pig]

I was 10 or so, and was in Panama during that whole Noriega shyt. It was not good to be an American at that time

ya that makes sense

 

[GoAggieGo.]

Wasn’t really no need.

Ive had a passport since I was 8 or 9, but my parents have never had one, and I don’t see them getting one. We’ve all been to Canada, and used to regularly go to the Bahamas. All you needed was a birth certificate or some form of Id.

US is so big, many feel they had what they needed here. Hell, in NC, you could be in the mountains and then hit up the beach within a few hours.

 

[The_Sheff]

So why is it people in poor countries like Jamaica were traveling more than Americans

If you live in Jamaica, you have to leave Jamaica to have a change of scenery. You pretty much need to leave Jamaica to experience anything remotely different climate, scenery, culturally.. People dont want to spend their entire life on an island seeing the same shyt every day.

An American can get in their car and go to snowy mountains for skiing, they can go to sub-tropical environments for beaches, they can go to frozen lakes to fish, they can go to the desert, they can go to giant woodland forests, they can go to open plains. Damn near anything you want to experience scenery wise you can experience in America using a car. The American southwest is completely different from the Northeast, midwest, northwest, south, etc...

Also remember an American DID NOT NEED A PASSPORT to visit Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, Bahamas, etc...until 2009!

I went to the Bahamas when i was 16 and we didnt need a passport. So not having a passport is not evidence that Americans didnt travel.

 

[Ezekiel 25:17]

The majority of Chinese people in 2021 dont own a passport. Yall gotta stop thinking that the world is Europe. Some people travel and thats cool, others don’t (for whatever reason) and thats cool too. I’ve been to other countries and met locals that have never left their city. Just the coli tries to turn this into an elitist thing.

Most people that brag about traveling don't even do anything. They stay on the resort and trick on the local hoes. Don't speak the language, learn the culture, learn the history, etc.

What these folks fail to realize is, you just a sucka gringo to the locals, and they always scheming on yo 'rich' ass

 

[HarlemHottie]

Just the coli tries to turn this into an elitist thing.

No, he's framing it as a pro globalist thing.

' Americans are such uncultured yokels that they dont even have passports. Pass the hummus.'

 

[MajesticLion]

Let the infected have their myopia.

 

[JadeB]

Both of y’all missing the point here. I was in London at 3. Yes people traveled. Yes the world traveled. Americans obviously didn’t travel too far cause only 4% had passports.

When I said the internet, that’s because of ALL of it. Long before social media, people had Expedia and Travelocity and all that. Before Facebook, you had airlines with all prices listed on every flight in the world, on a website. Do you know how fukking hard it was to find that info in 1990? Either you called every airline personally or hired an agent. Wasn’t no $39 flight to Miami. Wasn’t a $39 flight anywhere. You know how we can search for hotels in a 50mile radius and see inside and they all have to compete with each other right in your living room? Yea. 90s didn’t have that.

Not only the cheap Spirit flights, and $100 Airbnb’s, but the visuals. You can see Brazil, France, Italy. You don’t need a brochure. You don’t need a friend who been to tell you. I can go on YouTube and search any and every part of at city in the world. Get tips how to do it and where to stay. Book it myself. And even hit Groupon for a discount.


Nah everything I said was facts.

As much as I say I wish I around for the 70s to 90s, I'm so grateful to be in this generation where it's easier to not only travel but to discover the places you want to go and plan it out before I even leave my doorstep.

 

[MECCA1000]

There was so much to do in the US in the 90's that going out of the country wasn't on people radar

 

[filial_piety]

Don’t know if it was mentioned or not...but I think it was around 2007 or so is when Canada required you to have a passport to get in...I remember going a few times in 2004 and 2005 and never needing one....it might’ve been true for Mexico too

 

[Spence]

Yeah I vividly remember traveling to Mexico and Canada as a minor with no documentation needed back in the 90’s

 

[DonDadda]

A passport is bougie now, only on the coli

 

[Luck]

We had and still have fun locally

The majority of that 4% probably have family overseas…outside of that as people here have stated, the logistics for the average person / family didn’t make much sense vs going to places you knew or heard of by word of mouth. Usually most travel, before the instathot culture, was to either visit family and/or party and there’s more than enough destinations here to do all of that then some…

I have a passport because of that real ID bs but personally, I just like chilling on the beach smoking, getting fukked up and kicking it on some simple shyt. I don’t give a fukk about meeting foreign people, other cultures, foreign food, sights or none of that shyt enough to hop on a long ass plane ride like that but I’ll do it here and there. Just don’t see the appeal to be doing it on any type of regular basis…

 

[CashmereThoughts]

foreign people, other cultures, foreign food, sights or none of that shyt enough to hop on a long ass plane ride like that but I’ll do it here and there. Just don’t see the appeal to be doing it on any type of regular basis…

food supply (meat, fruit, vegetables) in the US is the worse and you notice it was soon as you leave this countries sphere of influence. It’s drastic. Africa is so beautiful and Europe is cool as hell. Personally I feel like we have access to the world and we should check it out.

I won’t try to convince you to have more international experiences what I will say is if I had to be confined to this country indefinitely I would be miserable