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The Schengen Area
The Schengen Area is created. The Schengen area consists of 26 countries that have eliminated their border controls. Through the use of the Schengen Visa, you can visit all of these countries without getting separate Visas. The Schengen Agreement of 1985 lead to this formation.
What is Schengen? -
Expedia
Expedia is launched. Originally created by Microsoft, Expedia is, as the website says, “your online travel agency”. They have sites for over 20 different countries. Through it, you can plan trips, make reservations, and order airline tickets.
About Expedia Note: The date is not accurate, only a year is given. -
The Luxor Massacre
The Luxor massacre occurs in Egypt. 62 people were killed. It occurred at Deir el-Bahri, a major tourist attraction. After this, there was a decline in tourists.
Luxor Survivors Say Killers Fired Methodically -
Working Towards a Smoking Ban
Smoking is in the process of being banned on all flights in and from the US. Previously, smoking had only been banned on shorter flights and domestic flights. Other countries had begun prohibited smoking as well.
Smokefree Flights -
FAA's Final Rule on Smoking
The FAA ammends their rule on smoking aboard aircrafts. Smoking is officially prohibited on all commercial aircrafts. However, only a few still had to prohibit it, on many aircrafts it was already banned.
Smoking Aboard Aircraft -
Air France Flight 4590
Air France Flight 4590 crashes. At the time, the Concorde airliners were considered the future, they were thought to be the safest airliners available. It is believed that the engines took in debris; another theory is that one engine caught on fire and it spread to the second. Regardless, it crashed as a result and 114 people were killed. The use of the Concorde was re-evaluated and they were later replaced.
Doomed -
September 11th
On September 11th, four passenger airliners were hijacked. Two were crashed into the World Trade Center, the towers later collapsed, the third was crashed into the Pentagon, and the fourth was overtaken by its passengers and never reached its target. Almost all airtravel was stopped. About 3,000 people were killed and over 6,000 were injured. Due to the large scale of these terrorist attacks, the United States government took many steps to increase security. -
The Aviation and Transportation Security Act
The president signs the Aviation and Transportation Security Act. This creates the TSA.
Aviation and Transportation Security Act -
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)
There is a worldwide outbreak of SARS. The virus is believed to have started in Southeast Asia; it was brought to the United States through travel. This virus resulted in the monitoring of traveler health. The SARS outbreak marked the first time the CDC began ranking their concerns about health risks and gave advisories as to whether or not travel to a country was or wasn’t safe.
Remebering SARS -
Kayak
Kayak is founded earlier in the year; the website is in Alpha testing. Kayak is considered a “travel metasearch engine”. Kayak allows for the comparison of other travel websites prices. It also provides trip management tools and shows trends for travel searches.
About Kayak -
7/7 London Bombings
Four suicide bombers detonate explosives in the London Underground. 700 people were injured, 52 were killed. After this, London made improvements to their communication system. Over the next few days tensions were high; the US had banned service personnel from traveling to London, although the ban was later lifted on July 13th.
US Lifts London travel ban on service personnel -
Full Body Scanners
Full body scanners are being tested and added to airports. The scanners are used in place of metal detectors and show an image of the traveler's naked body. Unlike metal detectors, these detected non metal objects as well. If you do not want to go through the scanner, you can get the alternative pat down. However, both of these sparked controversy that continued until the scanners were changed.
AIT -
The Great Recession
The Great Recession was formerly only national, but it soon began affecting the rest of the world. This continued well into the next few years. During this time hotels had low ocupancy, airlines were adding new fees, and travel in general was at a low.
Recession hitting online travel companies hard -
HIV Ban Ends
The HIV ban ends after 22 years. Now, people with HIV and AIDS can travel to the US.
The HIV ban
United States ends 22 year HIV travel ban -
National Finals Rodeo
The National Finals Rodeo has its roots many years before 2010, however this is a large thing for many people. About 200,000 people make their way to Las Vegas for this event.
The NFR Experience
Events Guide NFR -
Hurricane Irene
Hurricane Irene is on its way to the United States. Flights were canceled due to the impending threat of Irene. Amtrak was shut down and many air flights dropped their change fees for rescheduling.
Hurricane Irene Airlines -
Italy Cruise Went Ashore
An Italy cruise ship went ashore, 29 people were missing and six were killed. Some thought cruise bookings were going to drop as a result, although no one was sure if it would actually happen.
Will cruise ship crash affect travel bookings? -
United Glitch
United Airlines had an error on their website that allowed users to get free tickets. The error went unnoticed for several minutes before it was fixed. United is supposedly honoring the free tickets purchased within that time frame.
United Free Tickets -
Government Shutdown
he government shut down because they didn't renew funds by the start of the fiscal year, as a result all of the National Parks were closed. Other government run attractions were closed as well. The locations remained closed until the government shutdown was over.
Attention, travelers: Your plans have changed