World's Most Important Travel Innovations

Taking social networking on-the-go to new levels in 2009, the location-based site created by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai expanded the idea of status updates—it’s now a traveler’s instant and personalized Baedeker. You can check in to destinations and get real-time tips about shopping, exploring, and eating. Someone in your network will have the inside track: “Not on the menu, but ask for the tangerine smoothie.” —Aimee Lee Ball

Anyone sitting near a colicky baby on a flight just had to suck it up until 1972, when the Cabot Corporation’s Ross Gardner introduced this sleep-saving tool, which expands in the ear canal to block out noise. —Aimee Lee Ball

When a shoulder injury prevented her from using traditional Swedish massage strokes on her clients, Tucson-based therapist Mary Nelson created LaStone therapy in 1993. The technique, which uses hot and cold smooth river stones, has been widely adapted in spas, to the enduring gratitude of the tightly wound. —Aimee Lee Ball

The first boxed meal was created for Continental Airlines in 1978 by Harvey Alpert and his company, Oakfield Farms Solutions. It consisted of cheese, crackers, raisins, a chocolate bar, a napkin, and a knife, all shrink-wrapped in a wooden box—and it was free. —Aimee Lee Ball

Since 1972, Unesco has heightened public awareness of tourism’s role in preservation by naming destinations to this vaunted list. Almost a thousand places are on it, including Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Japan’s Hiroshima Peace Memorial, and the Old City of Dubrovnik, Croatia. —Aimee Lee Ball

A drug-free and reusable remedy for motion sickness, the Sea-Band was developed in 1983 by Daniel Choi, a surgeon and avid sailor, who turned to a traditional Chinese treatment from his youth. It’s said to cause a release of endorphins in the vomiting center of the brain (yes, there is such a thing). —Aimee Lee Ball

If you’ve ever waved a subway pass over a sensor or coasted through a tollbooth, you’ve used a radio-frequency identification device, patented in 1973 by engineer Mario W. Cardullo. Its manifold applications today include officials speeding you through passport control and—just maybe—the airlines not losing your luggage. —Aimee Lee Ball

Dismayed by the opening of a McDonald’s franchise in Rome, food journalist Carlo Petrini started a movement in 1986. By emphasizing the pleasures of regional produce and indigenous traditions, his organization helped kick off the current obsession with all things organic, artisanal, farm-to-table, locavore, and sustainable. —Aimee Lee Ball

Frequent-flier miles were introduced in 1979 by Frank Lorenzo, president of Texas International Airlines (subsequently merged into Continental). Rewarding customers for their allegiance soon extended to hotels, credit cards, even coffee shops. —Aimee Lee Ball

Paper maps (which, once unfurled, never, ever got refolded properly) have been largely replaced by the Global Positioning System, which uses satellites to track where you are on earth. Developed in 1978 for the U.S. Department of Defense, it can geo-tag a photo with a GPS camera or help a rental car locate a hole-in-the-wall restaurant. —Aimee Lee Ball

Surviving melanoma was Shaun Hughes’s catalyst to develop Solumbra clothing in 1992. The combination of fibers, weaving techniques, and dyeing methods results in fabrics that provide protection from ultraviolet rays. Equivalent to SPF 30, it doesn’t wash or wear off. —Aimee Lee Ball

Striking a blow against global warming in 1993, Patricia Griffin, president and founder of the “Green” Hotels Association, introduced cards that asked guests to consider using their linens or towels more than once. The first property to order the cards was a Best Western in Houston; now it’s rare not to find this gentle request wherever you stay. —Aimee Lee Ball

Airlines started issuing electronic tickets in the mid 1990’s, followed by online check-in and self-service kiosks. The paper version was “retired” by the International Air Transport Association in 2008, and the agony of a lost ticket became a relic of the past. —Aimee Lee Ball

The United Kingdom joined up with the rest of Europe in 1994 via the 31-mile underwater passage from Kent to Pas-de-Calais. With high-speed trains connecting to a network of overland lines, you can get from London to Paris nonstop in just over two hours. —Aimee Lee Ball

British Airways recognized the hegemony of the horizontal in 1996 with the really, truly, deeply lie-flat bed, setting off a heated competition among airlines about the angle of their seats in first and business classes. The next standard-bearers? Suites on carriers such as Emirates and Singapore. —Aimee Lee Ball

The wireless way to a high-speed Web connection was pioneered in 1996 by Dutch electrical engineer Vic Hayes and his team. Whether you’re charged a fee or enjoy the largesse of a public router, you can now get online in thousands of hotels and airports across the globe. —Aimee Lee Ball

This device, developed by electrical engineer Amar Gopal Bose, was a rescue remedy for airline passengers in 2000. It blocks engine noise, so you can really hear the music—or just the sound of silence. —Aimee Lee Ball

The IBM PC Convertible, introduced in 1986 at a still-hefty 13 pounds, was the first viable, affordable, portable computer, leading to many lightweight offspring. With the Sony Reader, created in 2006, followed by Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and iPad, both office and library became a movable feast. —Aimee Lee Ball

Because Niklas Zennström (a Swede) and Janus Friis (a Dane) created Skype in 2003, your computer can call another computer anywhere in the world for free—rendering geography unimportant and long-distance charges obsolete. —Aimee Lee Ball

Bartering your residence for someone else’s—temporarily—is just a click away, thanks to HomeExchange, launched in 1992. The upside: Live like a local, for free, in an exotic destination. The downside: a stranger is checking out your closets. —Aimee Lee Ball

Everyone’s a critic. With TripAdvisor, founded by Stephen Kaufer in 2000, a forum of anonymous rants and raves from fellow travelers lets you read real, unedited hotel and restaurant reviews and see candid photos. —Aimee Lee Ball

The first wrinkle-free cottons left a lot to be desired: They felt harsh and didn’t last long. But the 1990’s brought new chemically treated fabrics. Now you can emerge from a long-haul flight without looking like you slept in your clothes (even if you did). —Aimee Lee Ball

Stanley Selengut created Maho Bay on St. John, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1976 with rainwater catchments, garden beds built from concrete with crushed recycled glass, solar energy to power appliances, and all buildings connected by raised boardwalks to prevent vegetation from being trampled. —Aimee Lee Ball

Pilots used to rely solely on ground-based controllers to spot dangerously converging flight paths. But a system called NextGen, when fully implemented, will use satellite-based technology to send an image of aircraft placement in the sky simultaneously to both air-traffic controllers and cockpits. —Aimee Lee Ball

Norwegian Cruise Line introduced an alternative dining concept for the sea voyage in 2000: no set meal times, no assigned tables, and the option to decline chateaubriand in favor of a burger. —Aimee Lee Ball

Watching a movie on board elicits no neck strain with individual seatback screens—first introduced in the 1980’s, even for coach passengers. —Aimee Lee Ball

For protection in malarial zones, travelers often endured medications whose side effects ranged from stomach distress to bizarre nightmares. With the introduction of Malarone in 2000, travel to parts of Africa became easier. —Aimee Lee Ball

The official currency for 17 members of the European Union began filling wallets in 1999. French francs, German marks, Italian lira, and Spanish pesetas are now nostalgic—but worthless—souvenirs. —Aimee Lee Ball

Travel photography used to mean running out of film, waiting for Fotomat to develop your pictures, and finding out too late what shots you missed. In 1975, the world’s first prototype, from Eastman Kodak engineer Steve Sasson, offered the instant gratification of sharing photos when and where they were taken. —Aimee Lee Ball

United Airlines was the first carrier to offer separate smoking and nonsmoking sections in 1971, but it took 17 more years for the U.S. government to prohibit smoking on short domestic flights. Over protests from the tobacco lobby, Congress finally banned it on all flights to or from the United States in 2000. —Aimee Lee Ball

Mark Manguera, Caroline Shin, and Roy Choi began tweeting the location and menu of their Kogi BBQ Truck to hungry Angelenos in 2008, kicking off a trend: recession-friendly, mobile food dispensaries with a social-media-enabled following. Similar trucks can be found everywhere from Chicago (Flirty Cupcakes) to Seattle (Halláva Falafel). —Aimee Lee Ball

In 1999, Westin Hotels promised the best night’s sleep in the known universe with this cozy queen. It was the brainchild of Starwood CEO Barry Sternlicht, who dreamed up W Hotels, and the opening salvo in the “bed wars,” which upped the ante with sheets of vast thread counts and pillow menus. —Aimee Lee Ball

In 1978, using pressurized gas encapsulated in urethane, Ohio-based engineer Frank Rudy gave us a cushioned athletic shoe that could stand up to a walking tour of Europe. By 2000, Cole Haan had adapted the technology for a line of men’s oxfords and women’s pumps. —Aimee Lee Ball

The original Rosetta stone unlocked the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics. In 1992, Allen Stoltzfus and John Fairfield borrowed the name for a radical way of teaching foreign languages, dispensing with complicated grammar rules in favor of an interactive “immersion” technique. —Aimee Lee Ball

The device that Motorola’s team of engineers developed in 1973 was almost the size of a brick, but its many smaller and smarter successors have made it possible to stay in touch anywhere in the world (for better or worse). —Aimee Lee Ball

Even before its debut at Boston’s Logan Airport in 2010, the machine—developed by Rapiscan Systems to help TSA workers detect weapons without resorting to pat-downs—kicked off a roaring debate about the limits of sacrificing our privacy. Inevitably, it was followed by the invention of scan-resistant underwear. —Aimee Lee Ball

The FDA approved this portable device for a fast (and, if necessary, self-administered) dose of epinephrine in 1987, meaning that a severe allergic reaction to, say, peanuts or a bee sting was no longer a trip- or life-ending experience. —Aimee Lee Ball

A godsend to germaphobes, the hand sanitizer that kills 99.99 percent of the most common germs was introduced in 1988 by the Gojo company. The inspiration was founder Goldie Lippman’s work at a rubber factory during World War II, when she found it nearly impossible to remove the carbon black from her hands. —Aimee Lee Ball

The old-style Acoustiguide tours dictated a predetermined itinerary, but the digital version—which debuted at the Louvre, in Paris, in 1993—makes you the curator, so you can choose what interests you and move at your own pace. —Aimee Lee Ball