Why has travel become such a trend of our generation?

To me travelling is an adventure. Day-to-day life can become very repetitive and travelling is a chance to discover new places, languages, accents, foods, and ways of life. It opens your eyes to what is beyond your neighborhood. It's a chance to see with your own eyes landmarks that you've only seen in photos or heard of. Travelling can also a means of unifying people. For example if you travel with friends the experience is likely to strengthen your friendship as you and your friends have lived through a unique experience together. I've also noticed that people who travel often connect better with others who have that "traveling bug" or continual desire to travel. There is like a common understanding between people that have experienced and taken part in cultures beyond their own.

People have always desired to travel.  It's just that travel has become  accessible to more people these days (due to cheaper airfares, plentiful  hotels, easier ability to stay in touch with work while traveling).

I think people aredrawn to travel for a number of reasons. I know people that travel to escapetheir life but most of the time they want to explore and experience more of theworld. I know we took our children to Egypt and Mexico. Both places we took them to see the places of history, to visit local families and a school. As they grew up they appreciated what they had. They took better care of the things they had. They helped with causes that helped animals, environment, and people. They appreciated their culture more and shared it with people who came to visit us from other countries. For us it was and is a live altering experience that has helped us, our children and the world in a small way. I do understand that there is concern about pollution from varying types of transportation involved in travel. But I hope that we continue to work toward better solutions and education to improve that.

I think you have to look at travel for business and leisure separately.  For business travel, I think globalization is a driving force since face time with customers/suppliers/colleagues is important and can't be fully replaced by tele-conferencing.  So its necessity driven and frequent business flyers probably wish for less traveling (as I did when I was doing a lot of traveling for work). For leisuire travel, I believe its marketing driven (by the travel industry), aided by affordability created by technology and people's natural desire to be exposed to new experiences. In summary, globalization of business and cheaper cost due to technology are what I believe to be drivers for the increased travel trend in our generation.