Throwback Thursday: Teletextholidays.co.uk Celebrates 25th Anniversary With Retro Rollback

Handwritten postcards, instant Polaroid snaps and cashing in Traveller's cheques ranked amongst the top retro holiday essentials that British holidaymakers miss, a survey commissioned by teletextholidays.co.uk to celebrate its 25th anniversary has revealed.

Furthermore, almost a quarter of people surveyed (23%) said that they would like to see Teletext, the TV information service return. Thousands of nineties holidaymakers searched the colourful Teletext travel pages, searching for their perfect getaway and teletextholidays.co.uk have revived the format for 2017, rolling back its website to feature it's iconic, analogue nineties graphics for just 24 hours on Thursday 16 March.

teletextholidays.co.uk's research has also revealed that that today's holidaymakers increasingly call on modern technology to choose their destinations and plan their trips. 45% of holidaymakers now use online deals website like teletextholidays.co.uk and 10% even draw their inspiration from travel blogs. Surprisingly, however, the research has revealed that Brits hanker after a simpler and more 'low tech' time when it comes to enjoying their time away.

In an increasingly digital era, over a third (37%) of people surveyed said that they miss putting pen to paper and sending postcards to their friends and family back home; 1 in 5 (22%) said that are nostalgic for a Walkman and cassettes for entertainment on the beach and 18% say that they yearn for Instagram's predecessor, the Polaroid instant camera to capture their holiday memories.

And when it comes to packing; film roll (20%), disposable cameras (18%) maps (16%), travel irons (15%) and Traveller's cheques (15%) top the list of the items that you'd find in a nineties suitcase which inspire feelings of nostalgia with holidaymakers of 2017.

Top 10 90s holiday items that Brits feel nostalgic for:

• Walkman and CDs (22%)
• Film roll (20%)
• Disposable cameras (18%)
• A map (16%)
• Travel iron (15%)
• Traveller's cheques (15%)
• Keyrings / Fridge magnets as souvenirs (15%)
• Printed travel documents (13%)
• Books (13%)
• Jelly shoes (13%)

Wayne Perks, Managing Director, teletextholidays.co.uk comments: “Since its inception, millions of holiday makers have trusted Teletext Holidays to whisk them away to their dream holiday destination. Our anniversary is a great time to revisit our past and take stock of how far we've come, from the well-loved TV service, to the launch of our website in 1992 and our brand new app in 2016. We're enjoying celebrating our heritage and look forward to the next twenty-five years of innovation.”

The reproduction of the analogue Teletext graphics has been masterminded by the holiday site's in-house user experience design team, headed up by Ian Merry. Ian, who formerly worked on the graphics for the Teletext analogue service comments: “Using a modern graphics programme, we've worked hard to emulate the look and feel of the old Teletext pages. We've used simple text and geometric shapes along with a limited colour palette. Many nineties TVs had old chips from the seventies in them and the designs that we came up with had to accommodate this.”

The 'rolled back' website will be available online at teletextholiday.co.uk from Thursday 16 March for 24 hours only. The online deal website will also be celebrating its 25th anniversary with a social media competition, inviting customers to share their throwback nineties holiday snaps for the chance to win a holiday to Croatia. teletextholidays.co.uk will also be running a five month long competition giving one customer the chance to win the cost of their holiday back each month.

-ENDS-