The way we were: How the great Australian Europe trek has changed

"If you look at the modern Australian traveller, a lot of us are into a little bit of activity when we travel, mountain-biking, hiking, mixing five-star accommodation with the contrast of local accommodation in rustic villages. We're now putting together trips under the banner of 'discovery', and that's where our largest growth is: immersive, soft-adventure travel."

Perhaps the biggest change to the way people journey now is the search for and the appreciation of "authenticity". Those vanloads of travellers pouring into the campsite in Munich back in the '80s and '90s were never particularly concerned with seeing the world through local eyes – they just wanted to have fun. Same with the larger European coach tours of the 2000s. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Now, however, priorities for travellers have shifted. They want to move through the world in the same way as the locals in their destination would. They want a slice of typical life. They don't so much want to see things as experience them.

"There's been quite a considerable change in the way people are travelling," says Greg Carter, the managing director of Latin American travel specialists Chimu Adventures. "When you see mainstream operators starting to offer different forms of transport, more locally orientated sustainable type experiences, it says a lot. The momentum is really shifting."

That can be seen, Greg says, across a range of destinations. "People are looking for more of an experiential type trip. Like in Cuba, travellers are doing homestays instead of staying in hotels, they're doing cooking classes, eating meals in local homes. That type of thing is huge. You get a lot more clients asking for that."

The old overland tour buses that only 10 years ago were so popular in South America, Greg says, are now rusting away in yards somewhere. That's not the way travellers want to see the world.

"Escorted tours are still popular," he says, "they're still growing. But it's the way they're done that's changing. In South America there's been a decline in the overland tours. A lot of people are shifting to public transport, or to that small-group set-up."

Indeed, there's been no let-up in the demand for escorted tours – Intrepid Travel's total sales are up 19 per cent on last year alone. The difference in the last decade has been in the way they're conducted. It's not large groups being dragged around the standard guidebook sights any more, but rather small parties of travellers who choose to narrow their focus, who follow their own passions rather than sign up for the regular itinerary.

"People are combining their hobbies and their personal interests with their travel plans," says James Thornton. "We've seen at Intrepid, people want to cycle, or they're interested in food – it's not so much the level of travel, three-star or four-star, that people are interested in, but more combining your passion or your hobby with your experiences on the ground."

And one of those passions that has developed over the last 10 years is for grand adventures, for the sort of trips that might once have seemed a little too difficult or time-consuming. Bucket lists these days don't just include single sights such as Uluru or the Great Pyramid, but rather entire journeys, the likes of the Camino de Santiago in Spain, or the Kumano Kodo hike in Japan, or even train trips such as the Trans-Mongolian.

This is all part of the trend towards experiential travel, towards immersing yourself in a culture rather than simply drifting through it. The Camino de Santiago is a pilgrimage across Spain that's done on foot, a journey that takes travellers several weeks or months to complete. In 2006, just over 100,000 people walked the Camino. Last year that number had almost tripled, to some 280,000. It's a similar story on the Kumano Kodo, a pilgrimage through Japan's Kii Peninsula, as word gets out about this amazing experience.

"I think people are increasingly becoming better educated, through the internet and social media," says Intrepid's Thornton, "so they're now looking for more tailored and unique experiences. These days it's not so much about having the biggest house or the best car, but having the best experience that you can then share with friends and family at home."

That increase in knowledge has led to a similar increase in demand from travellers for bespoke tour options, with companies such as Wendy Wu Tours now providing customised itineraries to formerly untouched parts of China and south-east Asia. There's also plenty of interest in independent travel, of taking risks and getting out to the see the world on your own. Those clapped-out old vans are still making their way around Western Europe, but travellers are increasingly keen to see the US, southern Africa, and even South America in a similarly independent style.

Of course, there will always be a market for escorted tours and small-group cruises, particularly as they morph to reflect the changing desires of the modern traveller.

"It's just easy," says Andrew Mulholland from Wendy Wu Tours. "For people who've spent their whole lives working, this is a retirement treat. Or this is your one holiday of the year and you want the hassle taken out of it. And travellers rely on operators like us to keep it exciting. The touring we were doing five years ago is no longer relevant, it's evolved. We're always looking for new types of experiences."