LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- Nothing says `` Wish you were here '' quite as well as the good old postcard . Is the electronic age throwing sand in the face of the traditional postcard ? Tell CNN Business Traveller what you think in the Sound Off box below . Once a quintessential element in the travel experience , crafting a 10-line missive for the folks back home ( saucy for the colleagues at work , respectful to the relatives ) was as much a part of your two-week break as sunburn and sandals . However , thanks to the online revolution many of us are choosing to document our travels via the Internet . The growth of travel blogs and social networking sites like Facebook has led to a profusion of blogs packed with photos , video clips and every conceivable detail of our travels . The host Web site TravelBlog , for example , has over 80,000 members with 100 more joining each day . Meanwhile , the independent travel company STA Travel 's travel blog has expanded to 60,000 blog entries in just three years . Celia Pronto , STA Travel 's marketing director , says the appeal of blogs among travelers is due not only to their convenience but also because they allow the readers to join in the conversation . `` You can create this social environment with a blog that was n't possible before , '' Pronto says . `` Friends and family can not only read diary entries but they can respond , and so become part of the story . `` It also allows travelers to reach a much wider audience than the simple postcard . It 's a nice way to keep in touch . '' So where does this online explosion leave the humble postcard ? Well , the situation is not as dire as you might think . According to the Royal Mail , which runs Britain 's postal service , many of us still retain a fond attachment to tradition , with postcards more popular today than they were five years ago . The service says it is processing around 135 million postcards every year , an increase of 30 million over just three years . This is good news for postcard aficionado Drene Brennan . The 80-year-old is the founder member of the Postcard Club of Great Britain , amassing a collection of 95,000 over 50 years before she sold most of it off a few years ago . She says the wonders of e-technology are no replacement for the simple pleasure of waking up to find a postcard on your doormat . `` I started collecting in 1957 and I 've been hooked ever since , '' she says . `` Postcards are personal , they show you 've been thinking about someone . You have to pick the right one , and then sit down and consider that person , what message you want to write to them . '' Her views are shared by many CNN Business Traveller readers who wrote in in praise of the medium via our Sound Off box . `` The pictures are great , and it 's a nice souvenir , plus you have something fun in the mail when you get home , besides all the bills that accumulated while you were away , '' commented Velvet in a post . Silvia added : `` E-mail is great but is effortless . When I get a postcard from a friend it makes me feel so special . They made the extra effort to pick out one just for me , physically write on it and send it off . '' It 's certainly true that postcards retain that personal touch missing from many blogs and group emails , which can sometimes feel like an exercise in self-indulgence with their reams of text and scores of pictures detailing the minutiae of Jeff 's diving holiday in Ecuador . With the passing of time postcards have also become a part of our history , windows on a bygone world . Patented in the U.S. in the mid-nineteenth century , the first postcard was created for the world fair in Chicago in 1893 . In Britain , it enjoyed its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s with the growth of seaside holiday resorts . `` Saucy '' postcards containing cartoon-style images with bawdy messages on them were hugely popular until Donald McGill , who designed many of the most famous ones , was charged with obscenity leading to many retailers cancelling orders . In spite of the Royal Mail figures Drene Brennan , whose own area of interest is Walt Disney postcards , fears the penned postcard may become consigned to the history books in the not too distant future . A CNN straw pole of tourists in central London seemed to confirm these suspicions , with most of those questioned preferring electronic media to keep in touch with loved-ones . And even for those who admitted to buying the occasional postcard , the effort of actually sending them was sometimes a bridge too far . Richard , a shopper on London 's Oxford Street said : `` I bought two postcards in Sweden last week but I did n't actually send them . It 's just the effort . I have to sit down , find a pen and post them and everything . `` In the end I came back and gave them as gifts . '' Send us your comments : Do you still enjoy sending and receiving postcards or do you feel they are out of date and inconvenient in today 's electronic age ? When did you last send a postcard and who to ? Leave a comment below to let us know what you think .
Postcards were once the favorite way of documenting our holidays . Now, we have to go through a lot more effort and expense just to send them out. In recent years travellers have turned to blogs and emails to keep in touch . CNN wants to know if you still send postcards , leave a comment below .