The way boats and airplanes work is also a distinctly modern thing, with those technologies curiously advancing around the time you claim passports were invented.
And ironically the average person travels less than 500 years ago. Shocking but true. Evem though technology made traveling easier. The reason is money and urbanization. You now need money to travel when I'm the past you didn't.
Do you have a source for that? I couldn’t find anything on that on google and I can’t really believe it.