Thomas Cook History Thomas Cook History Thomas Cook History Thomas Cook is the world’s best-known name in travel, thanks to the inspiration and dedication of a single man. Thomas Cook began his international travel company in 1841, with a successful one-day rail excursion at a shilling a head from Leicester to Loughborough on 5 July. From these humble beginnings Thomas Cook launched a whole new kind of company – devoted to helping Britons see the world. View key dates of Thomas Cook history A Brief History On 9 June 1841 a 32-year old cabinet-maker named Thomas Cook walked from his home in Market Harborough to the nearby town of Leicester to attend a temperance meeting. A former Baptist preacher, Thomas Cook was a religious man who believed that most Victorian social problems were related to alcohol and that the lives of working people would be greatly improved if they drank less and became better educated. As he walked along the road to Leicester, he later recalled, 'the thought suddenly flashed across my mind as to the practicability of employing the great powers of railways and locomotion for the furtherance of this social reform'.

At the meeting, Thomas suggested that a special train be engaged to carry the temperance supporters of Leicester to a meeting in Loughborough about four weeks later. The proposal was received with such enthusiasm that, on the following day, Thomas submitted his idea to the secretary of the Midland Railway Company. A train was subsequently arranged, and on 5 July 1841 about 500 passengers were conveyed in open carriages the enormous distance of 12 miles and back for a shilling. The day was a great success and, as Thomas later recorded, 'thus was struck the keynote of my excursions, and the social idea grew upon me'. Early Tours During the next three summers Thomas arranged a succession of trips between Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham on behalf of local temperance societies and Sunday schools. Within these limits many thousands of people experienced rail travel for the first time, and Thomas was able to lay the foundations of his future business. He later described this period as one of 'enthusiastic philanthropy' since, beyond the printing of posters and handbills, he had no financial interest in any of these early excursions.

Thomas Cook's first commercial venture took place in the summer of 1845, when he organised a trip to Liverpool. This was a far more ambitious project than anything he had previously attempted, and he made his preparations with great thoroughness. Not content with simply providing tickets at low prices - 15 shillings for first-class passengers and 10 shillings for second. Thomas also investigated the route and published a handbook of the journey. This 60-page booklet was a forerunner of the modern holiday brochure. The Great Exhibition By the end of 1850, having already visited Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Thomas Cook began to contemplate foreign trips to Europe, the United States and the Holy Land. Such thoughts had to be postponed, however, when Sir Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace, persuaded Thomas to devote himself to bringing workers from Yorkshire and the Midlands to London for the Great Exhibition of 1851. This he did with great enthusiasm, rarely spending a night at home between June and October, and he even produced a newspaper, Cook's Exhibition Herald and Excursion Advertiser, in order to promote his tours.

By the end of the season Thomas had taken 150,000 people to London, his final trains to the Exhibition carrying 3,000 children from Leicester, Nottingham and Derby. Across the Channel Thomas continued to expand his business in Britain, but he was determined to develop it in Europe too. In 1855 an International Exhibition was held in Paris for the first time and Thomas seized this opportunity by trying to persuade the companies commanding the Channel traffic to allow him concessions. They refused to work with him, however, and the only route he was able to use was the one between Harwich and Antwerp. This opened up the way for a grand circular tour to include Brussels, Cologne, the Rhine, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Strasbourg and Paris, returning to London via Le Havre or Dieppe. By this route, during the summer of 1855, Thomas escorted his first tourists to Europe. Switzerland and Italy Thomas visited Switzerland for the first time in June 1863. Although this initial tour was little more than an information-gathering trip, a party of more than 60 ladies and gentlemen accompanied Thomas as far as Geneva.

Among these pioneering tourists was a young woman called Jemima Morrell, who maintained a written account of each day's events. Her original diaries may be studied today in the Thomas Cook Archives. Thomas organised further trips to the Continent in 1863, and by the end of the season he had taken nearly 2000 tourists to Paris, some 500 of whom had continued to Switzerland. With the co-operation of the Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean Railway, Thomas began to issue circular tickets (in both English and French) between Paris and the Alps. He then established the first circular tours of Switzerland, which were such an immediate success that he decided to extend his arrangements across the Alps. The first Italian tours took place in the summer of 1864, when Thomas escorted two large groups, one to Florence and parts of central Italy, the other to Rome and Naples. Hotel Coupons and Circular Notes Thomas's travellers to Switzerland and Italy were from the growing middle classes and they expected better accommodation than his earlier working-class customers had. He therefore set out to negotiate with innkeepers and hotel proprietors to provide rooms and meals at good prices.

His friendship with hoteliers, who were pleased to get his business, enabled Thomas to develop two important travel systems: one was the hotel coupon, launched in 1868, which travellers could use to pay for hotel accommodation and meals instead of using money; the other was his circular note, first issued in 1874 and a forerunner of the travellers cheque, which enabled tourists to obtain local currency in exchange for a paper note issued by Thomas Cook. Beyond Europe Building on his successes in Europe, Thomas made an exploratory trip to North America in 1865 and set up a system of tours covering 4,000 miles of railways. Four years later, in 1869, he hired two steamers and conducted his first party up the Nile. The climax of his career, however, came in September 1872 when, at the age of 63, he departed from Leicester on a tour of the world that would keep him away from home for almost eight months.

It had long been his ambition to travel 'to Egypt via China', but such a trip only became practicable at the end of 1869 following the opening of the Suez Canal and the completion of a rail network linking the east and west coasts of America. Thomas and his small party crossed the Atlantic by steamship and made their way through the United States from New York to San Francisco by rail. They travelled by Pacific steamer to Japan, then across the Inland Sea to China, and afterwards visited Singapore, Ceylon and India. Leaving Bombay, they crossed the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to Cairo, from where most of the party travelled back to London. Thomas himself, however, set off on an extended tour of Egypt and Palestine, finally returning home via Turkey, Greece, Italy and France after an absence of 222 days. The conducted world tour quickly became an annual event, but many additional tickets were issued to independent travellers, some of whom went via Australia and New Zealand rather than China and Japan. John Mason Cook While Thomas was travelling round the world, his son, John Mason Cook, successfully completed the firm's move to a new head office at Ludgate Circus.

However, father and son argued over certain aspects of the project and in 1878 their partnership ended. John was a better businessman than Thomas, and he set about expanding the company internationally. In an age when telegraphy was in its infancy and there were no telephones or fax machines, this was far from easy. John created overseas editions of The Excursionist, the newspaper started by his father in 1851, to inform customers in places such as France, Germany, India, Australasia, America and the Far East about the services he offered. (This newspaper, which became known as The Traveller's Gazette in May 1902, continued to be published until 1939.) He also kept up a continuous stream of correspondence with his offices abroad, checking on their work and complaining if anything went wrong. Like many successful businessmen, John Mason Cook combined a flair for grasping business opportunities with a remarkable memory for small details. The Gordon Relief Expedition In 1884 John Mason Cook was asked by the British Government to organise a relief expedition up the Nile to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum.

Arrangements were made for the movement of 18,000 troops, nearly 40,000 tons of supplies, 40,000 tons of coal and 800 whaleboats. To transport the coal from Tyneside to Boulac and Assiout via Alexandria, 28 large steamers and 6000 railway trucks were required. An additional 7000 railway trucks were needed for the military stores, while on the Nile 27 steamers and 650 sailing boats were used to carry the troops and supplies. John and his Egyptian managers acted as overseers of the entire operation, which relied on the labour of 5000 local men and boys, and completed their side of the contract in November 1884. Despite all the efforts, however, Khartoum fell in January 1885 and Gordon was killed. Frank, Ernest and Bert Thomas and John Mason Cook both died during the 1890s and the business was inherited by John's three sons: Frank Henry, Ernest Edward and Thomas Albert ('Bert').

During the first quarter of the twentieth century - a period which saw the introduction of winter sports holidays, tours by motor car and commercial air travel - the firm of Thos Cook and Son dominated the world travel scene. The company was incorporated as Thos Cook & Son Ltd in 1924, and in 1926 the headquarters moved from Ludgate Circus to Berkeley Street, Mayfair, a once aristocratic area which was now the centre of London society. Then, in 1928, the surviving grandsons, Frank and Ernest (Bert having died in 1914), unexpectedly sold the business to the Belgian Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens, operators of most of Europe's luxury sleeping cars, including the Orient Express. From Wagons-Lits to British Railways Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the Wagons-Lits headquarters in Paris was seized by occupying forces, and Cook's British assets were requisitioned by the British Government. To save the company from complete financial collapse in its centenary year, a deal was brokered and, fittingly, the organisation was sold to Britain's four mainline railway companies.

Thos Cook & Son Ltd settled its affairs with Wagons-Lits (which retained a 25% share in Cook's overseas) immediately after the war, and in 1948 the firm became state-owned as part of the nationalised British Railways. The Fifties and Sixties Thomas Cook & Son Ltd benefited from the post-war holiday boom, which saw one million Britons travelling abroad by 1950. The company set up a Business Travel Service and refurbished its holiday camp at Prestatyn (which had opened shortly before the outbreak of war). Although Cook's remained the largest and most successful company in the industry, its pre-eminence was now being challenged by new travel firms that were able to undercut Cook's prices and offer cheap package deals. In 1965 the company's net profits exceeded £1 million for the first time, but in an increasingly cut-throat marketplace Thomas Cook began to fall behind its younger rivals De-nationalisation and Beyond In 1972 Thomas Cook returned to private ownership, bought by a consortium of Midland Bank, Trust House Forte and the Automobile Association.

Radical reorganisation followed and a new, standardised corporate logo (the words ‘Thomas Cook’ in ‘flame’ red) was soon introduced. Thomas Cook managed to survive the recession of the 1970s – a recession that witnessed the collapse of several travel firms – and enhanced its reputation for providing excellent service by launching a Money Back Guarantee scheme in 1974. Thomas Cook experienced many changes during the 1970s, including the sale of its holiday camp at Prestatyn and the relocation of its administrative headquarters from London to Peterborough. The firm also became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Midland Bank Group. During the 1980s Thomas Cook began to concentrate on its long-haul tours programme, purchasing Rankin Kuhn Travel in 1982 and quitting the short-haul package tours market in 1988 (a market to which Thomas Cook successfully returned in 1996 when it acquired Sunworld). Between 1985 and 1990, Thomas Cook also expanded its network of high street shops through the acquisition of the retail chains Frames, Blue Sky and Four Corners.

The company's continued success was assured in 1992 when it was purchased from Midland Bank by Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB), Germany’s third largest bank, and LTU Group, Germany’s leading charter airline. Thomas Cook became a wholly-owned subsidiary of WestLB in 1995. A period of expansion followed – which saw the acquisition of Sunworld, Time Off and Flying Colours in quick succession – culminating in Thomas Cook's merger with Carlson Leisure Group's UK travel interests and the subsequent formation of JMC (including JMC Airlines) in 1999. Into the 21st Century In March 2001, following the sale of its Global and Financial Services division to Travelex, Thomas Cook was acquired by C&N Touristic AG, one of Germany’s largest travel groups. Within a matter of months, C&N Touristic AG had changed its name to Thomas Cook AG and launched a new logo and brand identity. On 19 June 2007, Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc merged to form Thomas Cook Group plc.

Another merger followed in October 2011, when Thomas Cook amalgamated its UK high street travel and foreign exchange businesses with those of the Co-operative Group and the Midlands Co-operative Society to create the UK’s largest retail travel network of over 1200 shops. On 1 October 2013 Thomas Cook officially unveiled its new unified brand to the world. The ‘Sunny Heart’ and ‘Let’s go!’ tagline will form an important part of Thomas Cook’s future plans. Thomas Cook Today Today, Thomas Cook Group plc is one of the world’s leading leisure travel groups, with sales of over £9 billion and more than 20 million customers. The group is supported by c.27,000 employees and operates from 17 countries. It is number one or two in all its core markets. Thomas Cook’s vision is to deliver trusted, personalised holiday experiences through our high-tech, high-touch strategy. We will be there for our customers wherever, whenever and however they want to connect with us. Thomas Cook’s timeless spirit of innovation started in 1841 and it is this that makes us stand out from the crowd.

It is reflected in our new, trusted products and growing suite of online tools and applications (such as “RepAdvisor” and “DreamCapture”). Innovation shaped our past and it will continue to shape our future. Further Reading W.

Fraser Rae, The Business of Travel - A Fifty Years' Record of Progress (Thos Cook & Son, 1891) John Pudney, The Thomas Cook Story (Michael Joseph, 1953) Edmund Swinglehurst, The Romantic Journey - The story of Thomas Cook and Victorian Travel (Pica Editions, 1974) Edmund Swinglehurst, Cook's Tours - The Story of Popular Travel (Blandford Press, 1982) Piers Brendon, Thomas Cook - 150 Years of Popular Tourism (Secker & Warburg, 1991) Robert Ingle, Thomas Cook of Leicester (Headstart History, 1991) Derek Seaton, The Local Legacy of Thomas Cook (self-published, 1996) Lynne Withey, Grand Tours and Cook's Tours - A History of Leisure Travel, 1750 to 1915 (Aurum Press, 1998) Andrew Williamson, The Golden Age of Travel - The Romantic Years of Tourism in Images from the Thomas Cook Archives (Thomas Cook Publishing, 1998) Paul Smith, The History of Tourism - Thomas Cook and

 the Origins of Leisure Travel [boxed set of four volumes] (Routledge/ Thoemmes Press, 1998) Jill Hamilton, Thomas Cook - The Holiday Maker (Sutton, 2005) Company Archives Thomas Cook possesses a unique collection of archive material covering all aspects of the company's history from the founder's first excursion on 5 July 1841 to the present.

This material is held in the Company Archives, which functions as a corporate 'memory', offering an information service to Thomas Cook's various departments and to interested members of the public, as well as providing research facilities for academics, journalists and picture researchers from all over the world. COMPANY NEWS - Germans to Buy Britain's Thomas Cook Chain - NYTimes.com COMPANY NEWS; Germans to Buy Britain's Thomas Cook Chain By STEVEN PROKESCH, Published: June 5, 1992 LONDON, June 4— Midland Bank P.L.C. said today that it had agreed to sell Thomas Cook, one of the world's largest travel-agency chains and issuers of traveler's checks, to two German companies for $:200 million, or $364.6 million. The company was founded in 1841 by Thomas Cook, a printer who was active in the temperance movement. He was the Freddie Laker of his time: just as Mr. Laker and imitators like People Express opened up air travel to the masses in the late 1970's, Mr.

Cook, the creator of the packaged holiday, opened up the world of international leisure travel to the middle class of the last century. Midland, one of Britain's Big Four banks, bought a stake in the worldwide chain in 1972 and acquired the rest in 1977. The company has 1,600 travel outlets in 120 countries and also handles foreign-exchange services. The Thomas Cook chain in the United States is a separate company under private ownership. It was divested by Midland in the mid-1980's, along with all of the American operation except for the traveler's check business, which is included in today's deal. The LTU Group, Germany's largest charter airline and third-largest packaged-holiday concern, will end up owning 90 percent of Thomas Cook. The remaining 10 percent is going to Westdeutsche Landesbank, Germany's third-largest bank, which owns 34 percent of LTU and has been eager to expand internationally. Midland, which has had financial difficulties in recent years, is seeking to sell noncore businesses.

The sale of Thomas Cook, which last year had pretax earnings of $16.6 million on sales of $803.2 million, will result in an estimated gain of $:99 million, or $180.5 million, the bank said. Midland is currently the target of a takeover fight between HSBC Holdings P.L.C., the Hong Kong-based banking giant, and Lloyds Bank P.L.C., another one of Britain's Big Four banks. Lloyds said it would make a $:3.7 billion ($6.75 billion) bid, providing it got certain assurances from regulators. HSBC countered this week by raising its bid, which Midland's board is backing, to $:3.9 billion, or $7.11 billion. The Lloyds board is to meet on Friday to decide how to respond to the new HSBC offer. The First Excursion On July 5, 1841, the 33-year-old Thomas Cook organized an 11-mile rail excursion from Leicester to Loughborough, in Britain, for 570 people to promote the temperance cause, and a business was born.

He charged them one shilling each for the open-car outing, which included brass bands, games, speeches and tea. In 1845, he went into the tour business for a living. His first professional offering was a rail trip from Liverpool to north Wales in an open car. Mr. Cook led the excursion and printed a handbook of useful information for the participants. By 1851, his business was booming: his company arranged for 165,000 people to see the Great Exhibition in London. The company successfully exploited fads -- ranging from Britons' newfound passion for sea bathing in the mid-1800's to ski holidays on the Continent in the 1920's. Cruise Ships on the Nile Thomas Cook began to offer packaged holidays in Continental Europe in 1855 and trips to the United States were added after the Civil War. In 1871, Thomas Cook took on an American partner to bring Americans to Europe. Its cruise ships became a common sight on the Nile. In 1872, after the opening of the Suez Canal, Thomas Cook organized the first around-the-world tour. It began offering its traveler's checks in 1873.

Mr. Cook died in 1892, and his family sold the company in 1928. After World War II, the company became state-owned and was part of British Rail. In 1972, the British Government sold it to Midland; Trusthouse Forte, the hotel chain, and the Automobile Association. While the sale of British companies to foreign interests has become commonplace, today's London's Evening Standard, nevertheless, headlined the news of Thomas Cook's sale: "Germans buy up a very British institution." The newspaper asked Peter Middleton, Thomas Cook's chief executive, how he thought the British public would react to Germans buying "what is perceived as a peculiarly British institution." He responded gingerly. "Of course, Thomas Cook is a part of British history," he said. "But we have to move on and follow a policy of becoming more international. I think what surprises people is how international Thomas Cook has already become." Photos: The cover of a magazine for Thomas Cook's customers traveling in the United States in the early 1900's. The company, one of the world's largest travel-agency chains, is being sold to two German companies.

(Thomas Cook Travel); Thomas Cook, who founded the company in 1841. Travellers: Thomas Cook We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. You are here: Home / Adventure / Travellers: Thomas Cook Travellers: Thomas Cook Tweet When you think of a well-known “travel agency“, one of the first names that come to mind is Thomas Cook. Born in 1808 in Melbourne, England (Derbyshire, not Australia) Thomas Cook as a missionary turned travel agent. He began his trade as the latter in 1841 he chartered a special train to carry passengers from Leicester to Loughborough for a temperance meeting. The success of the guided excursion led to the formation of a travel agency bearing his name. Cook organized personally conducted tours throughout Europe and procured traveling and hotel accommodations for tourists making independent trips. He also provided travel services, including the furnishing of supplies and personnel, for the British government on several occasions, notably the final expedition of the British general Charles George Gordon to the Sudan in 1884. History His idea to offer excursions came to him while waiting for the stagecoach on the London Road at Kibworth.

With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway, he arranged to take a group of 570 temperance campaigners from Leicester to a rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away. On 5 July 1841, Thomas Cook arranged for the rail company to charge one shilling per person that included rail tickets and food for this train journey. Cook was paid a share of the fares actually charged to the passengers, as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between company and passenger, could not have been issued at his own price. During the following three summers he planned and conducted outings for temperance societies and Sunday-school children . In 1844 the Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him provided he found the passengers. This success led him to start his own business running rail excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets. Today, Thomas Cook is one of the largest Travel operators in Europe, covering not just tickets, tours, hotels and packages, but also travel money, insurance, carhire, and even weddings! [tags]famous travelers,travel,travel agency, Thomas Cook[/tags] Travel, Tourism and Hospitality The Fluidity of Tourism.

Gender Norms & Racial Bias in the Study of the Modern "Tourism" Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure, or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes". Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. After slowly recovering from the contraction resulting from the late-2000s recession, where tourism suffered a strong slowdown from the second half of 2008 through the end of 2009, and the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, Tourism is important, and in some cases, vital for many countries. It was recognized in the Manila Declaration on World Tourism of 1980 as "an activity essential to the life of nations because of its direct effects on the social, cultural, educational, and economic sectors of national societies and on their international relations." Tourism brings in large amounts of income in payment for goods and services available, accounting for 30% of the world's exports of services, and 6% of overall exports of goods and services.

These service industries include transportation services, such as airlines, cruise ships, and taxicabs; hospitality services, such as accommodations, including hotels and resorts; and entertainment venues, such as amusement parks, casinos, shopping malls, music venues, and theatres. Etymology Theobald suggested that "etymologically, the word tour is derived from the Latin, 'tornare' and the Greek, 'tornos', meaning 'a lathe or circle; the movement around a central point or axis'. This meaning changed in modern English to represent 'one's turn'. The suffix –ism is defined as 'an action or process; typical behaviour or quality', while the suffix, –ist denotes 'one that performs a given action'. When the word tour and the suffixes –ism and –ist are combined, they suggest the action of movement around a circle. One can argue that a circle represents a starting point, which ultimately returns back to its beginning.

Therefore, like a circle, a tour represents a journey in that it is a round-trip, i.e., the act of leaving and then returning to the original starting point, and therefore, one who takes such a journey can be called a tourist." In 1941, Hunziker and Krapf defined tourism as people who travel "the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, insofar as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity." In 1976, the Tourism Society of England's definition was: "Tourism is the temporary, short-term movement of people to destination outside the places where they normally live and work and their activities during the stay at each destination. It includes movements for all purposes." In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities selected by choice and undertaken outside the home. In 1994, the United Nations classified three forms of tourism in its Recommendations on Tourism Statistics: Domestic tourism, involving residents of the given country traveling only within this country. Inbound tourism, involving non-residents traveling in the given country.

Outbound tourism, involving residents traveling in another country. Today, three schools discuss on the roots of tourism. The French School, led by A. Houlot argued that the term tourism comes from the old Aramaic Tur, which was used for the trip, exploration and movement of people in the Bible. This word had been used, for the first time, when Moses begins his expedition to the lands of Canaán. Nevertheless, another school of thought - the Onomastic School - considers the origin of the concept not from a linguistic perspective but rather links it to the last name of the French aristocracy Della Tour. According to this school, after Carlos V signs a treaty with England in 1516, in celebration of this event, the future king gives the Della Tour family exclusive rights to conduct commercial transport and related businesses. Last but not least, a third school focuses on the Anglo-Saxon world, situating the Theobald´s development under the lens of scrutiny. Surmising that the roots of the word tourism comes from the Ancient Anglo-Saxon term Torn, these scholars found evidence to think the term was coined in XIIth century which by farmers to denote those travels with intentions to return.

Over centuries, the meaning of the word has been shifted to be politically adopted. By the middle of the 18th century, the English noblemen used the term “turn” to refer to the trips undertaken for education, search and culture exploration. In reality, the purpose of the noblemen’s trip to the different parts of Kingdom was to acquire knowledge that was later useful for governing. In support to Leiper´s account, M. Korstanje provided evidence that shows the Grand-tour was enrooted in the ancient Norse Mythology. Following the examination of legends and texts, this research focuses on the fact that Odin/Wotan represents the archetype of a travelling-god who explored the world to get experience and knowledge. Norse-related texts are indeed unique in this sense. Although the touristic-drive seems to be inherent to almost all cultures and times, Korstanje explains that only by the influence of Norse Mythology, the Grand-tour was accepted as a common-practice in England and Europe later.

World tourism statistics and rankings Total volume of cross-border tourist travel International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 983 million in 2011, and 940 million in 2010. The negative trend intensified during 2009, exacerbated in some countries due to the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, resulting in a worldwide decline of 4.2% in 2009 to 880 million international tourists arrivals, and a 5.7% decline in international tourism receipts. Most-visited countries by international tourist arrivals The World Tourism Organization reports the following ten countries as the most visited in terms of the number of international travellers. In 2011, Turkey overtook the United Kingdom to become the sixth most visited country. International tourism receipts International tourism receipts grew to trillion in 2011, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 3.8% from 2010.

Change Change - align center 1 align "left" North America $126.2 billion $115.6 billion +9.2% +11.7% - align center 2 align "left" Europe $55.9 billion $59.9 billion -6.6% +14.0% - align center 3 align "left" Europe $53.7 billion $54.5 billion -1.5% +16.2% - align center 4 align "left" Asia $50.0 billion 48.5 million +3.2% +5.8% - align center 5 align "left" Asia $43.7 billion $38.5 billion +13.7% +38.3% - align center 6 align "left" Europe $41.2 billion $43.0 billion -4.2% +10.9% - align center 7 align "left" Europe $38.1 billion $38.9 billion -1.9% +12.1% - align center 8 align "left" Europe $36.4 billion $35.

1 billion +3.7% +8.2% - align center 9 align "left" Asia $32.1 billion 27.7 million +16.0% +24.6% - align center 10 align "left" Oceania $31.5 billion $31.5 billion +0.2% +8.1% } International tourism expenditure The World Tourism Organization reports the following countries as the top ten biggest spenders on international tourism for the year 2012.

{ class "wikitable sortable" style "margin:1em auto 1em auto;" - ! International tourism expenditure 2011 ! International tourism expenditure 2012 and tourism by 1811. The origins of modern tourism can be traced back to what was known as the Grand Tour which was a traditional trip of Europe undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means, mainly from England. The custom flourished from about 1660 until the advent of large-scale rail transit in the 1840s, and was associated with a standard itinerary. It served as an educational rite of passage. Though primarily associated with the British nobility and wealthy landed gentry, similar trips were made by wealthy young men of Protestant Northern European nations on the Continent, and from the second half of the 18th century some South American, U.S., and other overseas youth joined in. The tradition was extended to include more of the middle class after rail and steamship travel made the journey less of a burden, and Thomas Cook made the "Cook's Tour" a byword.

The New York Times recently described the Grand Tour in this way: The primary value of the Grand Tour, it was believed, laid in the exposure both to the cultural legacy of classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to the aristocratic and fashionably polite society of the European continent. Emergence of Leisure travel Leisure travel was associated with the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdomthe first European country to promote leisure time to the increasing industrial population. Initially, this applied to the owners of the machinery of production, the economic oligarchy, the factory owners and the traders. These comprised the new middle class. The British origin of this new industry is reflected in many place names. In Nice, France, one of the first and best-established holiday resorts on the French Riviera, the long esplanade along the seafront is known to this day as the Promenade des Anglais; in many other historic resorts in continental Europe, old, well-established palace hotels have names like the Hotel Bristol, Hotel Carlton, or Hotel Majesticreflecting the dominance of English customers. A pioneer of the travel agency, Thomas Cook's idea to offer excursions came to him while waiting for the stagecoach on the London Road at Kibworth.

With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway, he arranged to take a group of 540 temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street station to a rally in Loughborough, eleven miles away. On 5 July 1841, Thomas Cook arranged for the rail company to charge one shilling per person that included rail tickets and food for this train journey. Cook was paid a share of the fares actually charged to the passengers, as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between company and passenger, could not have been issued at his own price. This was the first privately chartered excursion train to be advertised to the general public; Cook himself acknowledging that there had been previous, unadvertised, private excursion trains. During the following three summers he planned and conducted outings for temperance societies and Sunday-school children. In 1844 the Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him provided he found the passengers. This success led him to start his own business running rail excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets. Four years later, he planned his first excursion abroad, when he took a group from Leicester to Calais to coincide with the Paris Exhibition.

The following year he started his 'grand circular tours' of Europe. During the 1860s he took parties to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and the United States. Cook established 'inclusive independent travel', whereby the traveller went independently but his agency charged for travel, food and accommodation for a fixed period over any chosen route. Such was his success that the Scottish railway companies withdrew their support between 1862 and 1863 to try the excursion business for themselves. Cruise shipping In 1891, German businessman Albert Ballin started from Hamburg with the ship Augusta Victoria in the Mediterranean Sea. In 1900, the first cruise ship, Prinzessin Victoria Luise, was built in Hamburg. Cruise shipping is a popular form of water tourism. Modern Day Tourism Many leisure-oriented tourists travel to the tropics, both in the summer and winter.

Places of such nature often visited are: Bali in Indonesia, Colombia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Grenada, the Dominican Republic, Malaysia, Mexico, the various Polynesian tropical islands, Queensland in Australia, Thailand, Saint-Tropez and Cannes in France, Florida, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, in the United States, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, St.Lucia, Sint Maarten, St. Martin's Island in Bangladesh, Saint Kitts and Nevis, The Bahamas, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Turks and Caicos Islands, Boracay Island in the Philippines and Bermuda. In 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as "someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours". Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945, by including a maximum stay of six months. when many daring hotel managers chose to risk opening their hotels in winter. It was, however, only in the 1970s when winter tourism took over the lead from summer tourism in many of the Swiss ski resorts.

Even in winter, up to one third of all guests consist of non-skiers. Major ski resorts are located mostly in the various European countries, Canada, the United States New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Chile, and Argentina. Mass tourism Mass tourism could only have developed with the improvements in technology, allowing the transport of large numbers of people in a short space of time to places of leisure interest, so that greater numbers of people could begin to enjoy the benefits of leisure time. In the United States, the first seaside resorts in the European style were at Atlantic City, New Jersey and Long Island, New York. In Continental Europe, early resorts included: Ostend, popularised by the people of Brussels; Boulogne-sur-Mer and Deauville for the Parisians; and Heiligendamm, founded in 1793 at the Baltic Sea, being the first European seaside resort. Adjectival tourism Adjectival tourism refers to the numerous niche or specialty travel forms of tourism that have emerged over the years, each with its own adjective. Many of these have come into common use by the tourism industry and academics. Others are emerging concepts that may or may not gain popular usage.

Examples of the more common niche tourism markets include: Agritourism Wildlife tourism Recent developments There has been an up-trend in tourism over the last few decades, especially in Europe, where international travel for short breaks is common. Tourists have a wide range of budgets and tastes, and a wide variety of resorts and hotels have developed to cater for them. For example, some people prefer simple beach vacations, while others want more specialised holidays, quieter resorts, family-oriented holidays or niche market-targeted destination hotels. The developments in technology and transport infrastructure, such as jumbo jets, low-cost airlines and more accessible airports have made many types of tourism more affordable. On 28 April 2009 The Guardian noted that "the WHO estimates that up to 500,000 people are on planes at any time." There have also been changes in lifestyle, for example some retirement-age people sustain year round tourism. This is facilitated by internet sales of tourist services. Some sites have now started to offer dynamic packaging, in which an inclusive price is quoted for a tailor-made package requested by the customer upon impulse.

There have been a few setbacks in tourism, such as the September 11 attacks and terrorist threats to tourist destinations, such as in Bali and several European cities. Also, on 26 December 2004, a tsunami, caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, hit the Asian countries on the Indian Ocean, including the Maldives. Thousands of lives were lost including many tourists. This, together with the vast clean-up operations, stopped or severely hampered tourism in the area for a time. The terms tourism and travel are sometimes used interchangeably. In this context, travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited by tourists.

Sustainable tourism "Sustainable tourism is envisaged as leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, biological diversity and life support systems." Sustainable development implies "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Sustainable tourism can be seen as having regard to ecological and socio-cultural carrying capacities and includes involving the community of the destination in tourism development planning. It also involves integrating tourism to match current economic and growth policies so as to mitigate some of the negative economic and social impacts of 'mass tourism'. Murphy advocates the use of an 'ecological approach', to consider both 'plants' and 'people' when implementing the sustainable tourism development process. This is in contrast to the 'boosterism' and 'economic' approaches to tourism planning, neither of which consider the detrimental ecological or sociological impacts of tourism development to a destination.

However, Butler questions the exposition of the term 'sustainable' in the context of tourism, citing its ambiguity and stating that "the emerging sustainable development philosophy of the 1990s can be viewed as an extension of the broader realization that a preoccupation with economic growth without regard to its social and environmental consequences is self-defeating in the long term." Thus 'sustainable tourism development' is seldom considered as an autonomous function of economic regeneration as separate from general economic growth. Ecotourism Ecotourism, also known as ecological tourism, is responsible travel to fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas that strives to be low impact and small scale. It helps educate the traveler; provides funds for conservation; directly benefits the economic development and political empowerment of local communities; and fosters respect for different cultures and for human rights.Take only memories and leave only footprints is a very common slogan in protected areas. Tourist destinations are shifting to low carbon emissions following the tren of visitors more focused in being environmental responsible adopting a sustainable behavior.

Pro-poor tourism Pro-poor tourism, which seeks to help the poorest people in developing countries, has been receiving increasing attention by those involved in development; the issue has been addressed through small-scale projects in local communities and through attempts by Ministries of Tourism to attract large numbers of tourists. Research by the Overseas Development Institute suggests that neither is the best way to encourage tourists' money to reach the poorest as only 25% or less ever reaches the poor; successful examples of money reaching the poor include mountain-climbing in Tanzania and cultural tourism in Luang Prabang, Laos. Recession tourism Recession tourism is a travel trend, which evolved by way of the world economic crisis. Identified by American entrepreneur Matt Landau, recession tourism is defined by low-cost, high-value experiences taking place of once-popular generic retreats. Various recession tourism hotspots have seen business boom during the recession thanks to comparatively low costs of living and a slow world job market suggesting travelers are elongating trips where their money travels further.

Medical tourism When there is a significant price difference between countries for a given medical procedure, particularly in Southeast Asia, India, Eastern Europe and where there are different regulatory regimes, in relation to particular medical procedures, traveling to take advantage of the price or regulatory differences is often referred to as "medical tourism". Educational tourism Educational tourism developed, because of the growing popularity of teaching and learning of knowledge and the enhancing of technical competency outside of the classroom environment. In educational tourism, the main focus of the tour or leisure activity includes visiting another country to learn about the culture, such as in Student Exchange Programs and Study Tours, or to work and apply skills learned inside the classroom in a different environment, such as in the International Practicum Training Program. Creative tourism Creative tourism has existed as a form of cultural tourism, since the early beginnings of tourism itself. Its European roots date back to the time of the Grand Tour, which saw the sons of aristocratic families traveling for the purpose of mostly interactive, educational experiences. More recently, creative tourism has been given its own name by Crispin Raymond and Greg Richards, who as members of the Association for Tourism and Leisure Education, have directed a number of projects for the European Commission, including cultural and crafts tourism, known as sustainable tourism.

They have defined "creative tourism" as tourism related to the active participation of travellers in the culture of the host community, through interactive workshops and informal learning experiences. in this new way to discover a culture regards particularly the operators and branding managers, attentive to the possibility of attracting a quality tourism, highlighting the intangible heritage and optimizing the use of existing infrastructure . Dark tourism One emerging area of special interest has been identified by Lennon and Foley as "dark" tourism. This type of tourism involves visits to "dark" sites, such as battlegrounds, scenes of horrific crimes or acts of genocide, for example: concentration camps. Dark tourism remains a small niche market, driven by varied motivations, such as mourning, remembrance, education, macabre curiosity or even entertainment. Its early origins are rooted in fairgrounds and medieval fairs. Doom tourism Also known as "Tourism of Doom," or "Last Chance Tourism" this emerging trend involves traveling to places that are environmentally or otherwise threatened before it is too late. Identified by travel trade magazine Travel Age West editor-in-chief Kenneth Shapiro in 2007 and later explored in The New York Times, this type of tourism is believed to be on the rise.

Some see the trend as related to sustainable tourism or ecotourism due to the fact that a number of these tourist destinations are considered threatened by environmental factors such as global warming, overpopulation or climate change. Others worry that travel to many of these threatened locations increases an individual’s carbon footprint and only hastens problems threatened locations are already facing. Growth The World Tourism Organization forecasts that international tourism will continue growing at the average annual rate of 4%. With the advent of e-commerce, tourism products have become one of the most traded items on the internet. Tourism products and services have been made available through intermediaries, although tourism providers, including small-scale operators, can sell their services directly. This has put pressure on intermediaries from both on-line and traditional shops. It has been suggested there is a strong correlation between tourism expenditure per capita and the degree to which countries play in the global context. Not only as a result of the important economic contribution of the tourism industry, but also as an indicator of the degree of confidence with which global citizens leverage the resources of the globe for the benefit of their local economies. This is why any projections of growth in tourism may serve as an indication of the relative influence that each country will exercise in the future.

There has been a limited amount of orbital space tourism, with only the Russian Space Agency providing transport to date. A 2010 report into space tourism anticipated that it could become a billion dollar market by 2030. Sports tourism Since the late 1980s, sports tourism has become increasingly popular. Events such as rugby, Olympics, Commonwealth games, Asian Games and football World Cups have enabled specialist travel companies to gain official ticket allocation and then sell them in packages that include flights, hotels and excursions. The focus on sport and spreading knowledge on the subject, especially more so recently, lead to the increase in the sport tourism. Most notably, the international event such as the Olympics caused a shift in focus in the audience who now realize the variety of sports that exist in the world. In the United States, one of the most popular sports that usually are focused on was Football. This popularity was increased through major events like the World Cups. In Asian countries, the numerous football events also increased the popularity of football. But, it was the Olympics that brought together the different sports that lead to the increase in sport tourism.

The drastic interest increase in sports in general and not just one sport caught the attention of travel companies, who then began to sell flights in packages. Due to the low number of people who actually purchase these packages than predicted, the cost of these packages plummeted initially. As the number start to rise slightly the packages increased to regain the lost profits. With the certain economic state, the number of purchases decreased once again. The fluctuation in the number of packages sold was solely dependent on the economic situation, therefore, most travel companies were forced to set aside the plan to execute the marketing of any new package features. Latest trends As a result of the late-2000s recession, international arrivals suffered a strong slowdown beginning in June 2008. Growth from 2007 to 2008 was only 3.7% during the first eight months of 2008. This slowdown on international tourism demand was also reflected in the air transport industry, with a negative growth in September 2008 and a 3.3% growth in passenger traffic through September. The hotel industry also reported a slowdown, with room occupancy declining. In 2009 worldwide tourism arrivals decreased by 3.8%.

By the first quarter of 2009, real travel demand in the United States had fallen 6% over six quarters. While this is considerably milder than what occurred after the 9/11 attacks, the decline was at twice the rate as real GDP has fallen. However, evidence suggests that tourism as a global phenomena shows no signs of substantially abating in the long term. It has been suggested that travel is necessary in order to maintain relationships, as social life is increasingly networked and conducted at a distance. For many vacations and travel are increasingly being viewed as a necessity rather than a luxury, and this is reflected in tourist numbers recovering some 6.6% globally over 2009, with growth up to 8% in emerging economies. Sorry for missing thomas cook : definition of thomas cook and synonyms of thomas cook (English) 5 External links Early days Thomas Cook was born to John and Elizabeth Cook, who lived at 9 Quick Close in the village of Melbourne, Derbyshire . [1] The couple's first child, he was named after Elizabeth's father, Thomas Perkins. John Cook died when Thomas was three years old, and his mother remarried later that same year.

At the age of 10, Cook started working as an assistant to a local market gardener for a wage of six pence a week. At the age of 14, he secured an apprenticeship with John Pegg, and spent five years as a cabinet maker. [1] He was brought up as a strict Baptist, and joined his local Temperance Society . In February 1826, Cook became a preacher, and toured the region as a village evangelist, distributing pamphlets, and occasionally working as a cabinet maker to earn money. [1] After working as a part-time publisher of Baptist and Temperance pamphlets, he became a Baptist minister in 1828. In 1832, Cook moved to Adam and Eve Street in Market Harborough . Influenced by the local Baptist minister Francis Beardsall, he took the temperance pledge on New Year's Day in 1833. As a part of the temperance movement, he organized meetings and held anti-liquor processions. [1] On 3 March 1833, Cook married Marianne Mason. John Mason Cook, their only son, was born on 13 January 1834 .

[1] The first-ever excursions Panels from the Thomas Cook Building in Leicester, displaying excursions offered by Thomas Cook Cook's idea to offer excursions came to him while waiting for the stagecoach on the London Road at Kibworth . With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway , he arranged to take a group of 540 temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street station to a rally in Loughborough , eleven miles away. On 5 July 1841, Thomas Cook arranged for the rail company to charge one shilling per person that included rail tickets and food for this train journey. Cook was paid a share of the fares actually charged to the passengers, as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between company and passenger, could not have been issued at his own price. This was the first privately chartered excursion train to be advertised to the general public; Cook himself acknowledging that there had been previous, unadvertised, private excursion trains. [2] During the following three summers he planned and conducted outings for temperance societies and Sunday-school children. In 1844 the Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him provided he found the passengers.

This success led him to start his own business running rail excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets. Leicester railway station - this was built between 1892 and 1894 to replace, largely on the same site, Campbell Street station , the origin for many of Cook's early tours. On 4 August 1845 he arranged accommodation for a party to travel from Leicester to Liverpool . In 1846, he took 350 people from Leicester on a tour of Scotland , however his lack of commercial ability led him to bankruptcy . He persisted and found success when he claimed that he arranged for over 165,000 people to attend the Great Exhibition in London . Four years later, he planned his first excursion abroad, when he took a group from Leicester to Calais to coincide with the Paris Exhibition. The following year he started his 'grand circular tours' of Europe. During the 1860s he took parties to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and United States. Cook established 'inclusive independent travel', whereby the traveller went independently but his agency charged for travel, food and accommodation for a fixed period over any chosen route.

Such was his success that the Scottish railway companies withdrew their support between 1862 and 1863 to try the excursion business for themselves. With John A Mason Cook, he formed a partnership and renamed the travel agency as Thomas Cook and Son. They acquired business premises on Fleet Street , London. By this time, Cook had stopped personal tours and became an agent for foreign or domestic travel. The office also contained a shop which sold essential travel accessories including guide books, luggage, telescopes and footwear. Thomas saw his venture as both religious and social service; his son provided the commercial expertise that allowed the company to expand. In accordance with his beliefs, he and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office. Their business model was refined by the introduction of the 'hotel coupon' in 1866. Detachable coupons in a counterfoil book were issued to the traveller. These were valid for either a restaurant meal or an overnight hotel stay provided they were on Cook's list. In 1865, the agency organised tours of the United States, picking up passengers from several departure points. John Mason Cook led the excursion which included tours of several Civil War battlefields.

A brief but bitter partnership was formed with an American businessman in 1871 called Cook, Son and Jenkins; however after an acrimonious split the agency reverted back to its original name. A round the world tour started in 1872, which for 200 guineas , included a steamship across the Atlantic, a stage coach across America, a paddle steamer to Japan , and an overland journey across China and India, lasting 222 days. In 1874, Thomas Cook introduced 'circular notes', a product that later became better known by American Express's brand, ' traveller's cheques '. [3] Conflicts of interest between father and son were resolved when the son persuaded his father, Thomas Cook, to retire in 1879. He moved back to Leicestershire and lived quietly until his death. The firm's growth was consolidated by John Mason Cook and his two sons, especially by its involvement with military transport and postal services for Britain and Egypt during the 1880s when Cook began organising tours to the Middle East .

By 1888, the company had established offices around the world, including three in Australia and one in Auckland, New Zealand, and in 1890, the company sold over 3.25 million tickets. [4] John Mason Cook promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the Middle East where he was described as "the second-greatest man in Egypt ". [4] However, while arranging for the German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he contracted dysentery and died the following year. Statue of Thomas Cook near Leicester railway station . Non-family ownership John Mason Cook's sons, Frank Henry, Thomas Albert and Ernest Edward , were not nearly as successful as their father and grandfather at running the business. Despite opening a new headquarters in Berkeley Square , London in 1926, ownership of Thomas Cook and Son only remained with the family until 1928, when it was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits . During the 1930s the travel agency changed its focus from tours to Egypt and Palestine. Indeed the company was a principal employer in Egypt, involved in shipping, transport and touring operations.

After the outbreak of World War II the Paris headquarters of the Wagons-Lits company was seized by the occupying forces, and the British assets requisitioned by the British government. In 1941, the centenary of the company, Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. was sold to the four major railway companies with the aim of expanding it further. The company was nationalised in 1948 as part of the British Transport Commission . In the early 1950s the company began promoting 'foreign holidays' (particularly Italy , Spain and Switzerland ) by showing information films at town halls throughout Britain . However they did not sell cheap package holidays , which included transport and accommodation, a decision costly to the company. The company went further into decline, and was rescued by a consortium of Trust House Forte , Midland Bank and the Automobile Association that bought the company from the British Government on 26 May 1972. [5] Midland Bank acquired sole control in 1977. U.S. banking laws prohibited any national banks from owning travel agencies, so the U.S. operations were sold to Dun & Bradstreet in 1975.

Oid Nile Cruise After restructuring the company and re-entering the traveller's cheque business the company prospered again. During the 1980s Thomas Cook had its most visible business presence in the U.S., including robust travellers cheque sales to regional U.S. banks. The company had enough business critical mass to set up a computer centre near Princeton, New Jersey. Robert Gaffney and Samuel Malek were two of the notable decision-makers in that era. Robert Maxwell bought substantial holdings in the company in 1988. He was expected to sell his holdings quickly as he was a publisher rather than a travel agent. However, when Crimson/Heritage purchased the U.S. division of Thomas Cook for US$ 1.3 billion in 1989, [6] he still maintained a substantial interest in the company until his death. In June 1992, following the acquisition of Midland Bank by HSBC , Thomas Cook was sold to the German bank Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB) and the charter airline LTU Group for £200 million. In September 1994 American Express (Amex) bought the corporate travel interests of Thomas Cook Travel Inc.

which represented about ten percent of the British company's total revenue. However Amex was not able to buy the venerable Thomas Cook name; an American Express affiliate, Cook Travel Inc. had been operating under that name since 1991 in the United States. Due to contractual difficulties LTU Group sold its 10% shares to WestLB in May 1995. During 1996 the company bought short-haul operator Sunworld and European city-breaks tour group Time Off. Within three years the company had combined Sunworld, Sunset, Inspirations, Flying Colours and Caledonian Airways into the JMC (for John Mason Cook) brand. Thomas Cook logo, 1999 A modern Thomas Cook travel agency in Leeds . On 2 February 1999 the Carlson Leisure Group merged with Thomas Cook into a holding company owned by West LB, Carlson Inc and Preussag Aktiengesellschaft (" Preussag "). [7] However, in mid-2000 Preussag acquired Thomas Cook's rival Thomson Travel and was forced to sell its majority 50.1% stake in Thomas Cook by regulatory authorities.

In March 2001 the Financial Services division was sold to Travelex , who retained the right to use the Thomas Cook brand on Traveller's Cheques for 5 years. In 2002 Thomas Cook was acquired by the German company C&N Touristic AG, which later changed its name to Thomas Cook AG . The group is jointly owned by Lufthansa and Karstadt . In 2007 Thomas Cook announced a merger with competitor MyTravel, with the new group to be called Thomas Cook Group plc and listed on the London Stock Exchange. The transaction was completed in June 2007 following competition authority clearance. The new group was 51% owned by Arcandor (new name of Karstadt). Thomas Cook made a controversial business move in 2008, buying out Canadian travel wholesaler IFS Voyages (including Fun Sun Vacations, Intair, Exotik Tours, Boomerang Tours, etc.). In March 2011 Thomas Cook acquired the UK travel insurance and airport parking provider Essential Travel and launched Thomas Cook Essentials.

This was followed by a merger with The Co-operative Travel group on 8 October 2011 to create the UK's largest retail travel network. At the 2011 AGM Thomas Cook shareholders mounted a "revolt" over executive bonuses, with only 53.2 percent voting in favour of the remuneration report. [8] References Thomas Cook : Wikis (The Full Wiki) The Full Wiki More info on Thomas Cook Wikis Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles . Related top topics From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the person. For other uses, see Thomas Cook (disambiguation) . Thomas Cook Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) of Melbourne, Derbyshire , founded the travel agency that is now Thomas Cook Group . Contents 5 External links Early days Thomas Cook was born to John and Elizabeth Cook, who lived at 9 Quick Close in the village of Melbourne, Derbyshire .

[1] The couple's first child, he was named after Elizabeth's father, Thomas Perkins. John Cook died when Thomas was three years old, and his mother remarried later that same year. At the age of 10, Thomas Cook started working as an assistant to a local market gardener for a wage of six pence a week. At the age of 14, he secured an apprenticeship with John Pegg, and spent five years as a cabinet maker. [1] Thomas Cook was brought up as a strict Baptist and joined his local Temperance Society . In February 1826, he became a preacher, and toured the region as a village evangelist, distributing pamphlets, and occasionally working as a cabinet maker to earn money. [1] After working as a part-time publisher of Baptist and Temperance pamphlets, becoming a Baptist minister in 1828. In 1832, Thomas Cook moved to the Adam and Eve Street in Market Harborough . Influenced by the local Baptist minister Francis Beardsall, he took the temperance pledge on the New Year's Day in 1833.

As a part of the temperance movement, he organized meetings and held anti-liquor processions. [1] On 3 March 1833, Thomas Cook married Marianne Mason. John Mason Cook, their only son, was born on 13 January 1834. [1] The first-ever excursions Panels from the Thomas Cook Building in Leicester, displaying exursions offered by Thomas Cook Cook's idea to offer excursions came to him while waiting for the stagecoach on the London Road at Kibworth . With the opening of the extended Midland Counties Railway , he arranged to take a group of 570 temperance campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street station to a rally in Loughborough , eleven miles away. On 5 July 1841, Thomas Cook arranged for the rail company to charge one shilling per person that included rail tickets and food for this train journey. Cook was paid a share of the fares actually charged to the passengers, as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between company and passenger, could not have been issued at his own price.

This was the first privately chartered excursion train to be advertised to the general public; Cook himself acknowledging that there had been previous, unadvertised, private excursion trains [2] . During the following three summers he planned and conducted outings for temperance societies and Sunday-school children. In 1844 the Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him provided he found the passengers. This success led him to start his own business running rail excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets. Leicester railway station - this was built between 1892 and 1894 to replace, largely on the same site, Campbell Street station , the origin for many of Cook's early tours. On 4 August 1845 he arranged accommodation for a party to travel from Leicester to Liverpool . In 1846, he took 350 people from Leicester on a tour of Scotland , however his lack of commercial ability led him to bankruptcy . He persisted and had success when he claimed that he arranged for over 165,000 people to attend the Great Exhibition in London .

Four years later, he planned his first excursion abroad, when he took a group from Leicester to Calais to coincide with the Paris Exhibition. The following year he started his 'grand circular tours' of Europe. During the 1860s he took parties to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and United States. Cook established 'inclusive independent travel', whereby the traveller went independently but his agency charged for travel, food and accommodation for a fixed period over any chosen route. Such was his success that the Scottish railway companies withdrew their support between 1862 and 1863 to try the excursion business for themselves. With John A Mason Cook, he formed a partnership and renamed the travel agency as Thomas Cook and Son. They acquired business premises on Fleet Street , London. By this time, Cook had stopped personal tours and became an agent for foreign or domestic travel. The office also contained a shop which sold essential travel accessories including guide books, luggage, telescopes and footwear. Thomas saw his venture as both religious and social service; his son provided the commercial expertise that allowed the company to expand. In accordance with his beliefs, he and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office.

Their business model was refined by the introduction of the 'hotel coupon' in 1866. Detachable coupons in a counterfoil book were issued to the traveller. These were valid for either a restaurant meal or an overnight hotel stay provided they were on Cook's list. In 1865, the agency organised tours of the United States, picking up passengers from several departure points. John Mason Cook lead the excursion which included tours of several Civil War battlefields. A brief but bitter partnership was formed with an American businessman in 1871 called Cook, Son and Jenkins; however after an acrimonious split the agency reverted back to its original name. A round the world tour started in 1872, which for 200 guineas , included a steamship across the Atlantic, a stage coach across America, a paddle steamer to Japan , and an overland journey across China and India, lasting 222 days. In 1874, Thomas Cook introduced 'circular notes', a product that later became better known by American Express's brand, ' traveller's cheques '.

[3] Conflicts of interest between father and son were resolved when the son persuaded his father, Thomas Cook, to retire in 1879. He moved back to Leicestershire and lived quietly until his death. The firm's growth was consolidated by John Mason Cook and his two sons, especially by its involvement with military transport and postal services for Britain and Egypt during the 1880s when Cook began organising tours to the Middle East . By 1888, the company had established offices around the world, including three in Australia and one in Auckland, New Zealand, and in 1890, the company sold over 3.25 million tickets. [4] John Mason Cook promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the Middle East where he was described as "the second-greatest man in Egypt ". [4] However, while arranging for the German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he contracted dysentery and died the following year. Statue of Thomas Cook near Leicester railway station . His sons, Frank Henry, Thomas Albert and Ernest Edward , were not nearly as successful running the business.

Despite opening a new headquarters in Berkeley Square , London in 1926, ownership of Thomas Cook and Son only remained with the family until 1928, when it was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits . During the 1930s, the travel agency consolidated especially from tours to Egypt and Palestine. Indeed the company was a principal employer in Egypt, involved in shipping, transport and touring operations. After the outbreak of World War II , the Paris headquarters of the Wagons-Lits company was seized by the occupying forces, and in turn the British assets were requisitioned by the Government. In 1941, the centenary of the company, Thomas Cook & Son Ltd. was sold to the four major railway companies with the aim of expanding it further. Company ownership The company was nationalised in 1948 as part of the British Transport Commission . In the early 1950s, the company began promoting 'foreign holidays' (particularly Italy , Spain and Switzerland ) by showing information films at town halls throughout Britain . However they made a costly decision by not going into the new form of cheap holidays which combined the transport and accommodation arrangements into a single 'package' .

The company went further into decline and were only rescued by a consortium of Trust House Forte , Midland Bank and the Automobile Association who bought the company from the British Government on 26 May 1972. [5] Subsequently, Midland Bank acquired sole control during 1977. However, since US banking laws prohibited any national banks from owning travel agencies, the US operations were sold to Dun & Bradstreet in 1975. After restructuring the company and re-entering the traveller's cheque business the company prospered again. During the 1980s, Thomas Cook had its most visible business presence in the US, including robust Travellers Cheques sales to regional US banks. The company had enough business critical mass to set up a computer centre near Princeton, New Jersey. Robert Gaffney and Samuel Malek were two of the notable decision makers in that era. Robert Maxwell bought substantial holdings in the company in 1988. He was expected to sell his holdings quickly as he was a publisher rather than a travel agent.

However, when Crimson/Heritage purchased the US division of Thomas Cook for $1.3 billion in 1989, [6] he still maintained a substantial interest in the company until his death. In June 1992, following the acquisition of Midland Bank by HSBC , the company was sold to the German bank, Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB), and the charter airline, LTU Group for £200 million. Due to contractual difficulties LTU Group sold its 10% shares to WestLB in May 1995. During 1996, after being bought by American Express , the company bought the short-haul operator, Sunworld, and the European city-breaks tour group, Time Off. Within three years, the company had combined Sunworld, Sunset, Inspirations, Flying Colours and Caledonian Airways into the JMC brand - JMC being short for John Mason Cook. Thomas Cook logo, 1999 On February 2, 1999, the Carlson Leisure Group merged with Thomas Cook into a holding company owned by West LB, Carlson Inc and Preussag Aktiengesellschaft (" Preussag ").

[7] However, in mid-2000 Preussag acquired Thomas Cook's rival Thomson Travel and was forced to sell its majority 50.1% stake in Thomas Cook by regulatory authorities. In 2002, Thomas Cook was acquired by the German company C&N Touristic AG, which later changed its name to Thomas Cook AG . The group is jointly owned by Lufthansa and Karstadt . In 2007, Thomas Cook announced a merger with competitor MyTravel with the new group to be called Thomas Cook Group plc and listed on the London Stock Exchange. The transaction was completed in June 2007 following competition authority clearance. The new group is 51% owned by Arcandor (new name of Karstadt). Thomas Cook made a controversial business move in 2008, buying out Canadian travel wholesaler IFS Voyages (including Fun Sun Vacations, Intair, Exotik Tours, Boomerang Tours, etc). References ^ a b c d e Andrew Williamson (2001). The Golden Age of Travel (Travel Heritage). Thomas Cook. ISBN 9781900341332.

^ Ingle, R., 1991 Thomas Cook of Leicester, Bangor, Headstart History

Question: Who arranged an outing for temperance campaigners from Leicester to Loughborough on July 1841, the first organized holiday excursion?
Answer: Thomas Cook