Thomas Cook was a British businessman, universally recognised as the father of the modern tourism industry. In 1841 he organised a trip for 485 temperance campaigners from Leicester to a teetotal conference in Loughborough. He charged them one shilling (5p) each for the return journey.
In 1845 he took for a party from Leicester to Liverpool and in 1846, he took 350 people from Leicester to tour Scotland. Then in 1851 he took a 150,000 people to visit the Great Exhibition in London. Four years on, he organised his first international excursion and took travellers on a tour of Belgium, Germany and France ending up at the Paris Exhibition.
In 1865 he set up shop in Fleet Street in London where he sold his holidays, utilising a network of approved hotels and travel partners. He also sold everything the discerning traveller would need, clothes, shoes, maps, guide books and luggage. The first package holidays and the modern tourism industry was born.
Thomas Cook’s most famous booking was when the British Government asked them to organise a relief expedition to try and rescue General Gordon from the siege of Khartoum in 1884. A large flotilla of the company’s steamboats, which would normally take well healed–tourists on trips down the Nile to visit the various points of interest along the way, was hired by the British Army to transport a relief force of Egyptian troops instead.
The rescue mission was unsuccessful and although none of Cook’s steamers actually reached Khartoum, the company could not offer its usual tourist programme during the rescue operation, or even after as most of its steamers had been seriously damaged in the attempt.
Delays, cancelations, disgruntled travellers, refunds and claims for compensation ensued. Yes, the modern tourism industry as we know and love it today, truly was born.
In 2023, it is expected that the revenue generated by Travel and Tourism will reach an estimated £680 Billion worldwide. This is expected to grow at a rate of 2,23% annually over the next four years to reach almost £750 Billion in 2027. The largest proportion of that money will come in the form of hotel revenues to the tune of £325 Billion, with an estimated peak of 1,333 Million service users by 2027.
Tourism is indeed big business. And yet, at a time of unprecedented growth, with so many indicators pointing to continued growth in the future, some of our most familiar names in tourism have disappeared from the world scene.
Superbreaks, Late Rooms, Shearing’s Coaches, Fly365, Flybe, Air Mauritius and dare we say it, Thomas Cook.
The New York Times reported in September 2019.
“Hundreds of thousands of vacationers were left stranded when one of the world’s oldest tour companies, Thomas Cook, abruptly announced Monday, with some of its flights still in the air, that it was going out of business.”
“Amid scenes of confusion at European airports, British officials scrambled to bring home 150,000 travelers, chartering dozens of jets to bring people home from as far away as Malaysia. It was described as the largest peacetime repatriation effort in the country’s history.”
“In Crete, alone, the tour company brought 400,000 visitors this year. Michalis Vlatakis, the head of the Greek island’s union of tour operators, described its collapse as a “7-magnitude earthquake.”
Did the British government rush to the aid of this ailing institution and one time ally. Not quite. The NYT went on to report.
“If Thomas Cook’s customers were surprised, British officials had less reason to be. The government had refused to mount a financial rescue of the battered company; doing so, Mr. Johnson said, would create a “moral hazard” by encouraging other troubled companies to take undue risks.”
To many holiday makers, the very thought of flying overseas as become “an undue risk” and they are opting to stay at home this year. But even this comes as a welcome development in the tourism business.
Neil Bevan, General Manager at The Manor & Ashbury Resorts in Devon confided; “It has been exciting to see more and more people joining us to explore this beautiful part of the country. it’s a fantastic holiday destination, especially for families.”
