Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,787
On July 5, 1841, the Baptist lay preacher Thomas Cook...
... organizes a train journey of 570 abstinence activists from his hometown Leicester to nearby Loughborough.
For a ridiculously low price of one shilling per person, participants can book a trip that Cook has organized down to the last detail:
The 3rd class train journey (round trip without seating, in open Midland Railway wagons), the food on site (a ham sandwich and a cup of tea for each participant), the sightseeing program, the transfers in carriages and everything else!
Actually, Thomas Cook didn't think about making money when organizing the trip, but wanted to get the participants (more or less "dry" alcoholics) away from the gin bottle and into the fresh air.
"Connecting people with people and people with God" is his motto!
But the thing starts so successfully that he switches and becomes a tourism operator!
Excursions to Liverpool (1845), Scotland (1846) and the World Exhibition in London (1851) followed.
The first trip to mainland Europe takes place in 1855. On May 17, 1861, Cook organized a trip for workers by train and ship to Paris. For the first time, all expenses for accommodation and meals are included in the price ...:
In 1869 Thomas Cook organized the first tour to Egypt (including the Nile cruise at Luxor), which he himself led, for British and Americans...:
And because the British are so enthusiastic about Egypt, Cook bought his own Nile flotilla shortly afterwards!
In 1872 he organized a 222-day trip around the world, covering 40,000 km.
The man is so resourceful and thinks of almost everything that the British government also entrusts him with special tasks, such as organizing state visits by foreign rulers and potentates!
When Cook died in his home in Leicester on July 19, 1892, he left his son with a well-known and very successful travel company!
At the beginning of the 2000s, "Thomas Cook" was one of the major global "players" on the international tourism market ...:
The trip that Cook organized on July 5, 1841 can rightly be called the birth of organized mass tourism.
His monument ...
... stands at Leicester near the train station, exactly where he ran his travel agency ...:
The headquarters in the early 2000s was of course larger, but is still in Cook's hometown Leicester - and not in London.
The achievements of the company's founder were commemorated on the facade of the building...:
Unfortunately, the successors of the company's founder didn't understand as much about the business as he did!
At the night of September 22-23, 2019, the Thomas Cook Group applied for the forced liquidation.
The company is now history...
... organizes a train journey of 570 abstinence activists from his hometown Leicester to nearby Loughborough.
For a ridiculously low price of one shilling per person, participants can book a trip that Cook has organized down to the last detail:
The 3rd class train journey (round trip without seating, in open Midland Railway wagons), the food on site (a ham sandwich and a cup of tea for each participant), the sightseeing program, the transfers in carriages and everything else!
Actually, Thomas Cook didn't think about making money when organizing the trip, but wanted to get the participants (more or less "dry" alcoholics) away from the gin bottle and into the fresh air.
"Connecting people with people and people with God" is his motto!
But the thing starts so successfully that he switches and becomes a tourism operator!
Excursions to Liverpool (1845), Scotland (1846) and the World Exhibition in London (1851) followed.
The first trip to mainland Europe takes place in 1855. On May 17, 1861, Cook organized a trip for workers by train and ship to Paris. For the first time, all expenses for accommodation and meals are included in the price ...:
In 1869 Thomas Cook organized the first tour to Egypt (including the Nile cruise at Luxor), which he himself led, for British and Americans...:
And because the British are so enthusiastic about Egypt, Cook bought his own Nile flotilla shortly afterwards!
In 1872 he organized a 222-day trip around the world, covering 40,000 km.
The man is so resourceful and thinks of almost everything that the British government also entrusts him with special tasks, such as organizing state visits by foreign rulers and potentates!
When Cook died in his home in Leicester on July 19, 1892, he left his son with a well-known and very successful travel company!
At the beginning of the 2000s, "Thomas Cook" was one of the major global "players" on the international tourism market ...:
The trip that Cook organized on July 5, 1841 can rightly be called the birth of organized mass tourism.
His monument ...
... stands at Leicester near the train station, exactly where he ran his travel agency ...:
The headquarters in the early 2000s was of course larger, but is still in Cook's hometown Leicester - and not in London.
The achievements of the company's founder were commemorated on the facade of the building...:
Unfortunately, the successors of the company's founder didn't understand as much about the business as he did!
At the night of September 22-23, 2019, the Thomas Cook Group applied for the forced liquidation.
The company is now history...
