The history of Thomas Cook plays an important role in the growth and development of the tourism industry. Thomas Cook is (or was) one of the biggest names in travel. Without this company, the tourism industry would not look the way that it does today.
This article looks at the history of Thomas Cook, from its founder’s first excursion in 1841 to the company’s collapse in 2019, to explain why it is such an important part in the overall history of tourism.
- The history of Thomas Cook: the very beginning
- Thomas Cook’s first excursions
- The history of Thomas Cook & Son
- Moving further afield
- The history of Thomas Cook’s other successes
- The modern history of Thomas Cook
- The 1980s onwards
- The collapse of Thomas Cook
- The future of Thomas Cook
- History of Thomas Cook: Further reading
The history of Thomas Cook: the very beginning
Thomas Cook wasn’t just a company- there was a face behind the name! Thomas Cook himself was born in 1808 in Melbourne, Derbyshire, in the UK.
Business-minded from an early age, he started working for a local gardener at the age of 10. He earned six pence per week. At 14 he started an apprenticeship with his uncle, John Pegg, and worked for five years as a cabinet maker. He also became a Baptist missionary in 1826, touring the area as a village evangelist.
Later, in 1832, Thomas Cook moved to Market Harborough. On New Year’s Day 1833 he took the Temperance pledge. This meant he was part of a movement against the consumption of alcohol. Cook hosted meetings and held anti-liquor processions.
Thomas Cook’s first excursions
While walking to a Temperance Society meeting, Thomas Cook had an idea.
He decided, due to the extended Midland Counties Railway, that he would take a group of his fellow campaigners from Leicester Campbell Street Railway Station across to Loughborough to attend a teetotal rally. It was an 11 mile distance.
On July 5th 1841, Cook took around 500 people to this rally. They each paid one shilling for the privilege of a return journey with food and entertainment. He saw an instant demand for more of the same and the history of Thomas Cook had begun.
Over the next few years Cook planned and executed various excursions.
In August 1845 he took a group from Leicester to Liverpool, having visited himself beforehand to arrange deals with hotels and restaurants as part of the overall trip experience for his clients.
In 1846 he arranged for 350 people to travel from Leicester to Scotland.
Then in 1851, Cook arranged for more than 150,000 people to travel to the Great Exhibition in London.
Four years later, in 1855, he arranged his first trip abroad. This was a grand circular tour of Belgium, Germany and France with the final stop being Paris for the Exposition Universelle.
The history of Thomas Cook and the history of tourism go hand in hand, as the rest of this article shows.
The history of Thomas Cook & Son
In 1865, Cook opened business premises in London on Fleet Street. This was always an important through route in the city, with businesses having been established here since the Middle Ages. It eventually became the home of British national newspapers, which it remained until the 1980s.
The history of Thomas Cook as a brand was born on Fleet Street. It was an office for Cook but also a shop: it sold guide books, footwear, telescopes, luggage and other travel essentials and accessories.
Cook introduced the hotel coupon in 1868, refining the business model. Essentially, Thomas Cook had a list of businesses (hotels as well as restaurants) and customers could buy coupons which were to be exchanged for a meal or overnight stay at one of these establishments.
In 1871, Cook made his son, John Mason Cook, who was already working for him, a full partner, and the business became Thomas Cook & Son. John provided a lot of commercial expertise, which allowed the company to grow.
Cook also opened a temperance hotel with his wife, Marianne Mason, located above the office.
Moving further afield
A lot was happening at once. In 1866, the year after the Fleet Street office opened, the history of Thomas Cook moved slightly further afield.
The agency launched escorted tours of the US for British travellers, and they were the first to do so! John was the one to lead these excursions, which included tours of Civil War battlefields and more.
Later, in 1871, a partnership was born: Cook, Son and Jenkins. This was with an American businessman, but it didn’t last long and is largely forgotten about.
In 1872, Thomas Cook himself led the company’s first round-the-world tour, which lasted 222 days. The group crossed the Atlantic by steamship, travelled across America by train, took a paddle steamer across the Pacific to Japan, and then travelled on to China and India before returning via Egypt.
In the 1880s, when Thomas Cook himself had retired, John and his three sons grew the company even more. They were involved with military transport while organising tours to and of the Middle East; in 1884, Thomas Cook & Son transported British troops up the Nile for the relief expedition to Khartoum.
By 1888, there were offices around the world. The history of Thomas Cook is one that started in Leicester and before long, was present in Australia, New Zealand and many other far-flung corners of the globe.
The history of Thomas Cook’s other successes
There are plenty of other things that Thomas Cook as a brand introduced to the travel industry.
For example, in 1874, Cook introduced something he called ‘circular notes’. These were essentially early travellers’ cheques, which offered people a secure way of using currency abroad without having to carry large amounts of cash around at any one time. The idea went on to be very popular.
Cook’s Continental Timetable launched in 1873 as a quarterly publication. It moved to being published monthly later, in 1883, and is now known as the European Rail Timetable. It was proposed by Thomas Cook employee John Bredall who thought it would be wise to publish a compendium of timetables for steamships and trains across the European continent. A softcover book, it shows all major lines and most minor lines too. Publishing was suspended in August 1939 due to World War II, and it picked up again during 1946.
It is still published today under its new name – but Thomas Cook stopped publishing it in 2013. A new company, European Rail Timetable Ltd, was born; owned by John Potter, a former member of editorial staff for the timetable, it still makes the book today. This is alongside the digital version which launched in 2016. The timetable is widely used by tourists and business travellers as well as book shops, librarians, travel agents and high-profile travel writers.
The modern history of Thomas Cook
What started as a family business didn’t stay that way. During the Edwardian times, travel became a much more popular activity and the business (now being run by John Mason Cook’s sons) was going extremely well. However, they sold the business to Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et de Grandes Express Europèens in 1928. This was the company who operated the Orient Express.
During World War II, however, the Paris HQ of Wagons-Lit was taken by the Germans after the Fall of France. The British assets were also taken over – by the Custodian of Enemy Property, who handled property claims created by war. Later, in 1942, Thomas Cook & Son was sold to Hays Wharf Cartage Company, which led to the company (Thomas Cook) being nationalised in 1948. It was part of the British Transport Commission.
In the 1950s, Thomas Cook moved into package holidays, working with airlines to sell all-inclusive tours to foreign destinations such as France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain. However, it was slow to compete with the cheaper package holiday operators that emerged in the 1960s, and it struggled financially. The company was privatised in 1972.
It was now owned by a consortium made up of Trust House Forte, Midland Bank and the Automobile Association. Five years later in 1977, Midland Bank acquired sole control of Thomas Cook and started to move administrative functions to Peterborough. By this time, the company was no longer known as Thomas Cook & Son, Ltd. It was now Thomas Cook Group Ltd.
The 1980s onwards
During the 1980s, Thomas Cook expanded internationally, and its travellers’ cheques and foreign exchange business became an important part of the company.
In 1992, Midland Bank was acquired by HSBC, which sold Thomas Cook to WestLB, a German bank, and the charter airline LTU Group. Amex bought the corporate side of things in 1994, and in 1999 Thomas Cook merged with the Carlson Leisure Group. In 2001, German travel group C&N Touristic (owner of the airline Condor and the Neckermann brand) acquired Thomas Cook and adopted its name, and in 2007 Thomas Cook AG merged with UK tour operator MyTravel to form Thomas Cook Group plc.
By this time Thomas Cook had become a household name. The group had thousands of travel agencies and tour operators in the UK and partnerships around the world. The organisation demonstrated both vertical and horizontal integration, giving it a significant share of, and influence over, the market. There were many subsidiaries of Thomas Cook too.
The collapse of Thomas Cook
On 23 September 2019, Thomas Cook Group collapsed.
The collapse affected around 600,000 holidaymakers around the world, and led to the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s Operation Matterhorn – the largest peacetime repatriation in British history – which flew around 150,000 customers home. Around 9,000 jobs were lost in the UK and 21,000 worldwide. There were many causes of the collapse, including heavy debts, competition from online travel agencies and low-cost airlines, Brexit uncertainty, high fuel costs, and the impact of terrorism and political unrest on some of its key destinations. Hays Travel later acquired all 555 of Thomas Cook’s UK stores, saving around 2,500 jobs.
The collapse of Thomas Cook shocked the world. The history of Thomas Cook was long and the company had established itself as a key player in the tourism industry marketplace. There is not one reason why the company collapsed, but rather a plethora of reasons. Many analysts argue that the company failed to innovate quickly enough.
For example, some argue that it could have moved more quickly into online sales and niche tourism products, and focused less on traditional mass tourism and high-street shops, as consumers had been moving in this direction for some time.
The future of Thomas Cook
The Thomas Cook brand did not disappear entirely.
In November 2019, Chinese conglomerate Fosun International, which had been a Thomas Cook shareholder, paid around £11 million for the company’s brand, trademarks, websites and social media accounts. In September 2020, it relaunched Thomas Cook as an online travel agency with a much smaller team.
The new Thomas Cook is very different from the company that pioneered package travel, but the brand continues to trade, and the story of Thomas Cook remains one of the most important case studies in the history of tourism.
Thomas Cook: FAQs
Below are answers to some of the most common questions about Thomas Cook.
Who was Thomas Cook?
Thomas Cook (1808–1892) was an English Baptist preacher and temperance campaigner who organised his first excursion in 1841 and went on to found one of the world’s first and most famous travel companies.
What was Thomas Cook’s first trip?
On 5 July 1841, Thomas Cook organised a railway excursion for around 500 temperance campaigners from Leicester to a rally in Loughborough, at a cost of one shilling each.
What did Thomas Cook invent?
Thomas Cook pioneered the organised group tour and package travel, and the company introduced hotel coupons (1868), circular notes – an early form of travellers’ cheque (1874) – and Cook’s Continental Timetable (1873).
When did Thomas Cook collapse?
Thomas Cook Group collapsed on 23 September 2019, leading to the largest peacetime repatriation in British history, as around 150,000 UK customers were flown home.
Does Thomas Cook still exist?
Yes, as a brand. Chinese group Fosun bought the Thomas Cook brand in 2019 and relaunched it as an online travel agency in 2020.
History of Thomas Cook: Further reading
Books on the history of Thomas Cook include Thomas Cook: The Holiday Maker by Jill Hamilton and Thomas Cook: 150 Years of Popular Tourism by Piers Brendon. If you found this article useful, these articles may also be of interest:
- The fascinating history of tourism
- The Grand Tour
- What is package tourism?
- Horizontal and vertical integration: Made easy
- Types of travel agents
