Thomas Cook: the father of the package tour

Thomas Cook was born in England in 1808. He was a wood-turner/printer and the secretary of him church in Leicester.

In 1841 he organized a rail travel for the members of his church from Leicester to Loughborough, it was around trip that included the cost of the rail ticket and the food on the journey.

In 1845 he arranged a two-day return trip to Liverpool for the general public, before he bought the train tickets, personally contacted the hotel staff and the price included travel, meals and accommodation.

After these trip, Cook went on to organize trips all over Britain and Europe.

In 1851 he published the world's first travel magazine which had details of trips, advice to travellers and articles and reports about the places to visit.

In 1854 he gave up his job as a wood-turner/printer.

Thomas Cook with his son John Mason introduced a circular ticket and they organised a system of coupons which people bought at home and exchanged in the foreign country for a hotel room and meals.

In 1868 a group visited the Holy land equipped with tents because there were no hotels there.

In the early 1870s they introduced traveller's cheques, called also circular notes and he arranged the first Round the World Tour, which lasted about 7 months.

Then he created his own fleet of luxury boats to sail along the river Nile.

Thomas Cook died in 1892, but the age of mass tourism began.

Vocabulary

Round trip: it's a trip going and coming back.

Give up: it's when you stop doing something.

Circular ticket: it's a single ticket to cover one journey instead of a number of tickets from all the railway companies involved.

Coupon: it's a small piece of paper that people buy at home and exchange in the foreign country for a hotel room and meals.

Traveller's cheque: it's a cheque bought from a bank or travel agency that can be exchanged for the money of the foreign country, it's simple to use and it's safe.

Mass tourism: it's a kind of tourism that a lot of people do together at the same time and they use the same services.