THOMAS COOK

For millions of people around the world, the name Thomas Cook means traveller's cheques and travel agencies -but who was Thomas Cook? He was the first person to develop mass tourism. He organized excursions and tours which opened up the world of travelling for pleasure to the middle classes. Many of the things which we now take for granted in modern tourism date back to Thomas Cook - things like traveller's cheques, hotel vouchers, and chartered transport.

Thomas Cook lived in Leicester in the centre of England in the mid-19th century. He organized his first tour, a railway excursion from Leicester to Loughborough, in 1841. A total of 570 passengers joined it. The excursion was so successful that Cook organized other similar events. All of the early tours used the newly-invented railways.

Cook organized his first major continental tour in 1855 but it lost money. However, by 1862 he had managed to negotiate cheaper rates for crossing the English Channel. The cheaper rates were in return for a guarantee that he would bring large numbers - the essence of mass tourism. Tours to France and to Switzerland became regular events. The Swiss in particular quickly recognized the need to build the things that the tourists wanted - hotels and other facilities - so a whole tourist industry began to develop. After the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt also became a popular destination for Cook's tours. In the early 1870s he organized the first round-the-world tour, lasting 222 days.

So in a little over thirty years the foundations of modern mass tourism were established.