http://www.thomascook.

com/thomas-cook-history/
Thomas Cook History
Thomas Cook is the world’s best-known name in travel, thanks to the inspiration and dedication
of a single man. Thomas Cook began his international travel company in 1841, with a successful
one-day rail excursion at a shilling a head from Leicester to Loughborough on 5 July. From these
humble beginnings Thomas Cook launched a whole new kind of company – devoted to helping
Britons see the world.
View key dates of Thomas Cook history
A Brief History
On 9 June 1841 a 32-year old cabinet-maker named Thomas Cook walked from his home in
Market Harborough to the nearby town of Leicester to attend a temperance meeting. A former
Baptist preacher, Thomas Cook was a religious man who believed that most Victorian social
problems were related to alcohol and that the lives of working people would be greatly improved
if they drank less and became better educated. As he walked along the road to Leicester, he later
recalled, 'the thought suddenly flashed across my mind as to the practicability of employing the
great powers of railways and locomotion for the furtherance of this social reform'.
At the meeting, Thomas suggested that a special train be engaged to carry the temperance
supporters of Leicester to a meeting in Loughborough about four weeks later. The proposal was
received with such enthusiasm that, on the following day, Thomas submitted his idea to the
secretary of the Midland Railway Company. A train was subsequently arranged, and on 5 July
1841 about 500 passengers were conveyed in open carriages the enormous distance of 12 miles
and back for a shilling. The day was a great success and, as Thomas later recorded, 'thus was
struck the keynote of my excursions, and the social idea grew upon me'. 
Early Tours
During the next three summers Thomas arranged a succession of trips between Leicester,
Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham on behalf of local temperance societies and Sunday
schools. Within these limits many thousands of people experienced rail travel for the first time,
and Thomas was able to lay the foundations of his future business. He later described this period
as one of 'enthusiastic philanthropy' since, beyond the printing of posters and handbills, he had
no financial interest in any of these early excursions.
Thomas Cook's first commercial venture took place in the summer of 1845, when he organised a
trip to Liverpool. This was a far more ambitious project than anything he had previously
attempted, and he made his preparations with great thoroughness. Not content with simply
providing tickets at low prices - 15 shillings for first-class passengers and 10 shillings for second.
Thomas also investigated the route and published a handbook of the journey. This 60-page
booklet was a forerunner of the modern holiday brochure.
The Great Exhibition
By the end of 1850, having already visited Wales, Scotland and Ireland, Thomas Cook began to
contemplate foreign trips to Europe, the United States and the Holy Land. Such thoughts had to
be postponed, however, when Sir Joseph Paxton, architect of the Crystal Palace, persuaded
Thomas to devote himself to bringing workers from Yorkshire and the Midlands to London for
the Great Exhibition of 1851. This he did with great enthusiasm, rarely spending a night at home
between June and October, and he even produced a newspaper, Cook's Exhibition Herald and
Excursion Advertiser, in order to promote his tours. By the end of the season Thomas had taken
150,000 people to London, his final trains to the Exhibition carrying 3,000 children from
Leicester, Nottingham and Derby.
Across the Channel
Thomas continued to expand his business in Britain, but he was determined to develop it in
Europe too. In 1855 an International Exhibition was held in Paris for the first time and Thomas
seized this opportunity by trying to persuade the companies commanding the Channel traffic to
allow him concessions. They refused to work with him, however, and the only route he was able
to use was the one between Harwich and Antwerp. This opened up the way for a grand circular
tour to include Brussels, Cologne, the Rhine, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden, Strasbourg and Paris,
returning to London via Le Havre or Dieppe. By this route, during the summer of 1855, Thomas
escorted his first tourists to Europe.
Switzerland and Italy
Thomas visited Switzerland for the first time in June 1863. Although this initial tour was little
more than an information-gathering trip, a party of more than 60 ladies and gentlemen
accompanied Thomas as far as Geneva. Among these pioneering tourists was a young woman
called Jemima Morrell, who maintained a written account of each day's events. Her original
diaries may be studied today in the Thomas Cook Archives. Thomas organised further trips to
the Continent in 1863, and by the end of the season he had taken nearly 2000 tourists to Paris,
some 500 of whom had continued to Switzerland. With the co-operation of the Paris, Lyons and
Mediterranean Railway, Thomas began to issue circular tickets (in both English and French)
between Paris and the Alps. He then established the first circular tours of Switzerland, which
were such an immediate success that he decided to extend his arrangements across the Alps. The
first Italian tours took place in the summer of 1864, when Thomas escorted two large groups, one
to Florence and parts of central Italy, the other to Rome and Naples.
Hotel Coupons and Circular Notes
Thomas's travellers to Switzerland and Italy were from the growing middle classes and they
expected better accommodation than his earlier working-class customers had. He therefore set
out to negotiate with innkeepers and hotel proprietors to provide rooms and meals at good prices.
His friendship with hoteliers, who were pleased to get his business, enabled Thomas to develop
two important travel systems: one was the hotel coupon, launched in 1868, which travellers
could use to pay for hotel accommodation and meals instead of using money; the other was his
circular note, first issued in 1874 and a forerunner of the travellers cheque, which enabled
tourists to obtain local currency in exchange for a paper note issued by Thomas Cook.
Beyond Europe
Building on his successes in Europe, Thomas made an exploratory trip to North America in 1865
and set up a system of tours covering 4,000 miles of railways. Four years later, in 1869, he hired
two steamers and conducted his first party up the Nile. The climax of his career, however, came
in September 1872 when, at the age of 63, he departed from Leicester on a tour of the world that
would keep him away from home for almost eight months. It had long been his ambition to travel
'to Egypt via China', but such a trip only became practicable at the end of 1869 following the
opening of the Suez Canal and the completion of a rail network linking the east and west coasts
of America.
Thomas and his small party crossed the Atlantic by steamship and made their way through the
United States from New York to San Francisco by rail. They travelled by Pacific steamer to
Japan, then across the Inland Sea to China, and afterwards visited Singapore, Ceylon and India.
Leaving Bombay, they crossed the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to Cairo, from where most of
the party travelled back to London. Thomas himself, however, set off on an extended tour of
Egypt and Palestine, finally returning home via Turkey, Greece, Italy and France after an
absence of 222 days. The conducted world tour quickly became an annual event, but many
additional tickets were issued to independent travellers, some of whom went via Australia and
New Zealand rather than China and Japan.
John Mason Cook
While Thomas was travelling round the world, his son, John Mason Cook, successfully
completed the firm's move to a new head office at Ludgate Circus. However, father and son
argued over certain aspects of the project and in 1878 their partnership ended. John was a better
businessman than Thomas, and he set about expanding the company internationally. In an age
when telegraphy was in its infancy and there were no telephones or fax machines, this was far
from easy.
John created overseas editions of The Excursionist, the newspaper started by his father in 1851,
to inform customers in places such as France, Germany, India, Australasia, America and the Far
East about the services he offered. (This newspaper, which became known as The Traveller's
Gazette in May 1902, continued to be published until 1939.) He also kept up a continuous stream
of correspondence with his offices abroad, checking on their work and complaining if anything
went wrong. Like many successful businessmen, John Mason Cook combined a flair for grasping
business opportunities with a remarkable memory for small details.
The Gordon Relief Expedition
In 1884 John Mason Cook was asked by the British Government to organise a relief expedition
up the Nile to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum. Arrangements were made for the
movement of 18,000 troops, nearly 40,000 tons of supplies, 40,000 tons of coal and 800
whaleboats. To transport the coal from Tyneside to Boulac and Assiout via Alexandria, 28 large
steamers and 6000 railway trucks were required. An additional 7000 railway trucks were needed
for the military stores, while on the Nile 27 steamers and 650 sailing boats were used to carry the
troops and supplies. John and his Egyptian managers acted as overseers of the entire operation,
which relied on the labour of 5000 local men and boys, and completed their side of the contract
in November 1884. Despite all the efforts, however, Khartoum fell in January 1885 and Gordon
was killed.
Frank, Ernest and Bert
Thomas and John Mason Cook both died during the 1890s and the business was inherited by
John's three sons: Frank Henry, Ernest Edward and Thomas Albert ('Bert'). During the first
quarter of the twentieth century - a period which saw the introduction of winter sports holidays,
tours by motor car and commercial air travel - the firm of Thos Cook and Son dominated the
world travel scene.
The company was incorporated as Thos Cook & Son Ltd in 1924, and in 1926 the headquarters
moved from Ludgate Circus to Berkeley Street, Mayfair, a once aristocratic area which was now
the centre of London society. Then, in 1928, the surviving grandsons, Frank and Ernest (Bert
having died in 1914), unexpectedly sold the business to the Belgian Compagnie Internationale
des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens, operators of most of Europe's luxury
sleeping cars, including the Orient Express.
From Wagons-Lits to British Railways
Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, the Wagons-Lits headquarters in Paris was seized by
occupying forces, and Cook's British assets were requisitioned by the British Government. To
save the company from complete financial collapse in its centenary year, a deal was brokered
and, fittingly, the organisation was sold to Britain's four mainline railway companies. Thos Cook
& Son Ltd settled its affairs with Wagons-Lits (which retained a 25% share in Cook's overseas)
immediately after the war, and in 1948 the firm became state-owned as part of the nationalised
British Railways.
The Fifties and Sixties
Thomas Cook & Son Ltd benefited from the post-war holiday boom, which saw one million
Britons travelling abroad by 1950. The company set up a Business Travel Service and
refurbished its holiday camp at Prestatyn (which had opened shortly before the outbreak of war).
Although Cook's remained the largest and most successful company in the industry, its pre-
eminence was now being challenged by new travel firms that were able to undercut Cook's prices
and offer cheap package deals. In 1965 the company's net profits exceeded £1 million for the
first time, but in an increasingly cut-throat marketplace Thomas Cook began to fall behind its
younger rivals
De-nationalisation and Beyond
In 1972 Thomas Cook returned to private ownership, bought by a consortium of Midland Bank,
Trust House Forte and the Automobile Association. Radical reorganisation followed and a new,
standardised corporate logo (the words ‘Thomas Cook’ in ‘flame’ red) was soon introduced.
Thomas Cook managed to survive the recession of the 1970s – a recession that witnessed the
collapse of several travel firms – and enhanced its reputation for providing excellent service by
launching a Money Back Guarantee scheme in 1974.
Thomas Cook experienced many changes during the 1970s, including the sale of its holiday
camp at Prestatyn and the relocation of its administrative headquarters from London to
Peterborough. The firm also became a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Midland Bank Group.
During the 1980s Thomas Cook began to concentrate on its long-haul tours programme,
purchasing Rankin Kuhn Travel in 1982 and quitting the short-haul package tours market in
1988 (a market to which Thomas Cook successfully returned in 1996 when it acquired
Sunworld). Between 1985 and 1990, Thomas Cook also expanded its network of high street
shops through the acquisition of the retail chains Frames, Blue Sky and Four Corners.
The company's continued success was assured in 1992 when it was purchased from Midland
Bank by Westdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB), Germany’s third largest bank, and LTU Group,
Germany’s leading charter airline. Thomas Cook became a wholly-owned subsidiary of WestLB
in 1995. A period of expansion followed – which saw the acquisition of Sunworld, Time Off and
Flying Colours in quick succession – culminating in Thomas Cook's merger with Carlson
Leisure Group's UK travel interests and the subsequent formation of JMC (including JMC
Airlines) in 1999.
Into the 21st Century
In March 2001, following the sale of its Global and Financial Services division to Travelex,
Thomas Cook was acquired by C&N Touristic AG, one of Germany’s largest travel groups.
Within a matter of months, C&N Touristic AG had changed its name to Thomas Cook AG and
launched a new logo and brand identity. On 19 June 2007, Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel
Group plc merged to form Thomas Cook Group plc.
Another merger followed in October 2011, when Thomas Cook amalgamated its UK high street
travel and foreign exchange businesses with those of the Co-operative Group and the Midlands
Co-operative Society to create the UK’s largest retail travel network of over 1200 shops. On 1
October 2013 Thomas Cook officially unveiled its new unified brand to the world. The ‘Sunny
Heart’ and ‘Let’s go!’ tagline will form an important part of Thomas Cook’s future plans.
Thomas Cook Today
Today, Thomas Cook Group plc is one of the world’s leading leisure travel groups, with sales of
over £9 billion and more than 20 million customers. The group is supported by c.27,000
employees and operates from 17 countries. It is number one or two in all its core markets.
Thomas Cook’s vision is to deliver trusted, personalised holiday experiences through our high-
tech, high-touch strategy. We will be there for our customers wherever, whenever and however
they want to connect with us.
Thomas Cook’s timeless spirit of innovation started in 1841 and it is this that makes us stand out
from the crowd. It is reflected in our new, trusted products and growing suite of online tools and
applications (such as “RepAdvisor” and “DreamCapture”). Innovation shaped our past and it will
continue to shape our future.
Further Reading
W. Fraser Rae, The Business of Travel - A Fifty Years' Record of Progress (Thos Cook & Son,
1891)
John Pudney, The Thomas Cook Story (Michael Joseph, 1953)
Edmund Swinglehurst, The Romantic Journey - The story of Thomas Cook and Victorian
Travel (Pica Editions, 1974)
Edmund Swinglehurst, Cook's Tours - The Story of Popular Travel (Blandford Press, 1982)
Piers Brendon, Thomas Cook - 150 Years of Popular Tourism (Secker & Warburg, 1991)
Robert Ingle, Thomas Cook of Leicester (Headstart History, 1991)
Derek Seaton, The Local Legacy of Thomas Cook  (self-published, 1996)
Lynne Withey, Grand Tours and Cook's Tours - A History of Leisure Travel, 1750 to
1915 (Aurum Press, 1998)
Andrew Williamson, The Golden Age of Travel - The Romantic Years of Tourism in Images from
the Thomas Cook Archives (Thomas Cook Publishing, 1998)
Paul Smith, The History of Tourism - Thomas Cook and the Origins of Leisure Travel [boxed set
of four volumes] (Routledge/ Thoemmes Press, 1998)
Jill Hamilton, Thomas Cook - The Holiday Maker (Sutton, 2005)
http://www.thomascook.com/thomas-cook-history/key-dates/

Key Dates
1808 Thomas Cook is born on 22 November in the village of Melbourne in Derbyshire.
1834 John Mason Cook is born on 13 January in Market Harborough, near Leicester.
1841 Thomas Cook organises his first excursion, a rail journey from Leicester to a temperance
meeting in Loughborough. On Monday 5 July a special train carries some 500 passengers a
distance of 12 miles and back for one shilling.
1845 Thomas Cook conducts his first trip for profit. It is a railway journey to Liverpool from
Leicester, Nottingham and Derby. Fares are 15/- first class and 10/- second class, with a
supplementary charge for travelling by special steamer to North Wales
1846 Thomas visits Scotland for the first time. A party of about 350 people travels from
Leicester to Fleetwood, then to Ardrossan by steamer, and onwards by rail to Glasgow. Special
trips are made to Edinburgh, Stirling and Ayr.
1851 Thomas Cook promotes trips to the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. More than 150,000
people from Yorkshire and the Midlands, including a party of 3,000 children from Leicester,
Derby and Nottingham, travel to London under his arrangements.
- The Excursionist is published for the first time as Cook's Exhibition Herald and Excursion
Advertiser.
1855 Thomas Cook's first continental tour. He personally conducts two parties from Harwich to
Antwerp, then on to Brussels, Cologne, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Strasbourg and, finally, to Paris
for the International Exhibition.
1863 Thomas Cook conducts his first party of 62 people to Switzerland, via Paris. A journal of
this trip, kept by Miss Jemima Morrell, survives in the Thomas Cook Archives.
1864 John Mason Cook, aged 30, joins his father in business.
1865 Thomas Cook opens an office in Fleet Street, London, the upper floor of which is used as a
Temperance Boarding House.
1866 John Mason Cook personally conducts the first American tour.
1868 Thomas Cook introduces a system of hotel coupons (which he had tested the previous year)
in an attempt to get fixed prices for accommodation at selected hotels in all major cities.
1869 Thomas Cook escorts his first party to Egypt and Palestine.
1871 Thomas Cook & Son becomes the official name of the firm when John Mason Cook joins
his father as a business partner.
1872/73 Thomas Cook organises and leads the first round-the-world tour. He is away from home
for 222 days and covers more than 25,000 miles.
1873 Thomas Cook & Son opens its new head office at Ludgate Circus, London. Also the first
edition of Cook's Continental Time Tables & Tourist's Handbook is published.
1874 Cook's Circular Note, an early form of the travellers cheque, is launched in New York.
1878 A distinct Foreign Banking and Money Exchange Department is established.
1879 John Mason Cook becomes 'sole managing partner' of the company.
1884 The relief force sent to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum is conveyed up the Nile as
far as Wadi Halfa by Thomas Cook & Son.
1892 Thomas Cook dies, aged 83.
1898 Kaiser Wilhelm II's tour of the Holy Land is organised by John Mason Cook and his son
Frank.
- John Mason Cook dies suddenly at the age of 65. The company passes into the hands of his
three sons: Frank, Ernest and Thomas ('Bert').
1908 Thomas Cook & Son issues its first winter sports brochure.
1919 Thomas Cook & Son is the first travel agent to offer pleasure trips by air.
1922 Thomas Cook & Son organises the first tour to cover the whole length of the African
continent. The tour lasts five months and includes a one-month safari.
1924 Thomas Cook & Son Ltd is incorporated.
The head office of Thomas Cook & Son Ltd moves to Berkeley Street in London's Mayfair
district.
1927 Thomas Cook & Son Ltd organises the first personally-conducted air tour - from New York
to Chicago for the Dempsey-Tunney heavyweight boxing contest.
1928 Frank and Ernest Cook, the two surviving grandsons of Thomas Cook (Bert having died in
1914), retire, selling the business to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des
Grands Express Européens.
1939 Holidays by air on specially chartered aircraft to the French Riviera are included in Cook's
summer brochure for the first time.
1948 Thomas Cook & Son Ltd becomes state-owned under the British Transport Holding
Company.
1959 Thomas Cook introduces to business clients a new worldwide credit scheme for travel and
related services.
1966 Thomas Cook's 125th anniversary.
1972 Thomas Cook is privatised and bought by a consortium of Midland Bank, Trust House
Forte and the Automobile Association.
1974 Thomas Cook launches a customer protection guarantee in UK retail shops.
1977 Thomas Cook opens its new administrative headquarters at Thorpe Wood in Peterborough.
- Midland Bank buys out Trust House Forte and the Automobile Association to become the sole
owners of Thomas Cook.
1980 Thomas Cook Travel Book Awards first presented.
1981 Thomas Cook introduces 'Holidaymaker', a private viewdata system allowing travel agents
to access directly Thomas Cook Holidays reservation system.
1982 Thomas Cook purchases Rankin Kuhn Travel Ltd
1986 Airfare Warehouse is launched.
1989 The long-standing agreement with Wagons-Lits comes to an end and the development of a
new worldwide network begins.
1990 Thomas Cook becomes the world's leading foreign exchange retailer when it acquires the
retail foreign exchange operations of Deak International Inc.
1991 Thomas Cook celebrates its 150th anniversary. A 34-day round-the-world trip is arranged
to commemorate this occasion, and a re-enactment of the first railway excursion from Leicester
to Loughborough takes place on 5 July.
1992 Westdeutsche Landesbank, Germany's third largest bank, and the LTU Group, Germany's
leading charter airline, acquire the Thomas Cook Group from Midland Bank.
1994 Thomas Cook acquires Interpayment Services Limited, the travellers cheque subsidiary of
Barclays Bank plc, to become the world's largest supplier of travellers cheques outside the
United States.
- Following a major review of its global activities, Thomas Cook sells its travel management
business to American Express.
1995 Westdeutsche Landesbank acquires LTU's 10% share of the Thomas Cook Group, making
Thomas Cook a wholly-owned subsidiary of WestLB. Thomas Cook launches its own Internet
site.
1996 Thomas Cook acquires Sunworld, the UK and Ireland's fourth largest short-haul tour
operator, and Time Off, the specialist European city breaks tour operator.
- Thomas Cook announces plans to form the world's largest leisure travel alliance with the
American Automobile Association (AAA), subject to US regulatory clearance.
1997 Thomas Cook On-Line is launched, making Thomas Cook the first UK retail travel agency
to offer customers a way to buy holidays, foreign currency, travellers cheques and guidebooks
over the Internet.
 Thomas Cook Direct Businesses open a new call centre in Falkirk.
 Sunworld acquires the Flying Colours Leisure Group, one of the UK's medium-sized tour
operators and leisure airlines.
 Thomas Cook launches its Global Traveller Services business.
 Preussag AG acquires a 24.9% shareholding in Thomas Cook.

1999 The European Commission approves the merger of Thomas Cook and Carlson Leisure
Group's UK travel interests.
 Thomas Cook's worldwide headquarters in London moves out of Berkeley Street, where
it has been since 1926, to new premises in Midford Place.
  JMC is formed (by combining the former operating brands Sunworld, Sunset, Flying
Colours, Inspirations and Caledonian Airways) and becomes the UK's third largest tour
operator and airline business.
 Preussag AG becomes the majority shareholder in Thomas Cook Holdings Ltd when it
increases its stake from 24.9% to 50.1%. (WestLB retains a 27.9% interest and Carlson
Companies Inc. holds 22%.)
 2000 Thomas Cook announces the sale of its Global and Financial Services division to
Travelex on 8 November.
 C&N Touristic AG, one of Germany's largest travel groups, signs an agreement (on 7
December) to become the sole owner of Thomas Cook Holdings, subject to EC approval.
 Thomas Cook completes the sale of its Global and Financial Services division to
Travelex on 27 March.
 C&N Touristic AG becomes the sole owner of Thomas Cook on 30 March. C&N
Touristic AG changes its name to Thomas Cook AG and launches a new logo.
 Thomas Cook's 160th anniversary.

2002 Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium begins operating in March, serving holiday destinations in
the Mediterranean and on the Canary Islands with a fleet of five Airbus A320 aircraft.
Thomas Cook is set to become the first fully international leisure brand. The Thomas Cook brand
- hitherto used as the company's name as well as for its sales and service activities - will in future
appear in all markets and on all levels of the travel-related value chain.
2003/2004.Thomas Cook celebrates 150 years of taking Britain abroad - since the first ever
overseas holiday, and launches holidays to Brazil for the first time.
2004 Thomas Cook announces its partnership with the Variety Club of Great Britain as its
chosen charity. The relationship involves fundraising activity and Christmas flights for
underprivileged, sick and disabled children.
- A new 'dynamic packaging' brand, FlexibleTrips, is launched to enable customers to build their
own holidays in store and online.
2005 Thomas Cook UK & Ireland announces its greatest ever profits of £50 million over the
financial year 
2006 The company announces record profits of £83.3 million and achieves the 'holy grail' of the
travel industry, a five per cent profit margin. Thomas Cook is also listed as one of the Sunday
Times Top 20 Best big companies to work for.
2007 Thomas Cook becomes part of Thomas Cook Group plc which was formed on June 19th
2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc.
-In December Thomas Cook UK & Ireland becomes listed on the London Stock Exchange for
the first time.
2008 Thomas Cook Group acquires Canada’s TriWest Travel Holdings, French tour operator Jet
Tours, and UK independent travel companies hotels4u, Gold Medal and Elegant Resorts.
2009 Thomas Cook’s majority shareholder, Arcandor AG places its remaining shares on the
stock market, resulting in 100% of the Group’s shares being freely floated on the London Stock
Exchange.
 Thomas Cook becomes an Official Supporter of the London 2012 Olympic Games and
Paralympic Games and the exclusive partner for UK short breaks and trips to the Games.
 The Thomas Cook Children’s Charity is launched to help sick and disadvantaged
children.

2010 Following the earthquake in Haiti, Thomas Cook Group helps the Disasters Emergency
Committee, UNICEF and various charities to carry aid and relief personnel out to the affected
area.
 Thomas Cook Group acquires 100% of German tour operator, Öger Tours GmbH.
 Thomas Cook Group and The Co-operative Group announce plans to merge their UK
travel retail networks to create the UK’s largest chain of high-street agencies. The merger
is subject to anti-trust clearance from the EC, which is anticipated in December 2010.

http://www.thomascookgroup.com/history/

History

Thomas Cook is the world’s best-known name in travel, thanks to the inspiration and dedication
of a single man. Thomas Cook began his international travel company in 1841, with a successful
one-day rail excursion at a shilling a head from Leicester to Loughborough on 5 July. From these
humble beginnings Thomas Cook launched a whole new kind of company – devoted to helping
Britons see the world.

Today, Thomas Cook Group plc is one of the world’s leading leisure travel groups, with sales of
over £8.5 billion and more than 22 million customers. The group is supported by c.22,000
employees and operates from 15 countries. It is number one or two in all its core markets.
Thomas Cook’s vision is to deliver trusted, personalised holiday experiences through our high-
tech, high-touch strategy. We will be there for our customers wherever, whenever and however
they want to connect with us.

Thomas Cook
Thomas Cook (22 November 1808 – 18 July 1892) of Melbourne, Derbyshire, England founded
the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son (popularly nicknamed Cook's Tours) that
became Thomas Cook AG before eventually becoming Thomas Cook Group in 2007.
 Born 22 November 1808
Melbourne, Derbyshire

Died 18 July 1892

Nationality English

Organization Thomas Cook & Son

Religion Baptist

Life
Thomas Cook was born to John and Elizabeth Cook, who lived at 9 Quick Close in the village
of Melbourne, Derbyshire.[1][1]
The couple's first child, he was named after Elizabeth's father, Thomas Perkins. John Cook died
when Thomas was three years old, and his mother remarried later that same year.
At the age of 10, Cook started working as an assistant to a local market gardener for a wage of
six pence a week. At the age of 14, he secured an apprenticeship with John Pegg, and spent five
years as a cabinet maker.[1]
He was brought up as a strict Baptist, and joined his local Temperance Society. In February
1826, Cook became a preacher, and toured the region as a village evangelist, distributing
pamphlets, and occasionally working as a cabinet maker to earn money.[1] After working as a
part-time publisher of Baptist and Temperance pamphlets, he became a Baptist minister in 1828.
In 1832, Cook moved to Adam and Eve Street in Market Harborough. Influenced by the local
Baptist minister Francis Beardsall, he took the temperance pledge on New Year's Day in 1833.
As a part of the temperance movement, he organized meetings and held anti-liquor processions.[1]
On 3 March 1833, Cook married Marianne Mason. John Mason Cook, their only son, was born
on 13 January 1834.[1]Thomas Cook died on 18 July 1892, having been afflicted with blindness
in his declining years.[2]

The first-ever excursions[edit]

Panels from the Thomas Cook Building in Leicester, displaying excursions offered by Thomas
Cook

Cook's idea to offer excursions came to him while "walking from Market Harborough to
Leicester to attend a meeting of the Temperance Society". [3] With the opening of the
extended Midland Counties Railway, he arranged to take a group of 540temperance campaigners
from Leicester Campbell Street station to a rally inLoughborough, eleven miles away. On 5 July
1841, Thomas Cook arranged for the rail company to charge one shilling per person that
included rail tickets and food for this train journey. Cook was paid a share of the fares actually
charged to the passengers, as the railway tickets, being legal contracts between company and
passenger, could not have been issued at his own price. This was the first privately chartered
excursion train to be advertised to the general public, Cook himself acknowledging that there had
been previous, unadvertised, private excursion trains.[4] During the following three summers he
planned and conducted outings for temperance societies and Sunday-school children. In 1844 the
Midland Counties Railway Company agreed to make a permanent arrangement with him
provided he found the passengers. This success led him to start his own business running rail
excursions for pleasure, taking a percentage of the railway tickets.
Leicester railway station - this was built between 1892 and 1894 to replace, largely on the same
site,Campbell Street station, the origin for many of Cook's early tours.

On 4 August 1845 he arranged accommodation for a party to travel from Leicester to Liverpool.
In 1846, he took 350 people from Leicester on a tour of Scotland, however his lack of
commercial ability led him to bankruptcy. He persisted and found success when he claimed that
he arranged for over 165,000 people to attend the Great Exhibition in London. Four years later,
he planned his first excursion abroad, when he took a group from Leicester to Calais to coincide
with the Paris Exhibition. The following year he started his 'grand circular tours' of Europe.
During the 1860s he took parties to Switzerland, Italy, Egypt and United States. Cook
established 'inclusive independent travel', whereby the traveller went independently but his
agency charged for travel, food and accommodation for a fixed period over any chosen route.
Such was his success that the Scottish railway companies withdrew their support between 1862
and 1863 to try the excursion business for themselves.

Thomas Cook & Son[edit]

In 1872, he formed a partnership with his son, John A. Mason Cook, and renamed the travel
agency as Thomas Cook & Son.[2] They acquired business premises on Fleet Street, London. By
this time, Cook had stopped personal tours and became an agent for foreign or domestic travel.
The office also contained a shop which sold essential travel accessories, including guide books,
luggage, telescopes and footwear. Thomas saw his venture as both religious and social service;
his son provided the commercial expertise that allowed the company to expand.
In accordance with his beliefs, he and his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the
office. Their business model was refined by the introduction of the 'hotel coupon' in 1866.
Detachable coupons in a counterfoil book were issued to the traveller. These were valid for either
a restaurant meal or an overnight hotel stay provided they were on Cook's list.
Conflicts of interest between father and son were resolved when the son persuaded his father,
Thomas Cook, to retire in 1879. He moved back to Leicestershire and lived quietly until his
death.
The firm's growth was consolidated by John Mason Cook and his two sons, especially by its
involvement with military transport and postal services for Britain and Egypt during the 1880s,
when Cook began organising tours to the Middle East.
 By 1888, the company had established offices around the world, including three in Australia and
one in Auckland, New Zealand, and in 1890, the company sold over 3.25 million tickets.[5]
John Mason Cook promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the Middle East where he
was described as "the second-greatest man in Egypt".[5] However, while arranging for the
German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he contracted dysentery and died the
following year.
Thomas Cook Group
Thomas Cook Group plc is a British global travel company listed on theLondon Stock
Exchange. It was formed on 19 June 2007 by the merger ofThomas Cook AG, itself the
successor to Thomas Cook & Son, and MyTravel Group plc. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250
Index.
At the time of the merger, 52% of the shares in the new company were held by the German mail-
order and department store company Arcandor (the former owner of Thomas Cook AG) and 48%
owned by the shareholders of MyTravel Group. Arcandor filed for bankruptcy in June 2009,
[2]
 and its shares in Thomas Cook were sold in September 2009.[3]
The group owns a number of tour operators, as well as charter airlines based in the United
Kingdom, Belgium and Scandinavia. Thomas Cook also owns the scheduled airline Condor and
booking website Hotels4u.

Contents

 1 History
o 1.1 Formation

o 1.2 2000s

 2 Ownership

 3 Operations

 4 Sponsorship

 5 See also

 6 References

 7 External links
History[edit]
Formation[edit]
In February 2007, it was announced that the Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc were to
merge. The companies announced they expected to make savings of over £75 million a year,
following the integration of both businesses. Under the terms of the merger, the owners of
Thomas Cook AG, KarstadtQuelle (later Arcandor), owned 52% of the new group. The
shareholders of MyTravel Group owned the remaining 48% share.[4] The merger was completed
in June 2007,[5] and took place through the formation of 'NewCo' which effectively purchased
MyTravel and Thomas Cook and was then listed on the London Stock Exchange under the name
of Thomas Cook Group plc.[6]
2000s[edit]
On 14 February 2008, Thomas Cook bought booking website Hotels4U.com for £21.8 million.
[7]
 On 6 March 2008, the company bought back its licence to operate the Thomas Cook brand in
the Middle East and Asia from the Dubai Investment Group for an amount estimated to be
around 249 million euros.[8] In April 2008 Thomas Cook bought the luxury travel firmElegant
Resorts from its founders Geoff Moss and Barbara Catchpole for an undisclosed figure. [9] The
company took overPreston-based Gold Medal International, owner of NetFlights, in a deal worth
£87 million in December 2008.[10]
On 8 March 2009 Thomas Cook signed a deal with Octopus Media Technology to host, upload,
and provide an online video player for Thomas Cook TV. [11] In Spring 2009 Thomas Cook UK
signed a deal with International Entertainment Supplier The E3 Group, to exclusively supply
entertainment to the group.[12]
In June 2009, Thomas Cook's majority shareholder Arcandor filed for bankruptcy, although the
group was not affected.[2]Arcandor's shares in Thomas Cook were sold by its creditor banks in
September 2009.[3]
In July 2010, Thomas Cook Group bought German tourism company Öger Tours, which was
owned by Vural Öger.[13]

A Thomas Cook travel agency inLeeds, West Yorkshire showing the old logo.

A Thomas Cook travel agency with current logos in Cross Gates, Leeds.

It was announced on 8 October 2010 that Thomas Cook Group was to merge its branch network
with that of The Co-operative Travel to create the UK's largest travel network. The deal will see
the new network 70%-owned by Thomas Cook and 30%-owned by Co-operative Travel.
[14]
 Thomas Cook's Going Places branded branches were rebranded under the Co-operative's
brand.[15]
On 22 November 2011, Thomas Cook shares lost about three quarters of their value on the
London Stock Exchange after the company announced it was in talks with its banks about
increasing borrowing by some £100 million but the shares recovered somewhat the following
day. There were also reports that the company was planning to close 200 of its 1,200 travel
agencies and foreign exchange offices.[16]
In May 2012, Harriet Green was appointed as the chief executive officer of Thomas Cook
Group,[17] succeeding Manny Fontenla-Novoa who was CEO from 2003 until August 2011. On 1
July 2013, Thomas Cook announced that it would cease publishing the Thomas Cook European
Timetable, along with closure of the rest of its publishing business. The final edition of the
timetable was published in August 2013.[18]
On 26 November 2014, it was announced that Green was leaving with immediate effect, and
that Peter Fankhauser, the COO would take over as CEO.[19]

Ownership[edit]
Thomas Cook Group plc's three major shareholders as of October 2013 wereInvesco (11.9%),
Marathon Asset Management (4.12%) and Kames Capital (3.14%). The remainder of the stock
floats freely.[20]

Operations[edit]
An Airbus A321 of Thomas Cook Airlines lands at Bristol Airport in 2014

Thomas Cook Group operates in five main divisions, UK, Central Europe, German airlines, West
Europe and Northern Europe.[21]
With a joint fleet, at merger, of 97 aircraft, 2,926 stores, 32,722 employees, and over 19.1
million annual customers, the new group became the second largest travel company in Europe
and the UK, behind TUI Travel.[22]
The refusal by Thomas Cook to pay statutory EU compensation to customers who have been
cancelled or delayed, means that there is a substantial liability accruing on the Airline's balance
sheet.[23] Although it is a criminal offence not to pay this compensation, the company is actively
pursing this liability as a deliberate policy choice.[citation needed]

Sponsorship[edit]
Thomas Cook has been a main sponsor of Manchester City and Peterborough United football
clubs. On 22 May 2009, Manchester City announced that the six-year partnership with Thomas
Cook would conclude at the end of the 2008/09 Premier League Season.[24]
Thomas Cook was a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic Games. As one of the UK's biggest
and most popular providers of package holidays, Thomas Cook was appointed to provide
"affordable and accessible" holidays and accommodation throughout the games.[25]
Thomas Cook refuses to pay passengers statutory EU compensation for delays and cancellations.
This is a criminal offence, but the company policy is set in this regard and it defends such claims
from customers.
Thomas Cook & Son
Thomas Cook & Son, originally simply Thomas Cook, was a company founded by Thomas
Cook, a cabinet-maker, in 1841 to carry temperancesupporters by railway between the cities
of Leicester, Nottingham, Derby andBirmingham.[1] It was succeeded by Thomas Cook AG after
being sold to a German company in 2002, but since 2007 the descendant company isThomas
Cook Group plc.

Former type Private, 1841–1948; 1972-2002

Government-owned (British
Transport Commission) 1948–72

Industry Hospitality, Tourism

Fate Acquired
 Successor Thomas Cook AG

Founded 1841

Founder Thomas Cook

Defunct 2002

Headquarters London, England, UK

Area served Global

History
In 1851, the founder arranged transport to the Great Exhibition of 1851.[1] He organised his first
tours to Europe in 1855 and to the United States in 1865.[1]In 1865, the founder's son John Mason
Cook began working for the company full-time. In 1871, he became a partner, and the name of
the company was changed toThomas Cook & Son.[2][3]
Thomas Cook had acquired business premises on Fleet Street, London, in 1865.[3]By this time,
Cook had stopped personal tours and became an agent for foreign or domestic travel. The office
also contained a shop which sold travel accessories, including guide books, luggage, telescopes
and footwear. Thomas saw his venture as both religious and social service; his son provided the
commercial expertise that allowed the company to expand. In accordance with his beliefs, he and
his wife also ran a small temperance hotel above the office. Their business model was refined by
the introduction of the 'hotel coupon' in 1866. Detachable coupons in a counterfoil book were
issued to the traveller. These were valid for either a restaurant meal or an overnight hotel stay,
provided they were on Cook's list.

Panels from the Thomas Cook Building in Leicester, displaying excursions offered by Thomas
Cook

In 1865, the agency organised tours of the United States, picking up passengers from several
departure points. John Mason Cook led the excursion which included tours of several Civil War
battlefields. A brief but bitter partnership was formed with an American businessman in 1871,
called Cook, Son and Jenkins; however, after an acrimonious split the agency reverted to its
original name. A round-the-world tour started in 1872, which for 200 guineas, included a
steamship across the Atlantic, a stage coach across America, a paddle steamer to Japan, and an
overland journey across China and India, lasting 222 days.
In 1873, publication of the quarterly (monthly from 1883) Cook's Continental Timetable began.
It continues to be published in 2014, but no longer by Thomas Cook Publishing, which
was wound up by its parent company in 2013; the timetable was relaunched in 2014 by an
independent company, under the title European Rail Timetable, no longer affiliated with Thomas
Cook Group.
In 1874, Thomas Cook introduced 'circular notes', a product that later became better known by
American Express's brand, 'traveller's cheques'.[4]
In 1884, John Mason Cook attempted to relieve General Gordon from Khartoum.[1]
Conflicts of interest between father and son were resolved when the son persuaded his father,
Thomas Cook, to retire in 1879. He moved back to Leicestershire and lived quietly until his
death. The firm's growth was consolidated by John Mason Cook and his two sons, especially by
its involvement with military transport and postal services for Britain and Egypt during the 1880s
when Cook began organising tours to the Middle East. By 1888, the company had established
offices around the world, including three in Australia and one in Auckland, New Zealand, and in
1890, the company sold over 3.25 million tickets. [5] A husband and wife might, for example, pay
£85 for a Thomas Cook tour of Germany, Switzerland, and France over six weeks. While
expensive enough that the trip would likely be the only one in their lifetime, the company would
arrange for a variety of activities new to the middle class including museum visits, the opera, and
mountain climbing.[6] John Mason Cook promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the
Middle East where he was described as "the second-greatest man in Egypt". [5] However, while
arranging for the German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he
contracted dysentery and died the following year.
In 1924, the company was renamed to Thomas Cook & Son Ltd., after acquiring a limited
liability status.[2] In 1928, the business was sold to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-
Lits et des Grandes Express Européens, operator of theOrient Express.

Non-family ownership[edit]
John Mason Cook's sons, Frank Henry, Thomas Albert and Ernest Edward, were not nearly as
successful as their father and grandfather at running the business.
Despite opening a new headquarters in Berkeley Street, London in 1926, ownership of Thomas
Cook & Son only remained with the family until 1928, when it was sold to the Compagnie
Internationale des Wagons-Lits. During the 1930s the travel agency changed its focus from tours
to Egypt and Palestine. Indeed the company was a principal employer in Egypt, involved in
shipping, transport and touring operations. After the outbreak of World War II the Paris
headquarters of the Wagons-Lits company was seized by the occupying forces, and the British
assets requisitioned by the British government. In 1941, the centenary of the company, Thomas
Cook & Son Ltd. was sold to the four major railway companies with the aim of expanding it
further. The company was nationalised along with the railways in 1948, becoming part of
the British Transport Commission.[1]
In the early 1950s the company began promoting 'foreign holidays'
(particularly Italy, Spain and Switzerland) by showing information films at town halls
throughout Britain. However they did not sell cheap package holidays, which included transport
and accommodation, a decision costly to the company. The company went further into decline,
and was rescued by a consortium of Trust House Forte, Midland Bank and the Automobile
Association that bought the company from theBritish Government on 26 May 1972.[7] Midland
Bank acquired sole control in 1977. U.S. banking laws prohibited any national banks from
owning travel agencies, so the U.S. operations were sold to Dun & Bradstreet in 1975.
The company's name was altered from Thomas Cook & Son, Ltd, to Thomas Cook Ltd around
1974, and the company's Publishing Office was moved from London to Peterborough in July
1974.
After restructuring the company and re-entering the traveller's cheque business the company
prospered again. During the 1980s Thomas Cook had its most visible business presence in the
U.S., including robust traveller's cheque sales to regional U.S. banks. The company had enough
business critical mass to set up a computer centre near Princeton, New Jersey. Robert Gaffney
and Samuel Malek were two of the notable decision-makers in that era. Robert Maxwell bought
substantial holdings in the company in 1988. He was expected to sell his holdings quickly as he
was a publisher rather than a travel agent. However, when Crimson/Heritage purchased the U.S.
division of Thomas Cook for US$1.3 billion in 1989,[8] he still maintained a substantial interest
in the company until his death.
In June 1992, following the acquisition of Midland Bank by HSBC, Thomas Cook was sold to
the German bankWestdeutsche Landesbank (WestLB) and the charter airline LTU Group for
£200 million.
In September 1994 American Express (Amex) bought the corporate travel interests of Thomas
Cook Travel Inc. which represented about ten percent of the British company's total revenue.
However Amex was not able to buy the venerable Thomas Cook name; an American Express
affiliate, Cook Travel Inc., had been operating under that name since 1991 in the United States.

A modern Thomas Cook travel agency in Leeds.

Due to contractual difficulties LTU Group sold its 10% shares to WestLB in May 1995. During
1996 the company bought short-haul operator Sunworld and European city-breaks tour group
Time Off. Within three years the company had combined Sunworld, Sunset, Inspirations, Flying
Colours and Caledonian Airwaysinto the JMC (for John Mason Cook) brand.
On 2 February 1999 the Carlson Leisure Group merged with Thomas Cook into aholding
company owned by West LB, Carlson Inc and Preussag Aktiengesellschaft ("Preussag").
[9]
 However, in mid-2000 Preussag acquired Thomas Cook's rival Thomson Travel and was
forced to sell its majority 50.1% stake in Thomas Cook by regulatory authorities.
In 2000, the company announced its intention to sell its Financial Services division, to
concentrate on tours and holidays.[10] In March 2001 the Financial Services division was sold
to Travelex, who retained the right to use the Thomas Cook brand on Traveller's Cheques for 5
years.
After the market depression, particularly following the 2001 September 11 attacks, the company
started a disinvestmentprogramme, disposing of subsidiaries and business ventures.
In 2002 Thomas Cook was acquired by the German company C&N Touristic AG, which later
changed its name to Thomas Cook AG.