The life story of Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook (November 22, 1808 - July 18, 1892) was the founder of modern tourism and "the father of modern tourism." The first person to organize group travel also organized the world's first round-the-world tour group. He wrote and published the world's first travel guide for group tourists - "Liverpool Travel Guide", and creatively launched the earliest prototype of a traveler's check voucher. Cook organizes self-guided tours across Europe and provides travel assistance and hotel accommodation services to self-guided travelers. In the mid-19th century, Thomas Cook founded the world's first travel agency - Thomas Cook Travel Agency (i.e. Travelex Travel Agency), marking the birth of modern tourism. In the second half of the 19th century, inspired by Thomas Cook's own advocacy and his successful tourism business, some organizations similar to travel agencies were first established in Europe, making tourism a relatively widespread economic activity in the world.

Thomas Cook was born in Melbourne, Derbyshire, England on November 22, 1808. His family was poor since he was a child, his father died when he was three years old, and his mother remarried. Forced to make a living, Thomas Cook had to drop out of school when he was ten years old. First, he worked as a helper in a vegetable and flower shop, earning only 6 pence a week. Later he became a carpenter's apprentice. At the age of 17, he entered Lateran Baptist Church as a communicator.

In 1826, Cook became a missionary and traveled widely, distributing pamphlets of Baptist churches and promoting doctrines. This led Thomas Cook to travel to many places in England and become interested in tourism. In addition, for religious reasons, he later became an active temperance worker.

On July 5, 1841, Thomas Cook chartered a train to transport as many as 570 marchers from Leicester in the English Midlands to La Barfleur for the Temperance Conference. The round trip is 11 miles, and the group fee is one shilling per person. A free lunch of ham and snacks is provided, and a hymn-singing band follows. This event occupies an important position in the history of tourism development. The event organized by Thomas Cook is recognized as the world's first commercial tourism event. Therefore, he himself became the founder of the travel agency business. It was the first group tour organized by human beings using trains, and it was the beginning of modern tourism activities.

In 1845, Thomas Cook gave up his carpentry job and began to engage in commercial travel agency business, becoming the world's first full-time travel agent. In the summer of the same year, for the first time for commercial profit purposes, he organized a real group recreational tour. This group tour started from Leicester and stopped at several places. The final destination was Liverpool, a seaport city in the west of England. The whole process lasted for a week, with 350 people participating, and a guidebook - "Liverpool Travel Guide" was compiled and distributed to tourists. This is the world's first travel guide. Since people's demand for travel had matured at that time, and Thomas Cook's previous success in organizing travel activities had brought him fame, once the poster about organizing this group tour was posted, the number of applicants was extremely enthusiastic. In order to ensure the success of this group trip, Thomas Cook had to decide to limit the group size to only 350 people. When many people came to sign up, they were unable to do so because the places were full. Among those who had completed the booking procedures, some even took advantage of the opportunity to resell their seats at high prices. The organization method of this tour is more characteristic of modern package tours, embodies the basic characteristics of modern travel agencies, and creates the basic model of travel agency business.

In 1846, Thomas Cook personally led a tour group to travel to Scotland by train and ship. An activity schedule was distributed to each member and a guide was assigned to the tour group. In the same year, he wrote the "Scotland Travel Manual". Since then, he has organized more than 5,000 people to travel between the British Isles every year. He personally accompanied each trip and compiled and printed travel guides. He succeeded in tightly linking railways, waterways and surface transportation facilities. The travel business has developed greatly.

In May 1851, in order to display the achievements of the British Industrial Revolution, the "London Crystal Palace" was built in London to hold a major exhibition. This was the first World Expo. Thomas Cook was determined to seize the opportunity to expand his travel business. Before the opening of the exhibition, he visited major cities in central and northern England and organized tourists from all over the world to visit the exhibition in London. To this end, he also founded a monthly magazine called "Tourist", which specially introduces the scenery of various places and the experiences of tourists. This year, he organized more than 165,000 people to visit the exhibition in London. After that, he successfully organized tourists to visit the Dublin Exhibition in 1853 and the Manchester Exhibition in 1857.

In 1855, Cook organized a group tour from Leicester, England to Paris, France to visit the Second World's Fair. This tour stayed in Paris for 4 days, and the entire trip was a one-time package. This included accommodation in Paris and return travel, totaling 36 shillings. The Manchester Guardian at the time (August 6, 1855) called the move "a pioneering work in the history of railway travel". In fact, this was also the beginning of organized overseas package tours in the world.

By 1864, the number of tourists organized by Thomas Cook had exceeded 1 million.

A travel goods store was opened in 1865. In the same year, in order to further expand the travel agency business, Thomas Cook and his son John Mason Cook established Thomas & Sons (Travelex) Travel Company), relocated to London and set up branches in America, Asia and Africa. After that, Thomas Cook organized tours to France and other places.

In 1872, he personally led a tour group of 9 people to visit New York, Washington, Civil War battlefields, Niagara Falls, Toronto and other places, expanding the tourism business to North America. This round-the-world trip became famous far and wide and had a great impact, making people "think of Cook when they think of travel."

In 1878, Thomas Cook retired and the business was directed by his son, Johrl Masoll Cook. (In 1939, Travelex Travel Agency established more than 350 branches around the world). By the beginning of the 20th century, the British Thomas Cook Travel Company, American Express Company, and the Belgian Railway Sleeping Car Company were known as the three major companies in the world's travel agency industry.

In 1892, he created the earliest traveler's check, which can be used in major cities around the world. International tourists who hold traveler's checks can exchange them for equivalent local currency at the tourist destination, which is more convenient. Tourists travel cross-border and intercontinental. Travelex Travel also compiled and printed the world's earliest travel magazine, which has been translated into 7 languages ??and reprinted 17 times. In July of the same year, Thomas Cook passed away at the age of 84 and was buried in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.