He was organized, on the 5th of July in 1841, the first group, and thus laid the foundation for modern tourism: the Englishman, Thomas Cook (1808-1892). A geheelonthouder almost his entire fortune to charity wegschonk.

The then-33-year-old Cook, was the enthusiastic secretary of the Temperance Society , which is a society where all alcoholic beverages are taboo in were. The adherent of the baptist church had a ground-plan in mind, the 570 members from the Central English city of Leicester by train, transported to the and twenty miles beyond Loughborough. The former printer was not to give up in finding a solution to the open wagons of the Midland Counties Railway Company for the transport.

Cook said it was confident that all of the social problems in Britain in the eighteenth century, due to the excessive use of alcohol. Located In Loughborough, went with the members thereof in the course of a debate. in the Evening they traveled to the total price of one shilling, a third-class return.

It caught on. Cook said of his old job good-bye and started out in Leicester, and a modest travel agency with a target market of workers and their families. A day trip to the sea, and the province could, for a fair price and just for a moment to escape from the drab existence in the Uk, fabriekssteden. Those who have no alcohol to drink, even be eligible for a discount on your train journey. As the business flourished, but also the well-to-do upper class was the way of the business of the kaalhoofdige a man in a tailcoat. Its range has extended to Scotland and Wales, and the continent of europe, soon followed.

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in The Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1855 it was the perfect opportunity. Rich, the British, seemed to be a visit to the world’s fair. A very small matter: from, the south-eastern port town of Harwich, where they carry out car. A train went from there to Cologne, where they are switched on, a steamer on the Rhine, towards Strasbourg. It was in the train again, ready for the final journey to Paris. It turned out to be the precursor to a larger one, the Grand Tour , where the origin of the word “tourism” is also in Rome, Florence, and Vienna to visit. The Cook saw it, it was even bigger and it started also to travel by sea to the united states.

A fortune to bring didn’t have to. Because of that, he hoped for a big victory were coming to the hotel. Thomas Cook has provided its customers with coupons and vouchers for meals and overnight stays in hotels. These coupons turned out to be the Thomas Cook traveller cheque in, up to the end of the 20th century, worldwide, is a household name in reismiddens.