A journey of a journey
‘Thomas Cook’ is a leading brand in the tourism industry. To build a tourism brand considering the current atmosphere in India as well as the world does not look that daunting a task. But in 1841, the world was altogether different. Forget about the conducive environment, and there was no tourism industry in the first place. In this context, Thomas Cook started off and…
27th September is the world tourism day. Once on this day, I was traveling to Baltimore. I lived in Delaware, which is merely 70-71 miles away from Baltimore, yet Google maps showed 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach there. I took the same amount of time to arrive in Baltimore. Maryland is one of the smaller states in the fifty United States. Alaska is the largest state in size, with an area of 17 lakh 23 thousand sq. km. Compared to Alaska, Maryland is a tiny state with an area of nearly 32 thousand sq km ranking 42nd. Although Annapolis is the capital of Maryland, Baltimore is the biggest city in Maryland with a population of 60 lakhs. George Calvert founded it. He was a close friend of King James. George Calvert had insisted that King James should give protected lands to the Catholic Christians in England who had been subjected to injustice and harassment. This demand was obliged by King James’ son Charles, in the year 1632. Mary was his wife. The land was named after her, and this is how Maryland was born.
I saw a lot of native and foreign tourists like us while visiting the Baltimore harbour, but I could also see tourists who had come to visit the Baltimore Book Festival organized over there. I saw a group of tourists donning Thomas Cook caps. They reminded me of the Thomas Cook India, Mumbai Office. Meanwhile, I was working as the editor of another periodical. My reporter had interviewed the business head of Thomas Cook, India. He said, “Maharashtra is on the way to becoming prosperous. I can see the footprints. Maharashtrians nowadays have started travelling more and more outside India. Thomas Cook has taken this into account and organized special tours for Marathi tourists.”
Out of the box, planning is the USP of Thomas Cook. It started with the same policy of incredible planning and tourist-centric attractive facilities. It was their founder’s – Thomas Cook’s- passion that the tourist should roam as much as they want. He was also hoping to reduce their alcoholism by increasing their travel. It is difficult to say if he was successful. Because nowadays, heavy drinking and relaxing go hand in hand. But Thomas Cook indeed inspired the then middle class to travel. Thomas was originally British. He was born on 22nd November 1808. This means that he was born more than 210 years ago. His parents were John and Elizabeth Cook from Derbyshire, Melbourne. His father died when Thomas was just three years old. His mother remarried within a year. Thomas was employed at a professional nursery at the age of 10. He used to earn 6 pence per week. At 14, he started working with his uncle and became a carpenter- cabinet maker. He worked for five years like this and then at 18 he became a Baptist missionary. He used to travel a lot for religious work. During one such trip to market Harborough, he met a senior missionary and then he dedicated himself to the fight against alcohol addiction.
Once, Thomas was travelling from Market Harborough to Leicester to attend a meeting of the Temperance Society. During this tour, he was struck by the idea of doing something to turn this drab journey into an exciting vacation for everyone. That was the time when the Midland county railway was about to start. And this travel over 11 miles gave birth to Thomas’ concept of tourism. Thomas’s first tourist trip took place on 5th July 1841. Thomas went with 500 people on an excursion on an 11 miles railway that cost 1 shilling per person.
Thomas then thought if he could arrange excursions for social reasons. His trips went on for the next three months. Thomas would take Temperance members or school kids to various places like from Leicester to Nottingham, or Derby or Birmingham etc. He had no interest in making money from the tours during these early excursions. They were undertaken only to promote sobering up. Hundreds of people who participated in these tours had travelled on a railway for the first time.
In August 1845, Thomas accompanied a tour of a big group of people from Leicester to Liverpool. It was, in many ways, a remarkable trip. He not only made available the first-class tickets in 15 shillings and second class tickets in 10 shillings but he also published a small booklet with brief introductions of the places on the itinerary. This booklet became the pioneer of the future brochures of tour companies. In 1846, Thomas took a step forward and travelled to Scotland with a group of 350 tourists.
At the end of 1850, Thomas organized three more tours to Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Their success made him think of planning tours to Europe, America and the holy land Italy. But he had to postpone this plan. Architect Joseph Paxton best known for designing the Crystal Palace, was about to have a big exhibition. He needed manpower for the same. He gave the contract to gather the cheap labour to Thomas Cook. Thomas got busy immediately with this work. In the four months from June to October in 1951, he worked night and day and accomplished the goal. But he never stopped there. He started two publications of his own namely, Cook’s Exhibition Herald and Excursion Advertiser. Thomas not only supplied the labour to build the exhibition, but also 150000 visitors who saw the exhibition in London. His last trip to the exhibition consisted of 3000 school going kids.
Thomas was skilled at using any opportunity to promote tourism. After the experiment in 1851, he became a tour organizer in the real sense. He went to London along with more than 150000 tourists. His only objective was to show them the first industrial exhibition organized over there. After the preparation of 4 years, Thomas went on an international tour with two groups. This trip was to Belgium, Germany and France. It was going to conclude in Paris at an exhibition. 1855 was the year that saw the beginning of another travelling route. Thomas asked the waterways company that plied commuters on that route if he could use their facility for his tourists who wanted to go to Paris. He had also asked for discounts on tickets considering the significant number of tourists. But the company neither gave permission nor discounts. Then Thomas didn’t have any other option but to find our alternative routes. He discovered a circular route connecting Harwich and Antwerp and then he returned to Paris after visiting cities like Brussels, Heidelberg, Baden-Baden and Strasbourg on his way. On his way back to London he travelled through Le Havre. Then he took his first Europe tour by this route.
In 1860, he announced yet another ambitious tour. This trip included destinations like Switzerland, Egypt, Italy and the USA. In 1863, he started this trip from Switzerland. It was the first of its kind tour. In a way, Thomas had organized this tour to collect information regarding such tours. Yet there were nearly 60 people of both genders on this trip. One of these tourists was Jemima Morrell, who noted down all the details of her journey from the very first day. Her diaries are still available in Thomas Cook archives. Thomas started issuing circular tickets for Paris to Alps journey with the help of Paris, Lyons and Mediterranean railways.
Middle-class tourists had come to Thomas for Switzerland and Italy tours. It was a remarkable shift in the economic status of tourists. Earlier only lower-middle-class tourists had approached him for this tour. Therefore the facilities Thomas had planned for them were probably less favourable to this new class. They were looking for better hotels and food meals. Considering their need, Thomas started talking to hotel owners who desirous of the new business coming their way took measures to fulfil his demands. They suggested to Thomas that he should offer two new services to the tourists. Firstly he should give hotel coupons. A tourist should pay accommodation and food bills with these coupons at the hotel of their residence. And if they need foreign exchange for cash transactions, they should exchange travellers’ cheques brought with them.
Inspired by his successful tours in Europe, Thomas organized a 4000 miles tour of South America in 1865. After a tremendous response to this tour, he bought two steamers and started his tours of the Nile. He was trying to reach China through Egypt after beginning at Leicester. He could accomplish this after a long journey of 222 days, and then it became one of the ambitious annual tours.
In 1872, Thomas Cook’s business took a new turn. He made his son John Mason Cook his business partner and renamed his company like Thomas Cook and Son. He bought a big office on London’s Fleet Street. Part of his office was a shop for all the necessary material necessary during tours which included itineraries, bags, binoculars, cameras, footwear etc. But Thomas and John had fundamentally different points of views. This difference was going to remain in future because of their generation gap. While Thomas had a religious and socialistic approach to his business, John was utterly commercial. He was geared up to expand the business, whereas Thomas had not forgotten his mission to eradicate alcoholism. He opened his centre for this mission on the top floor of his new office.
John did not like all the steps Thomas had taken. Gradually their differences became visible, and finally, John advised Thomas to retire in 1878. Thomas agreed and returned to his village Leicester. He lived there with his wife till death. By 1880, John had started to expand his business in the Mideast. That was an age of scientific innovations. By 1888, telegraphs were invented, but telephones and faxes were yet to come. John went on a spree to open his offices in different parts of the world with surprisingly so inadequate communication systems.
Thomas had started a publication called the Excursionist in 1851. John started its editions in France, Germany, India, Australia, America etc. It was renamed in 1902 as The Travelers’ Gazette, and it continued till 1939. John had an active rapport with all the branches in the world. He would pick any mistakes in their work and would also offer suggestions. In 1884, the British Government requested John Mason Cook to help free General Gordon in Khartoum. For this operation, they had to move the army through the Nile. The British Government moved the massive army eventually, but Khartoum fell, and Major General Gordon died. This operation was a great loss for Britain.
Thomas died in 1892 followed by his son John in 1899. Both died within a decade, and the responsibility of the family business now fell on the shoulders of John’s three sons, namely, Frank Henry, Ernst Edward and Thomas Albert. In the first decade of the 20th century, the company was renamed again to be Thomas Cook and Sons. This happened in 1924. Immediately after two years, the company head office was shifted from Ludgate Circle to Berkeley street in Mayfair. Meanwhile, Thomas Albert had died. The remaining brothers sold their business to a Belgian company. 1941 was the centenary year of the company. It was the time of World War II. The aggressors had taken control of the company’s Paris office on the one hand and on the other the British Government had also taken the company’s property in Britain in custody. To avoid bankruptcy, the company was sold to 4 British Railway companies. After the war was over, it became the property of the nationalized British railways. In the post-war period, although Thomas Cook and Sons Ltd was held to be the biggest tourist company, their rival companies started offering cheaper services. In the 60s, Thomas Cook’s annual turnover reached £10 lakh.
One hundred thirty-seven years ago, Thomas Cook India was founded, and its first branch was opened in Mumbai. Today Thomas Cook offices can be found at more than 23 Indian Airports, at 233 places worldwide including 94 cities in India, Sri Lanka, and Mauritius etc. Thomas Cook stepped in India in 1881, and Thomas Cook India Ltd was founded in 1978. In 1983, Thomas Cook India entered the Indian stock market. Its offices were opened in Mauritius and Sri Lanka in 2000. Since then in 16-17 years they went on a spree of buying various companies in India, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. The latest record of Thomas Cook India’s financial turnover is available after 2015. It is running successfully with a turnover of around 425 crores and with 3000 employees.
In 1972, Thomas Cook’s ownership went to a consortium of private companies. Midland Bank bought it. In the last five decades after the 70s, its ownership constantly changed hands. Meanwhile, Thomas Cook airlines had started. The company changed its logo, their offices were moved from one place to another, yet people never lost their trust in Thomas Cook. Currently, Thomas Cook has an annual turnover of £7.8 billion and handles over 19 lakh tourists all over the world annually. Their employee numbers have also been changing all these years. Today more than 22000 employees are offering their services to tourists. There are more than 16 countries where Thomas Cook offices are found. It seems they have agreed that Thomas Cook should be the topmost brand, whoever is the owner. In the last 177 years, they have insisted on a commitment to customer satisfaction. Once started with a simple objective to eradicate addiction, Thomas Cook is now working with a motto ‘Thomas Cook gives the best and the latest in the tourism industry’. Thomas Cook, his son John Mason or his grandsons are not alive to see their progress today. The Cook family does not even own the company anymore. But their legacy is cherished by the current management. It’s hardly a doubt that Thomas from wherever he is must be blessing the company on their recent progress.
Originally Published in Yashashwi Udyojak. Subscribe Today.
