Thomas Cook and Son
Thomas Cook and Son was the name of a British travel agency founded in 1871 by Thomas Cook with his only son John Mason Cook as an official partner. After the founder's death, the company was continued by his descendants from 1892 to 1928 and finally sold in 1928 to the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits , based in Brussels and Paris . At the time of the company, Thomas Cook was synonymous with well-organized travel.
development
Cook opened an office in Cairo in 1872 to conduct organized cruises. On September 26th of the same year the first world tour organized by him began ; it lasted 222 days. In 1874 Cook's New York company introduced the travel credit letter , a forerunner of the modern traveler's check. His son and partner John Mason Cook set the family business to internationalize in 1879 and began to sell overseas issues of The Excursionist , a specialty newspaper founded by his father in 1851. He advertised his offers in France , Germany , India , Australia , Asia , America and the Middle East . In the same year 1879 Thomas Cook withdrew from the business. His son followed him as the sole managing partner of the company. After the death of Thomas Cook in 1892 and that of his son John Mason Cook in 1899, the business was continued by his sons Frank Henry, Ernest Edward and Thomas Albert.
|
|
|
|
Cook-Tours ticket for a shore excursion by SS Thalia passengers to Tunis around 1908 (112 × 85 mm)
|
||
From 1900 the company rose to become the world market leader in the travel industry. For Österreichischer Lloyd , it organized shore excursions on the so-called " pleasure trips " of the Lloyd ships at the beginning of the 20th century, such as B. the SS Thalia , for which it maintained offices directly on the ships.
From 1919 Thomas Cook & Son sold the first flight tickets . The company remained in family ownership until 1928 when Frank Henry and Ernest Edward sold it to their only international competitor, the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et des Grands Express Européens (CIWL).
After the Second World War, the CIWL sold the company to British Railways . The Thomas Cook Group , which was owned by Germany from 2001 and belonged to Arcandor until 2009 and had to apply for compulsory liquidation in September 2019 , was finally created through various changes of ownership .
Web links
- Early documents and newspaper articles on Thomas Cook and Son in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
Individual evidence
- ↑ "General provisions and special comments, amusement cruises program for 1909 and 4 deck plans" in: Österreichischer Lloyd: Thalia amusement rides 1909 . Verlag des Österreichischer Lloyd, Trieste 1909, 24 pp.