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 Thos Cook & Son Ltd 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 which saw 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.
In 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).

Thomas Cook's longevity was celebrated in 1991 (its 150th anniversary) and the company's
continued success was assured when it was purchased from Midland Bank by Westdeutsche
Landesbank (WestLB), Germany's third largest bank, and LTU Group, Germany's leading
charter airline, in 1992. 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 in 1999.

Thomas Cook Today

Thomas Cook UK & Ireland is the second largest leisure travel group in the UK with around
19,000 employees and is part of Thomas Cook Group plc (www.thomascookgroup.com)

Thomas Cook UK & Ireland has a network of more than 800 high street stores (Thomas
Cook and Going Places), a leading website (www.thomascook.com) and some of the world’s
favourite travel brands.

These brands include Airtours, Club 18-30, Cresta, CruiseThomasCook, Direct Holidays,
Elegant Resorts, Essential Travel, Flexibletrips, flythomascook.com, Gold Medal,
hotels4u.com, Manos, Medhotels, Neilson, Netflights.com, Pure Luxury, Sentido, Style
Holidays, Sunset, Sunworld Holidays Ireland, Swiss Travel Service, The Big Reunion, The
Big Snow Festival, Thomas Cook, Thomas Cook Essentials, Thomas Cook Signature,
Thomas Cook Tours and Thomas Cook Sport.
The Company’s airline, Thomas Cook Airlines, operates a fleet of 44 aircraft and flies from
various regional airports to destinations worldwide.

Thomas Cook offers a range of financial services, including foreign exchange, the Thomas
Cook Cash Passport (a prepaid currency card), the Thomas Cook Credit Card, the ‘what’s the
rate’ foreign currency app for Android phones and iPhones and a wide range of travel
insurance policies. It is regulated for its travel insurance, which is underwritten by its
insurance division, White Horse Insurance Ireland Ltd. Thomas Cook in the UK is the
world’s leading retailer of the Cash Passport prepaid currency card.

An Official Supporter of the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, Thomas
Cook is the exclusive partner for UK short breaks and trips to the Games. Thomas Cook’s
London 2012 packages will go on sale in Spring 2011 and will include accommodation,
transport and event tickets.

Its leading publishing division offers a comprehensive portfolio of more than 300
independently authored travel guidebooks to 150 worldwide destinations.

Company Archives

Thomas Cook possesses a unique collection of archive material covering all aspects of the company's
history from the founder's first excursion on 5 July 1841 to the present. This material is held in the
Company Archives, which functions as a corporate 'memory', offering an information service to Thomas
Cook's various departments and to interested members of the public, as well as providing research
facilities for academics, journalists and picture researchers from all over the world.

Main Collections
Handbooks, programmes and brochures, 1845-present

Our main series of brochures begins in 1889 and, apart from a few small gaps, continues uninterrupted
right up to the present day. This is the most extensive collection in the Archives, numbering several
thousand items and covering most holiday destinations around the world. We also hold a small number of
'handbooks', forerunners of the holiday brochure, the earliest of which was published in connection with a
trip to Liverpool in 1845. These small booklets contain detailed itineraries, descriptions of the chief places
of interest along the route and lists of suitable hotels and boarding houses.

Copies of Cook's Excursionist newspaper, 1851-1902, and its successor, The Traveller's Gazette
magazine, 1902-39 First issued by Thomas Cook to promote his trips to London's Great Exhibition in
1851, Cook's Excursionist provides page after page of detailed itineraries, fares, lists of hotels and Cook's
offices, testimonial letters, accounts of tours, advertisements and editorial comment. The monthly issues of
this publication, which was eventually issued in 13 separate editions around the world, document not only
the expansion of Thomas Cook's business but also the early development of tourism itself. As such, this is
probably the most important collection in the Archives.

Travellers' incidental records (ephemera), 1851-present A wonderful miscellany of itineraries, tickets,

hotel coupons, luggage labels, menus, circular notes and handbills issued to Cook's tourists.

Travellers' diaries (originals and copies), 1855-1980 Many of Cook's early tourists maintained written
accounts of their travels and adventures. Around 35 of these diaries, including those of Miss Jemima
Morrell (who accompanied Thomas Cook on his first trip to Switzerland in 1863) and Miss Riggs (who went
on the first Cook's Tour of Egypt and the Holy Land in 1869), may be consulted in the Archives.

Photographs of premises, staff and travellers, 1860s-1970s We have an extensive collection of

historical photographs of Cook's offices around the world (mostly exterior shots), the majority of which date
from the first half of the 20th century. We also hold photographs of Cook's tourists (mostly in Egypt) and
staff from the late 19th century.

Company business records, 1870s-present Relatively few business records survive in the Thomas Cook
Archives. The main series include agreement books (1871-1929), John Mason Cook's correspondence
(1870s-1890s), board minute books (from 1924) and annual reports (from 1947). We also hold detailed
information about Thomas Cook's sale to Wagons-Lits in 1928 and the company's arrangements with the
British Government during and immediately after World War Two. Our most extensive collection of
business records, however, relates to Thomas Cook's operations in Egypt in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries.

Railway timetables, 1873-present First published in March 1873, Cook's Continental Time Tables and
Tourist's Handbook listed details of all the main railway, diligence and steamship routes across Europe.
The handbook soon became a regular publication and today, more than 125 years later, Thomas Cook's
European Timetable is still produced every month; a companion volume, Thomas Cook's Overseas
Timetable, is also published six times a year. Copies of the earliest timetables (1873-75) may be consulted
in the Archives, along with almost every issue from 1946 to the present. Our collection for the period 1909-
1939 is also extensive, but unfortunately we hold only two further examples from the late Victorian and
Edwardian periods.

Travellers' guidebooks, 1874-present Thomas Cook published his first guidebooks - for 'Switzerland' and
'Holland, Belgium & the Rhine' - in 1874. These guides were designed to provide relevant information for
tourists, particularly those travelling under Thomas Cook's own arrangements, and were not intended to
rival the more comprehensive volumes of Murray or Baedeker. Cook's guides still proved very popular,
however, and more than 30 titles (some revised many times) appeared over the next 65 years. Many of
these pre-WW2 guidebooks are available to researchers in the Thomas Cook Archives, where they may be
studied alongside their modern counterparts (still produced by Thomas Cook Publishing today).

Historical images Some 500 images from the Thomas Cook Archives are currently available as
transparencies, on a loan basis only, to picture researchers and private individuals. (A smaller - but
growing - selection of images is also available in digital format.) All the images have been taken from our
collections of posters, brochures and photographs and cover an enormous range of tourist destinations
and travel-related subjects.

Film material The Thomas Cook Archives retains a series of 45 short films used by the company in the
1950s and 1960s to promote overseas holidays to the new mass market. Video copies of these films may
be viewed here by researchers. The original films are stored in the Huntley Film Archives in London
(www.huntleyarchives.com) and any requests to use or reproduce this material should be directed there.

Contact Details
For further information about Thomas Cook's history or archives, please contact:

Paul Smith, Company Archivist

Thomas Cook Archives
The Thomas Cook Business Park
Coningsby Road
Peterborough
PE3 8SB
United Kingdom

Telephone: +44 (0) 1733 417350

Fax: +44 (0) 1733 416255

E-mail: paul.smith@thomascook.com

MISSION

Mission Statement Our mission is reflected in our philosophy and our philosophy
is simple: Thomas Cook strives to provide its clients with the answers and tools
necessary to meet and exceed their expectations. We are experts in corporate,
incentive travel & of course special events organization. For 135 years we have
been using our expertise to fulfil our philosophy, which evolves around achieving
ultimate client satisfaction.

Responsible Travel - Thomas Cook

Introduction
Our Tips Our
Policy Ski
and
Snowboard
Beachclubs
Yachting
Children
Thomas Cook
Travelife Awards Carbon Offsetting

Thomas Cook's Sustainability Policy

More than 160 years ago, a former Baptist preacher and temperance supporter,
Thomas Cook, created the
first package holiday out of a sense of social responsibility. In keeping with the
values of Victorian society,
he believed that by offering alternative, more virtuous and educational leisure
activities, the lives of working
people would be greatly improved and that everyone could become better
educated through travel.

Today the Thomas Cook name remains one of the world’s best known and
respected brands in travel and we
are proud that our business, as part of the global tourism industry, can be an
economic driver for the destinations
we visit – providing commercial benefit and financial impetus, as well as a
positive cultural exchange.

We recognise the importance of tourism for economies and communities, whilst

also being aware of the potential
impact on the environments, communities and cultures of the places to which
we operate. As a result, we seek
to ensure that business operations are conducted in a responsible way.

We define Corporate Responsibility as ‘operating responsibly to minimise

negative and enhance positive
environmental, social and economic impact: ensuring the long term
sustainability of our business and of the
resources on which we depend.’
Thomas Cook’s mission is to Perfect the Personal Leisure Experience
As part of this mission, the company is committed to working towards
developing, operating and marketing
our business in a sustainable manner. We will continue to lead in developing a
sustainable approach to
tourism development and endeavour to predict and prevent negative economic,
environmental, social
and cultural impacts.

We will strive towards integrating responsible practices into business decision

making and we believe that
effective management of our social, environmental and economic responsibilities
enhances the value of our
business and reputation of our brand.

This policy was originally developed in 2004 and has been revised in 2007 to
reflect our continued work to
improve our development and management processes.

Regulatory compliance is treated as a minimum standard and the Board and

Executive Management team
seek to operate beyond this. We endeavour to comply with, and respect, local,
national and international
laws, regulations and rules applicable to our business and to recognise (and
contribute to the development
of good and best practice.

Our PLC Board Health, Safety and Environmental Committee, chaired by a non-
executive director, oversees
and monitors the activities of the operating companies within the Group,
signalling the fundamental
importance of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Looking after the Environment

We recognise that it is important for the long term success of our operations to
consider our environmental
impact. It is essential that we do as much as we can, within our sphere of
influence, to protect the resources
the future of our business, and that of the local communities, depend upon.

We will continue to develop our waste management policy, incorporating the

three principles of reducing,
reusing and recycling and we will strive to improve our environmental
performance by expanding the range
of current environmental initiatives.

For example, by increasing:

• Fuel efficiency
• Recycling
• The purchase of locally sourced goods, where possible

And by reducing:
• Airline emissions
• Noise pollution Energy consumption
• Water consumption
• Solid waste production
• Paper consumption
• The impact of our supply chain

In addition, we recognise that we must work to preserve and protect the natural
environment, its resources
and its wildlife. We will encourage our customers to respect the environment and
to avoid activities which
exploit it.

Looking after Customers

Our three key priorities for our customers are enjoyment, safety and wellbeing.
We acknowledge our
responsibilities in relation to each of these priorities, as well as our customers'
duty to look after themselves,
their families and their travelling companions. We will assist our customers in
doing this through the
provision of information, where this would raise awareness.

For example, through promoting access to Foreign Office Travel Advice and
health information. We seek
continuous feedback from our customers on their overall enjoyment of the
holiday experience and we use
this information to gather opinions, measure performance and to improve future
holidays. Our overseas
representatives receive regular training to ensure our customers have an
enjoyable holiday which matches
their expectations.

If our customers, or employees, highlight any questions or concerns, we have

the procedures in place to
ensure these are resolved. The products and services that we offer must meet
appropriate local health and
safety criteria. We continue to promote good practice through the use of a
specialised health and safety
team who focus on minimising risk to customers, through the implementation of
guidance to suppliers
promoted by the Federation of Tour Operators. We recognise our responsibility
to contract with reputable
suppliers and to take steps to provide services which meet an appropriate level
of safety, having regard to
each destination’s local standards.

Looking after Employees

We recognise that our ability to deliver our business objectives is dependant on
the effective leadership of
our people in the workplace. We believe that people are the ultimate drivers of
our business success and
of our need to develop sustainably. We want our employees to be proud to work
for The Thomas Cook
Group and we promote fair and safe working conditions, equal opportunity and
diversity throughout our
businesses.

We place considerable value on the involvement of our employees and continue

to keep them informed of
matters affecting them and of the various factors affecting the performance of
the group. We recognise the
right of employees to be involved in trade unions.

Looking after Communities and Heritage

We believe ‘quality of life’ is a basic right of the people of the communities in the
places where we operate.
Where possible, we will work together with local communities to ensure they
benefit as much as possible
from the visits of our customers and we will promote fair working conditions
throughout our supply chain.

We respect the natural and cultural heritage of all communities and understand
that we must play our part in
sustaining these. We aim to conserve cultural and national heritage, respecting
the integrity of local cultures
and avoiding negative impacts on social structures. We will encourage our
customers to respect the tradition
and integrity of local cultures and will promote behaviour compatible with the
principles of sustainable
development. Where practical, we aim to promote the purchase of local
produce.

We will not tolerate any illegal, abusive or exploitative forms of tourism.

Looking after our Products

We strive for our products to be of the highest quality and will therefore
encourage good practice within all
our operations and comply with all relevant legislation surrounding the business.
We continually monitor and
assess our product offering so that it appeals to a range of existing and new
customers. By assessing and
working with existing suppliers, we aim to improve the quality of our products
from a social, environmental
and economic perspective.

Raising Awareness
We aim to ensure that we and all our stakeholders become better educated
through the experience of travel,
in keeping with the values of our founder. We recognise that raising awareness
and understanding amongst
our employees, customers and suppliers is fundamental to gain their
commitment.

We will endeavour to highlight the benefits of addressing these issues and will
encourage all stakeholders to
adopt these principles.

Working Together
We are committed to working with customers, employees, investors, suppliers,
local communities, industry,
government and other regulatory bodies and non governmental organisations in
order to deliver sustainable
development. In particular, we actively support and engage in the work of the
Travel Foundation and of the
Federation of Tour Operators.
Summary
Together with the support and guidance of multi-stakeholder groups, we aim to
build a tourism industry
which brings education and pleasure to those who travel with it, a sustainable
future to the places and the
people who provide it as well as a fair profit to all those who are involved in
supplying it.

Sustainability Report

February 2010

The air holidays/flights on this website are ATOL Protected by the CAA. Our ATOL number is 1179.

Mission

Wolfgang Beeser can hand the position of Thomas Cook CEO over to Thomas Holtrop at the
end of October after a successful two-year financial turnaround of Europe’s second-largest
tourism group.

Wolfgang Beeser can hand the position of Thomas Cook CEO over to Thomas Holtrop at the
end of October after a successful two-year financial turnaround of Europe’s second-largest
tourism group. The results for the nine months ending on July 31 presented by the company
on Wednesday show that it is back on a solid financial path. CFO Ludger Heuberg said that
for the first time in four years Thomas Cook was heading for a “substantial profit before and
after tax” thanks to the current bookings situation and further cost reductions.

Thomas Cook increased group-wide turnover by 1.5% to EUR 4.9 billion in the first nine
months of the tourism year. The German market, however, suffered a 2% decline to just
under EUR 1.8 billion. The company expects this to improve to zero by the end of the year.
Revenues in the UK were up 3.6% to the end of July, while the Western European markets
grew 3.5%. The pre-tax loss after nine months was reduced to EUR 71.2 million from EUR
286.7 million during the same period last year. As of the end of August, covering the peak
summer months, customer numbers across the group had risen 4.1%, while Germany was
9.1% ahead.

“The turnaround programme of Thomas Cook is as good as finished,” declared Wolfgang

Beeser at a news conference. “At our tour operators, in distribution and in head office, all the
measures have been implemented and are paying off financially. At Condor, two-thirds of the
savings have been achieved. We are completely on schedule with Condor, as well.” Cook
had kept to the two-year restructuring timescale and was emerging stronger than ever, he
concluded. The total improvement amounted to EUR 300 million.
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29 Nov, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

STR release global hotel performance results for October 2010

25 Nov, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

STR sees ‘movement toward increased rates’

25 Nov, 2010 | Hospitality Industry
Hotels in Europe experiencing double-digit RevPAR growth
24 Nov, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

STR reports 8% RevPAR growth for U.S. hotels in October

24 Nov, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

Hotel bookings fueling online travel growth in Europe

24 Nov, 2010 | Online Travel

Increase in revenue most likely driven by rates, not occupancy

23 Nov, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

Holiday travel: 29% will cut trip short or shack up with relatives
23 Nov, 2010 | Online Travel

Pricing for profit in the hotel industry

19 Nov, 2010 | Hospitality Industry

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