Have you ever wondered who invented the first travel agency? Take a moment to read this story and find out some interesting facts about the first travel agency offering their services until nowadays.

Thomas Cook was an Englishman, founder of the first agency with the origin more than curious. Cook organized anti-alcoholic meetings, but because people did not attend, he came up with the idea of offering different rewards to the attendees. One of the first rewards was a free trip around the city. The feedback was so tremendous that in 1840 founded his own agency.

Although at first only was offering circuits around England, soon included trips throughout Europe and Egypt.

His success was based on personal negotiation of prices with hotels and railways.

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.