1841 Thomas Cook arranges his first “tour”, a bespoke train trip for temperance supporters between Leicester and Loughborough
1855 Cook accompanies two parties abroad, exploring Belgium, Germany and France
1863 Miss Jemima joins Cook’s first tour to Switzerland
1872 Cook embarks on a 222-day tour to Egypt – via the USA, Japan, China, Singapore and India. The journey covers more than 25,000 miles and costs 200 guineas (£210)
1874 Cook launches the circular note, forerunner of the traveller’s cheque
1948 Thomas Cook becomes state-owned, as part of British Railways
1949 Horizon Holidays launches, organising trips (including flights) to Corsica
1950 Post-war holiday boom: one million Britons travel abroad
A courier addresses the passengers, during a coach tour of Italy, 1954. Photograph: Charles Hewitt/Getty Images
1954 Amendments to the Convention on International Civil Aviation allow for a surge in mass tourism using charter planes
1957 British European Airways introduces a route to Valencia, near Alicante in eastern Spain; the term Costa Blanca is created to promote it
1974 The Court Line holiday empire crashes (along with Horizon and others); 40,000 holidaymakers face being stranded, and those booked on future trips lose money. Consumer confidence plummets
1990 EU Package Travel Directive introduced, offering protection to travellers on packages in the case of a tour-operator or airline failure
1994 27m holidays taken by Brits, 56% of them packages
2004 Over the last decade the total holiday market has grown by almost two thirds, with some 43m holidays taken by Brits. Yet the package sector has increased by just a third – only 46% of holidays taken are now packages
Benidorm in the 1960s. Photograph: Paul Popper/Popperfoto/Getty Images
2005 Ryanair carries more than 31 million passengers across its network – up from two million passengers in 1995
2009 Packages make a comeback: collapse of several holiday companies causes travellers to seek greater financial security
2012 TUI (owner of Thomson Holidays) announces strong profit increase – and the resurgence of the package holiday – after changing its business strategy
2030 A Halifax Travel Insurance study suggests climate change may result in the end of the traditional Mediterranean package, and that by 2030 places such as Mallorca may be too hot and face drought
A brief history of the package holiday
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