In and Around Mag Aug19

The History
Today, we take the ease of
global travel for granted
but it was the birth and rise
of the package holiday that
paved the way for world
citizenship and changed the
concept of the travel we now
take for granted.
During the first half of the 19th
century only the wealthy could
afford to travel, and beach holidays
were unheard of. People would
usually go abroad for their health or
to learn about foreign culture. Travel
wasn’t easy, but with the coming of
the railway it became affordable.
In 1841, a man named Thomas Cook
organised a train excursion from
Leicester to Loughborough and in
1855 he began to offer rail tours
of the continent. He eventually
launched his first round-the-world
tour in 1872, covering the USA,
Japan, China, Singapore and India.
It was a 25,000-mile journey that
cost £210 and the start of a company that would become a
major player in the package holiday industry.
Commercial travel largely stopped during the First World
War but, with the advent of passenger planes, Thomas Cook
launched holidays by air in the 1930s although they were very
expensive and out of the reach of most people.
Following the Second World War, a demand for travelling
abroad increased. Ex-serviceman wanted to re-visit places they
had been stationed at and the general public wished to escape
the aftermath of war and its ongoing rationing. Such was
the demand that, in a bid to make holidays more affordable,
Thomas Cook was nationalised as part of British Rail in 1948.
A year or so later, a Russian immigrant named Vladimir Raitz
set up a travel company called Horizon Holidays that chartered
weekly flights to a beach resort in Corsica. As a result, many
consider him to be the inventor of the modern package holiday.
Possibly as a result of Horizon, in 1954 amendments were
made to the Convention on International Civil Aviation that
allowed for an increase in charter planes. However, there were
still restrictions on pricing, making it hard for companies to
be either cheap or competitive. There was also a shortage of
hotels.
That all changed in 1957 when British European Airways (BEA)
launched a route to Valencia in Spain, coining the marketing
phrase ‘Costa Blanca’. With the creation of beach resorts came
a surge in hotel construction, particularly in Italy and Spain
where small fishing villages were turned into large resorts
dominated by hotels and bars. At the same time, larger and
faster aircraft that cut flight times were becoming available
and there were fewer restrictions on taking foreign currency
abroad.
Travel was easier, opening the door to a host of tour operators.
Big corporations began to see the financial benefits of
diversifying into the travel industry.
OF THE PACKAGE
HOLIDAY
Thomson Organisation was a
Canadian media-based corporation
that in 1965 bought out several of
the UK’s tour operators and airlines,
including Universal Sky Tours’
charter airline, Britannia. Thomson
– now branded as TUI – remains a
market leader today.
The 1970s and 1980s were boom
decades for the package holiday. In
1970, the Boeing 737 was launched.
The very latest in air travel, the
plane could carry more than 400
passengers and revolutionised
commercial flight.
In those days package holidays
weren’t without risk, however.
There was little protection for the
consumer if their travel company
went bust while they were abroad,
often leaving holidaymakers
stranded, and frequent strikes by
airport staff meant misery for many
passengers – something I remember
well!
The package holiday has become
synonymous with sun, sea and
sangria but there were other choices
available. City breaks were rising in
popularity and ski holiday destinations expanded. Adventure
and long-distance tour operators like Kuoni began to market
travel to exotic locations, appealing to those who wanted
to indulge in their adventurous side while staying within the
safety of an organised tour.
Advances in aviation made faraway places increasingly
accessible and holidays anywhere in the world affordable.
With the abolition of price regulations, travel companies could
compete for the cheapest discounts. New technology also
made reservations easier and travel agents began to pop up
on every high street.
By 1994, more than half of the holidays booked by the British
public were package holidays, around 27 million; compare this
with the one million holidays that were taken by Brits during
the entire 1950s.
Thanks to price deregulation, the 1990s heralded the arrival
of small budget airlines that began offering package holiday
routes with the added ease of online booking. In 2005 Ryanair
carried more than 31 million passengers, an explosion from its
two million of 1995.
Today the package holiday is having to work hard to hold
its place in the market. With online booking easier than ever,
people are either finding the best deals direct for themselves
or having a bespoke tour put together by a personal travel
consultant. Baby boomers with more time and money to spend
are also favouring the more leisurely pace of luxury cruises.
Thanks to the humble package holiday, our world is more
accessible than ever before but the future isn’t all bright.
Studies suggest that with global warming, by 2030 many of
our favourite holiday destinations will simply be too hot to
enjoy.
by Catherine Rose
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