Thomas Cook Group

Thomas Cook Group plc was a British multinational travel and tourism company founded in 1841 by businessman and Baptist preacher Thomas Cook, making it the world's oldest travel firm. Originally established to organize temperance movement meetings and later leisure trips, the company pioneered commercial tourism by organizing the first package holiday involving hired railway transport for 500 members from Leicester to Loughborough. Thomas Cook Group plc was formed on June 19, 2007, through the merger of Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group, and was headquartered in the United Kingdom with shares traded on the London Stock Exchange. The company operated as an integrated travel services provider, combining tour operations, airline services, and travel agency networks across Europe. At its peak, Thomas Cook Group employed approximately 21,000 staff worldwide, including 9,000 in the UK, and generated annual revenues of £9.6 billion while serving nearly 20 million travelers across 16 countries. The company's business model focused on holiday package sales (67.8% of revenue) and airline services (32.2%), with geographic revenue distribution across the UK (24%), Germany (37.8%), and the rest of Europe (28.2%). Thomas Cook owned, managed, or franchised 270 hotels under brands including Casa Cook, Cook's Club, and Sunwing, while operating a fleet of 100 aircraft and maintaining over 500 retail shops in the UK alone. Despite its historic legacy and significant market presence, the company faced mounting financial challenges including a £1.6 billion debt burden, changing consumer travel behaviors, increased competition from low-cost airlines and online booking platforms, and external pressures from Brexit uncertainty and terrorist incidents in tourist destinations. On September 23, 2019, Thomas Cook Group plc entered compulsory liquidation after failing to secure additional funding, ending 178 years of operations and triggering the UK's largest peacetime repatriation effort to bring home 600,000 stranded customers worldwide.