SYMHC Classics: Thomas Cook
Stuff You Missed in History Class
iHeartPodcasts
4.2 • 23.6K Ratings
🗓️ 22 November 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
This 2019 episode covers Thomas Cook, a pioneer of the idea of a travel agency to manage tourist holidays. But Cook was initially motivated by his support of the temperance movement and his deeply held religious beliefs.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.4 | Happy Saturday. |
| 0:08.2 | Thomas Cook was born on November 22nd, 1808, or 217 years ago today on the day this episode is publishing. |
| 0:16.8 | Cook founded his own travel agency in the 19th century, and he's seen as one of the founders of the package travel industry. |
| 0:24.6 | At the end of this episode, we talked about the company Cook founded |
| 0:28.1 | and had what the business grew and evolved into, |
| 0:31.0 | and when we recorded the episode, |
| 0:33.6 | Thomas Cook Group was having some financial difficulties. |
| 0:36.9 | Then in September of 2019, it collapsed, and that left roughly 150,000 travelers stranded overseas |
| 0:43.6 | with all their bookings canceled. |
| 0:45.6 | We talked about that a little bit in an installment of unearthed the following month. |
| 0:50.5 | Thomas Cook Group's biggest shareholder, Fosin International, |
| 0:56.8 | purchased all the branding and all of its assets, |
| 1:01.8 | and they relaunched the business as an online travel agency in November of 2019. |
| 1:05.9 | And then Polish travel technology company, E-Sky Group, |
| 1:08.8 | acquired the business from Fosin in 2024. |
| 1:13.0 | This episode originally came out on July 8th, 2019. |
| 1:14.0 | Enjoy. |
| 1:21.3 | Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I-Heart Radio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry. |
| 1:30.4 | And I'm Tracy B. Wilson. |
| 1:32.0 | And Tracy, we have been traveling a lot lately. |
... |
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