Summer Holidays 1931. Tours and Independent Travel Arrangements at Home and Abroad

London: Thomas Cook & Son, Ltd, 1931. Wraps. Very good. [TRAVEL] [ADVERTISING] [EPHEMERA.] 8vo; 287 [1]pp; stiff glazed color pictorial wrapper; b&w photographic illustrations; ads; chipping and creasing to wrapper; very good. Interesting look at the early 20th century British travel industry. Leicestershire cabinetmaker Thomas Cook founded an agency in 1841 to transport temperance supporters to a meeting site by rail. He expanded travel groups in support of the movement for Sunday schools and temperance societies through 1845. His first commercial venture was in 1845, a trip of more than 100 miles to Liverpool by train. Cook subsequently began organizing trips to Europe, including hotels, cruises, and eventually airlines. It has been said that he invented the modern travel industry. Sold and reorganized several times throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the company collapsed in 2019 when bankers demanded repayment of loans. The company, unable to pay, stranded travelers around the world.

This brochure covers travel promoted by the Thomas Cook company to Great Britain and Ireland, Switzerland, France, Western Europe, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Russia (U.S.S.R.), the Balkans, Spain and Portugal, Egypt, Palestine and Syria, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. A sea and land tour, "Sea Holidays" to the Dalmatian Coast, around Corsica, and to Belgium, Holland and Germany. Cruises advertised to Canada and U.S.A., Madeira and Canary Isles, South America and Africa, as well as "Pleasure Cruises." Includes travel pricing and delightful ads for hotels and resorts. OCLC only locates one copy at the National Library of Wales. Scarce.