他至今仍被尊称为“世界旅行社之父”，不仅因为他开创了一种商业模式，运用了创新的营销与服务，更因为他的理念彪炳史册。“以人为本”，有人说它出自《三国》，有人说出自梵语，让我们重拾与我们息息相关的这一个案例。创新的只是手段，不变的是自我的追求，以及影响他人对美好生活的追求。
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1841年6月9号，32岁的英国手艺人托马斯.库克来到莱斯特，他发现当时（维多利亚时期）很多的社会问题都和酗酒有关，他认为如果人们不再酗酒并且接受更好的教育，生活质量将大为改观。为了帮助人们戒酒，他成立了一个戒酒会。为了帮助他们摆脱精神上的苦恼，库克决定让人们看看外面广大的世界，接近大自然。他把聚会安排在铁路沿线的几个重镇上，让会员们有旅行的机会，还要求铁路部门票价上打折。在托马斯提议下,1841年，运载着500名乘客的首列观光列车从莱斯特出发。游客周游了12英里后返回莱斯特，只花了1先令,包括交通费用、乐队演奏赞歌、一次野外午餐和午后茶点。库克为旅行者讲述旅途中的景物和历史渊源，而且他自小就在外面流浪奔波，对出门远行者的心情十分了解，生活起居上照顾得很周到。那次旅行组织得非常成动，由此很多人戒酒成功。
在这次成功的鼓舞下，1845年托马斯库克在英国的莱斯特正是成立了托马斯.库克旅行社，开始专门从事旅行代理业务，成为世界上第一位专职的旅行代理商。旅行社的出现史近代旅游业诞生的标志。
1851年，正值伦敦水晶宫举行世界博览会，库克抓住这个机会想大做一笔生意，库克父子总共带去15.6万多名参观者。他儿子负责在伦敦的接待工作，替客人安排交通工具和住宿，做的有条不紊，使客人感到没有一点不方便的地方。每批客人在去博览会之前，小库克都扼要地把值得看的东西说明一遍，而且把参观路线编成小册子，游客人手一本，好让他们参观时按图索骥。另外，为每个游客准备一份廉价的午餐，因为博览会里面的饮食贵得吓人，虽然游客不一定在乎，但能省钱总是让人高兴的。这些措施对现代的旅行社来说已算不上什么特别措施，但在那个保守年代已是很创新的举措。
库克父子公司所组织的几个特殊性质的旅行团，最为人们津津乐道。例如创办百慕大蜜月旅行、巴厘岛观光等。“经营旅行观光事业，不仅带别人去游山玩水，更是探求新知识、新事物的先锋队”，这是老库克的理想。
到1864年,经托马斯库克组织的参加旅游的人数已累计达 100多万，他的名字也成了旅游的代名词在欧美地区家喻户晓。“我们要把所有委托本公司代理的旅客都当作即将出远门的朋友。”这是他82岁临去世那年对他后人说的话。
Backgroud of Thomas Cook Group:
The Thomas Cook Group Ltd. was the eponymous creation of an industrious English entrepreneur. From a humble beginning chartering a train to a temperance rally in 1841, Cook expanded his business into one of the world's first full-service travel firms. After the resounding success of his first venture, Cook quickly expanded his operations, providing rail trips and making hotel reservations for customers for journeys all over the British Isles. Cook's excursions proved so popular that he began offering trips to Europe, North America, and--beginning in 1871&mdashound the world. Buoyed by these successes, Cook's company was able to open 120 travel offices in the United Kingdom and abroad by 1885, and Cook himself branched out to write guidebooks. The company also remained on the cutting edge of developments in the travel industry. Thomas Cook Ltd. began offering cruise trips as early as the mid-1870s, pioneered an early form of travelers' check, and was booking air travel by 1911, a mere eight years after the Wright Brothers made history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
The company also had a long history in the American market. Just months after the Civil War ended in 1865, Cook's ran its first U.S. tour, which included stops at various battlefields. Six years later, Cook formed a partnership with an American businessman that they called Cook, Son & Jenkins. This relationship subsequently dissolved acrimoniously, but by then it had helped Cook's entrench itself in the American market. To bolster its business further, the company took a pavilion at the Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia in 1876, and later expanded its offerings to include not just traditional sightseeing trips but even travel packages for immigrants coming to the United States and Canada. By 1896, Cook's American business made travel arrangements to the Klondike for gold prospectors.
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