Every year travel agents offer all kinds of holidays to all types of people, as nearly everybody can afford some kind of travelling. Of course, in spite of the many advantages which travel agencies can offer, there are still quite a few tourists who go on their own and choose their own destination and make their own ticket and accommodation reservations. But organized mass tourism has become more and more popular. Travel agents think that there are different types of holidaymakers. For each type, they try to offer the "right" kind of holiday, in the 'right' country and at the 'right' price. All this has to be planned very carefully. So, while most people are still busy buying Christmas presents, the travel agents have already decided where the holidaymakers will go next summer, what kind of things they will do there and how much money they will spend on their holidays. Sometimes the agents are right, and holidaymakers will do exactly what the travel agents have planned for them. But sometimes they are wrong. All this makes their business risky, because if they make mistakes, they can lose a lot of money. Travel agencies have a long history. The Romans probably started tourism with their holiday villas in the Bay of Naples. In the 19th century, the education of rich people was not complete without a Tour of Europe's cultural sights. Things changed for ordinary people when Thomas Cook organised the first package tours. Thomas Cook was one of the first travel agents. He started to organise excursions between Leicester and Loughborough by train in 1841. In 1855 he organised special trips between Leicester and Paris where a Universal Exhibition was held. Later, he also organised tours from England to European countries and around 1860 he opened the first travel agency in England. Thomas Cook's agency sold train and boat tickets and took care of hotel reservations. As Thomas Cook said, his aim was to provide cheap, easy, safe and most enjoyable tourism for all people. And now over thirteen million people around the world travel through more than thirty Thomas Cook tour agencies and 3,600 travel agents.

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