Origins & Services
There is evidence to support the findings that a British company, Cox & Kings, is the oldest travel agency in the world. One of the most well known agencies in the UK is Thomas Cook who established a chain of agencies at the back end of the 19th Century and were the innovator of the package tour holiday.
Travel agencies became more and more commonplace after the development of commercial aviation which began in the 1920s. Originally it was only the well off that used travel agencies and they largely catered to middle to upper class customers. However there was a post-war boom and the new found popularity of mass-market package holidays resulted in travel agencies popping up on the main streets of most British towns. The new mass market agencies catered for the working class clientèle who wanted to find a convenient way to book overseas beach holidays.
Today these travel agencies can be found in large numbers on all high streets around the UK and they offer services in the following -
- Package Holidays
- All inclusive breaks
- Cruises
- Fly Drive Holidays
- Self Catering Breaks
- Holidays Abroad and in the UK
- Holiday Insurance
- Car Rentals
- Foreign Exchange