Leisure travel was, in a sense, a British
invention. This was mainly due to economic and social factors; Britain was the first country to become
fully industrialized, and industrial society offered growing numbers of people time for leisure.
This, coupled with improvements in transport, especially the railways, meant
that large numbers of people could get to holiday resorts in a very short time.
Modern mass tourism of a sort we can easily recognize today began in 1841 when
Thomas Cook organized the first package tour, in which everything was included in the cost - travel, hotel and
entertainment. To cater for the large numbers of new holiday-makers, holiday
camps were established, both on the coast and in the countryside, and they
became immensely popular. Their popularity declined, however, with the rise of
cheap overseas tours, which gave many people their first opportunity to travel abroad.