Majorcan holidays to celebrate 150th anniversary of package tour

IT'S the 150th anniversary of the package holiday next week, and to celebrate, a massive GMTV/Thomas Cook holiday competition to win 150 holidays to Majorca starts on Monday. GMTV has six million viewers a day, and the programme will be promoting the island every day next week - award winning radio and TV presenter Jono Coleman was on the island all last week filming the one-week special. Coleman was so impressed with the island that he plans to return on holiday with his family before he starts his new breakfast show in September. Leicester cabinet maker Thomas Cook came up with the concept of a package tour and his first trip on July 5, 1855, was from Leicester to Loughborough. His trips were an instant success and ten years later, he launched his first tour of Europe, taking in Brussels, Cologne, Strasbourg and Paris. By 1872 his company was operating world tours. Now, globetrotting Brits take a staggering 41.2 million overseas holidays a year.