In 1841, young Thomas Cook arranged an 11-mile train journey for a motley group of passengers from Leicester to Loughborough.

And it marked the beginning of a c hapter in history. He went on to introduce a railway tour of Europe. But it wasn 't until the early 1860s that he began the travel firm, Thomas Cook & Son, which included tours of the USA. The Company also started operations for military tra nsport and postal services for England and Egypt during the 1880s. The world got around and by the early 1900s, the who's who of the era - kings, politicians, b ishops and professors - patronised Thomas Cook's travel itinerary. As the years passed by, the Company introduced the world to a whole new concept of leisure and business travel. Driving innovation in the business, it connected continents and presented the people an economic and state mode of travel across them. In 1881, Thomas Cook started its India operations, with its first office being s et up in Mumbai. As it expanded its horizons across the subcontinent, the Compan y came to be known as Thomas Cook Overseas Ltd. And on 21st October 1978, it was christened Thomas Cook (India) Ltd, only to make its first public issue in Febr uary 1983. In the year 2000, the Group commenced its operations in Mauritius and also acquired the Sri Lanka business from Thomas Cook Overseas Ltd, UK.