Lunn Poly Travel - Thomson Holidays

Lunn Poly Travel - now Thomson holidays, flights, hotels, holidays, cruises

Lunn Poly History

Where does the name Lunn Poly come from ?
Home

The beginning of modern tourism took place way back in the 1890s and Lunn Poly was one of the major contributors:
1893 The Polytechnic Touring Association (PTA) established tours and general travel services to the public.
1950s The PTA became Poly Travel Ltd to reflect its widening role in the travel and tourism market.
1960s Poly Travel Ltd merged with Lunns (Sir Henry Lunn Ltd) to form Lunn Poly
100 Years of Travel

Turn back the calendar to 1888, the 'high summer' of Victorian Britain. The UK is the world's workshop and the Empire is constantly expanding. Living standards of the burgeoning middle classes are rising rapidly. Taxation is a mere flea-bite. Among the things on which they spent their money was foreign travel. Much of the world - previously the preserve of the aristocracy - was coming within their grasp, thanks to the spread of railways, steamships and hotels. And all good Victorians firmly believed in the maxim - "Travel broadens the mind and stretches the imagination".

In that year a group of dedicated men founded the Polytechnic Touring Association, soon to be known just as PTA and later as Poly Tours. Its aim was simple - to provide holidays abroad at reasonable cost for the students and staff at London's famous Regent Street Polytechnic. It was a success from the start and grew steadily, appealing to an ever widening public.

Five years later in 1893 Dr. (later Sir) Henry Lunn, businessman educator and much involved in church affairs, founded the Co-operative Educational Tours. They went all over Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, were decidedly for the educated class and always had distinguished lecturers. Lunn chartered special trains, operated his own cruises and was a pioneer in the then new-fangled "motor coaches", providing "Fortnightly Automobile Coaching Tours" as early as 1901 to France, Belgium and Germany costing 15 guineas (£15.75) all-in from London.

The following year he set up the Public Schools Alpine Sports Club, a rather exclusive body. Yet it - and Lunn himself - played a major role in popularising Switzerland as a winter sports location, opening up a number of centres such as Klosters, Murren and Wengen, still among today's top ski resorts. And In the early years of this century he organised round the world tours - For £220!

By the 1880s the European railway network was amazingly extensive with luxurious sleeping and dining cars and saloons, mostly owned by the Wagons Lits company running over many main line routes. By 1889 the famous Orient Express ran all the way from Paris to Constantinople (now Istanbul) in well under 72 hours, without a change.

The late 1890s also saw the introduction of large, luxurious cruise liners especially on the North Atlantic route. There was great rivalry not only between several nations (especially the German Empire and the UK) but between individual companies. The Cunard Line put both the Lusitania and the Mauretania into service in 1907 and White Star Line answered this with the even larger and grander Titanic in 1912. Her loss shook the world. Nearer to home the French and Belgium coasts became very popular with British holidaymakers both before World War 1 and in the 1920s and 30s. And in winter, skiing became really popular although for comparatively small numbers.

The 1920s and 30s saw the start of air travel. In the UK, Imperial Airways pioneered the routes to India, the Far East, South Africa and Australia. Huge four engined bi-planes with classical names like Hannibal and Hercules provided luxurious travel, if rather slow, stopped at night, and looked more like pullman cars inside. In 1931 Lunn chartered the first holiday flight with 24 passengers leaving Croydon in the four-engined Hercules. Needless to say air travel was then still only for a tiny fraction or the population.

In the years leading up to the Second World War around 1.3 million people went abroad from the UK. Just how many were tourists or holidaymakers is hard to estimate. Certainly it would be well under the million, a far cry from the millions that now go.

The late 1940s saw the restarting of holidays abroad. Currency restrictions certainly were a problem and at one time they were very strict indeed. Even in the late 1960s every traveller outside the sterling area had to be kept to £50 out of which had to come both hotel and food.

The 1950s saw the air package tour come into its own but at first many folks were hesitant to fly in older aircraft. "All tied up with string" was a favourite joke, unlike today when all the holiday airlines have the most modern equipment.

Spain was the first choice - land and labour were very cheap, building costs equally low, taxation highly favourable for hotel development - and the country offered some of Europe's best beaches and longest hours of sunshine. And you could get there by air from western Europe's main centres of population even with turboprop aircraft in three hours or less. The Costas had arrived.

Here in the UK names like Sky Tours, Cosmos, Horizon and Clarksons soon became household names. And their low costs - weekends in Majorca for £9.90 - ensured a big public. Prices came down and the competition was severe. With the first oil crisis in 1973, some companies just could not cope. Minuscule profits were replaced by enormous losses.

Thomson, who had bought Sky Tours and associated companies plus Britannia Airways in 1966 waged a price war against Clarksons, then owned by shipping and airline conglomerate Court Line. In August 1974, at the height of the holiday season Court Line collapsed dramatically leaving thousands stranded at resorts and just as many without a holiday - and owing £27 million.

That event was a turning point in the whole travel industry. It pulled itself together and with some necessary government legislation became more efficient, better organised, more reliable and more profitable.

In the 1960s, the Sir Henry Lunn organisation was absorbed into the British Eagle Group. And then Poly Travel was taken into the combine and the name changed to Lunn Poly. In 1972 it was absorbed by Thomson Travel, the tour operating side going into the general Thomson Holidays programme, the name Lunn Poly being retained for the travel retailing division.