You're much better protected when using a tour operator than putting together your own holiday online, warns a new book by Dave Richardson – a freelance journalist and TravMedia member who has been writing about the travel business for over 40 years.

Let's Go – a History of Package Holidays and Escorted Tours goes back in time to the start of package holidays in the 1950s and the boom years that followed, and relates how escorted tours started with Thomas Cook in the 1850s. It brings the story right up to date by looking at how you can make up your own package online, and other threats that could force tour operators out of business.

“Terrorism is one reason why some people are going back to package holidays, but there is a whole raft of other health and safety issues that, if you think about them, could persuade you that you are better off booking a package,” he writes. “Holidays can be emotional events, and if we lose them because a company has gone bust or if that happens while we're away, it's bad news. Tour operators' record in protecting the public is second to none.”

The story of how we got into the package tour habit is a fascinating one. It's not just about places and people and how we got there but also about us, as the holidays we take reflect the people we are, or aspire to be. Featuring anecdotes, word-of-mouth accounts from the people who made it happen and archive images, Let's Go is a roller coaster ride through decades of travel history as people's holiday aspirations changed from Blackpool to Benidorm and from Benidorm to Bali.

Travel industry leaders past and present gathered for the book launch, which was partly sponsored by Travel Trade Gazette where Dave Richardson used to work. TTG's archives – which it is hoping to digitise – go back to its first edition in 1953.

Let's Go is the most comprehensive and authoritative book ever written about the UK travel business. Contact Dave at davidrichardson2017@gmail.com and visit www.historyofpackagetours.co.uk to order online.

Captions

Author Dave Richardson (centre, front row) at the launch of Let's Go.

Harry Goodman, the flamboyant founder of Intasun, one of the biggest package holiday companies of the 1970s and 1980s, is pictured at the launch with TTG editor Pippa Jacks with a TTG supplement published when his airline Air Europe was launched in 1979.

Pictures by John Sansom: john@presslinkgroup.co.uk