<P> By 1888, the company had established offices around the world, including three in Australia and one in Auckland, New Zealand and in 1890, the company sold over 31⁄4 million tickets . </P> <P> John Mason Cook promoted, and even led, excursions to, for example, the Middle East where he was described as "the second - greatest man in Egypt". However, while arranging for the German Emperor Wilhelm II to visit Palestine in 1898, he contracted dysentery and died the following year . </P> <P> Thomas Cook was a frontrunner of establishing tourism systems and thus made Mass Tourism possible in Italy . First, the circular tickets could be used on almost all Italian railways . These tickets allowed travel by train for a preset number of days along predetermined routes . Second, Cook designed a series of hotel coupons to complement circular tickets, which could be exchanged for lodging and meals at designated accommodations . Last, he introduced the circular notes which could be changed at designated hotels, banks, and tickets agents for Italian lire at a predetermined exchange rate . Cook's introduction of tourism - specific currency facilitated easier and effective trips within Italy . Also, by introducing a widely dispersed coupon system, Cook "helped to stabilize the burgeoning Italian economy not only by increasing the revenues from tourism but also by expanding the circulation of Italy's new currency, the lira ." The coupon system spread rapidly and were well accepted throughout Italian cities . Furthermore, thanks to this system, middle class Italians could afford to travel more frequently and more easily . </P> <P> Cook had an ultimate goal to put tourism in the service of unifying the Italian state before Italian unification . He became more aware of Italian politics and became particularly concerned with the fate of the newly unified Italian state . He pondered how tourism could ameliorate the economic and political difficulties . He believed that tourism could reinforce the unification of Italy by physical travel from one place to another, connecting different regions of Italy . </P>

Who created the world's first travel agency