Along with the travel companies promoting package tours to Mecca, the stall-holders included some well-known British banks, promoting Islamic finance, and the Lincolnshire police, handing out leaflets about the merits of an equal-opportunity employer with tolerant views on headgear.

ECONOMIST: Middle England takes middle-class Islam to its heart

The most popular package tours for China's travelers are to Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia.

CNN: ASIANOW - TIME Asia | Travel Watch

In the past, Thomas Cook struggled with unsold holidays on its books, forcing it to cut capacity and reduce the price of package tours.

BBC: Thomas Cook sign

By the end of it, Alpine package tours were being sold by the thousands by Thomas Cook and his competitors.

ECONOMIST: Mountaineering lore

They were package tours, traveling in the company of strangers, riding by bus through the countryside, each meal and museum and hotel prearranged.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Unaccustomed Earth'