CTC has been organising tours far, far longer than twenty years. The first Nationally Organised tour was a round the country, join it here, leave it there affair held a few a years after the club's formation. It's not mentioned in either of the CTC anniversarial history books: 'Romance of the CTC' (at 50) by JT Lightwood, or 'Winged Wheel' (at 100) by W Oakley; but I read about it in a very old Quarterly Bulletin when I worked at CTC HQ. The 'Romance' however, mentions several tours being organised by CTC for groups of visiting cyclists from other countries in the 1880s and in 1887 "the first fully organised foreign tour took place under the guidance of Max Plaum, CC [Chief Consul] for Belgium" (at that time CTC maintained a network of members living abroad, who acted as consuls for the Club).tatanab wrote: ↑1 Jul 2021, 9:04pmBefore that the tours were organised by members for members with little input from HQ I imagine. These were days of innocence before insurance, liability, money protection etc came into play. I very much doubt it could happen the same way these days. Notably, people's expectations have changed about level of support and accommodation - prebooked hotels and route sheets for example. My first CTC group tour was in 1974 when things were very different and very much more basic.
Such ad hoc events are not quite the same however, as a regular nationally organised programme of holidays, the origins of which are a tour organised in 1928 by Nevill Whall in his capacity as Assistant Secretary, for a party of eleven in the South of France. It was a resounding success and increasing demand assured the development of conducted tours until the outbreak of war in 1939. A ban on foreign travel persisted until 1947, so it wasn't until 1949 that the National Secretary, RC Shaw, toured Sweden with a group of 20. Over 300 members had applied to join this trip, so it was decided that qualified staff should arrange and lead a regular programme of international tours. And so they did, continuously. As the programme expanded, suitably experienced members were encouraged to lead tours on a voluntary basis, but all the booking of hotels and finances continued to be handled by staff at National Office. These volunteers naturally had their own ideas for new tours, for which they did all the planning and made initial enquiries with hotels.
So don't believe CUK's spin. CTC has been organising tours internationally and continuously for more than 70 years, or 80 years in total with a break for WW2.
Though CTC membership declined through the 1950s and 60s, tours in Britain and most parts of the Continent remained popular, averaging 14 per year. When falling membership obliged HQ into smaller premises in Godalming, the Touring Bureau remained in London and in 1967 was developed into a separate company, CTC Travel, that could also sell tickets to the general public. Membership bottomed at 18,727 in 1972 - the year I joined by the way! Around then, someone must've calculated that the cost of staff time in corresponding with the dozen different hotels as might be visited in a fortnight's tour was unsupportable, and CTC Travel was sold off some time later. After then the tour leaders did pretty much the whole job, paying bills out of their own pocket, then claiming expenses from Accounts at HQ, to whom all payments went from participants. The tradition of tours being led by staff lived on as an entitlement to a fortnight's extra paid holiday for any member of staff who qualified to lead a CTC Tour. I was one of very few who did.
So the tours were in fact, originally led by CTC staff. Then by staff and members and eventually by members - a few of whom might also be staff.
Then along came Kevin Mayne, with plans to turn the holidays programme into a cash cow. When leaders didn't cooperate (because going somewhere new is fun, whereas leading the same trip over and over is work!) he wanted CTC Holidays totally out of his sight and hived the enterprise off as a separate company - on the pretext of something to do with liability. From then on, leaders effectively became self-employed agents and were re-named Tour Managers, since now we were risking our own money in organising a tour and doing pretty much everything. And we did it very well, organising lots of interesting holidays for members, different every year, and sending useful annual dividends back to CTC, our one and only shareholder. And in case you're wondering about risk and reward: indeed I have lost serious money leading a tour, when prices and exchange rates haven't gone my way, but generally make a small surplus (that wouldn't come close to paying for my time) and it all goes on my tax return.
That was until 2018, when CUK became greedy for those small surpluses and jealous of our autonomy, so put a couple of new trustees in charge of CTC Cycling Holidays. The rest is history. Or rather: CUK's spin on these events will be. But now you know better.
As for "days of innocence", when were they? The CTC Holidays have always been compliant with regulations, covered by relevant insurances and backed by adequate financial reserves. It was CUK interference - not Covid - that killed it.
As for "1974 and basic", I don't know what tour Tatanab went on but the programme has always been very varied. My first holiday with CTC was the same year as it happens. Superbly planned and executed by Bob Kemp, to the Pyrennees by Boat-Train and staying in nice hotels. I don't call that basic.
And CTC holidays are well up with the times. I have led basic tours, camping unbooked in Poland and Slovakia for example (with a group of 24 and it was great!), but I haven't done anythign like that for years. I wouldn't dream (except in a nightmare) of taking a group on a hotel tour without booking. And everyone gets a really detailed route booklet, plus GPS tracks and courses. Some of my tours also have a support vehicle, but there are still a lot of members who prefer classic, self-sufficient touring. So I'm still running tours, just not for CTC anymore.
