JAMES Maxwell CBE, general manager of Thos. Cook and Sons, was delighted to see the opening of what he described as “the most up-to-date travel centre in Europe”, in Gordon Street, Glasgow, in April 1956.

He had joined the company in Glasgow in 1925 and as he rose through the ranks he kept a close eye on the expansion of tourism in his native Scotland.

In 1955, some 2.25 million people had visited the country, thanks largely, Maxwell said, to the Edinburgh Festival of Music and Drama, “the most important tourist event the world had ever seen”.