Alfred Bertrand and Emilio Balli at the Niagara Falls, 1879Wikimedia
One of the first package holidays: adventure and education included
Alfred Bertrand (1856-1924) and Emilio Balli (1855-1934) embarked on their round-the-world trip on 1 August 1878 in Marseille. They were among the first five Swiss tourists to circumnavigate the globe.
Lionel Gauthier is curator of the Lake Geneva Museum in Nyon.
Three-and-a-half centuries elapsed between the first circumnavigation of the globe by Magellan and his crew in 1522 and the first round-the-world trips for tourists. In other words, for three-and-a-half centuries it was impossible to travel round the globe without being part of an expedition exposed to considerable danger and requiring a massive financial outlay.
That changed in 1869 with the opening of the Suez Canal and the railway connection going across the United States. French geographer Vivien de Saint-Martin wrote at the time: “A direct and uninterrupted line navigated by the rapid steam-powered engine now encompasses the entire globe”. That’s how it became possible for a private individual to travel round the world for fun. This inspired Jules Verne to write his novel ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’, which was published in 1872 and enhanced the appeal of travelling round the world still further.
The first tourists started travelling round the world in 1869. Three years later, eight tourists embarked on a package world tour offered by Thomas Cook. In fact, he organised these package tours annually from 1873 until his death in 1892.
Thomas Cook, inventor of the package holiday
Englishman Thomas Cook organised a train trip for about 500 people from Leicester to the neighbouring town of Loughborough on 5 July 1841 for a temperance meeting. As a committed teetotaller, he wanted to offer the working class the trip as a worthwhile leisure activity. The price included transport and the organisation plus a ham sandwich and a cup of tea - the idea of the package tour was born.
An innovative combination
Cook’s success, Verne’s novel and the stories of the first people to tour the globe captured the public imagination. Besides the intrepid explorers who embarked on the journey by themselves, entrepreneurs began to organise package world tours. The ‘Société des Voyages d'Etudes Autour du Monde’ (SVEAM) was founded in France in 1876, with the purpose of organising a study world tour every year to offer “young people of good stock who have completed their classical education something extra to complement their tertiary education, to add a practical dimension to their knowledge and give them a clear understanding of the general situation in the world’s main countries”.
The combination of a package world trip with a study tour, similar to the Grand Tour of Europe enjoyed by young, affluent people from at least the 16th century, was an innovation. Originally scheduled for 1877, the trip was delayed by a year – probably because there weren’t enough people. It was an expensive journey: 15,000 French francs to travel in a three-person cabin and 25,000 French francs for a single cabin. To put that in perspective: in 1878 a person working in a small industry in Paris without including meals earned 5.18 French francs per day on average.The SVEAM promotional leaflet for the planned world tour.SudocThe one-year postponement enabled SVEAM, by means of newspaper adverts among other channels, to convince 20 men – women weren’t allowed on the trip – to join the supposedly 320-day trip. The travellers came from France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Switzerland.
Alfred Bertrand, born in Geneva in 1856, was the youngest member of the expedition. He quickly became friends with Emilio Balli from Ticino who was one year older. Another Genevan, Alfred Audéoud, only joined the first part of the trip.
The SVEAM great package tour
The trip began on 1 August 1878 in Marseille. 75 people boarded the steamer La Junon: besides the 20 tour members, there were 9 officers, 1 doctor, 1 pastor, 1 journalist, 41 crew and 2 teachers – it was an educational tour after all.
Following stops in Gibraltar and Madeira, the group reached São Vicente instead of (as originally planned) Dakar, where a yellow fever epidemic had just broken out. Following a 15-day crossing, the ship docked in the bay at Rio de Janeiro on 3 September. La Junon then went on to Montevideo and Buenos Aires. It crossed the Strait of Magellan and reached Valparaiso on 13 October, Callao on 30 October and Panama on 14 November.The original SVEAM travel schedule was for a full global circumnavigation.SudocEach leg of the trip involved numerous activities: visiting monuments, learning about the local customs and traditions, meeting prominent people (academics, ambassadors and consuls, nobility and even the Emperor of Brazil), taking part in hunting expeditions and hikes and collecting souvenirs (which was especially important). The SVEAM rules allowed the travellers to bring up to two tonnes of goods on the ship. This enabled the passengers to accumulate objects, documents and photographs, plus samples from field trips. Alfred Bertrand, for example, brought a fish spine chain, which he had exchanged with a woman in Tierro del Fuego for a packet of tobacco; a “bundle of grass from the Wild West of America”; Samurai armour and a brick from the Great Wall of China.
The SVEAM tour ended abruptly in Panama due to a financial irregularity between the company and the shipowner. The crew took the ship back to Marseille. The return journey took a disastrous turn when a yellow fever epidemic broke out on board. Seven crew members died during the journey from Rio de Janeiro to Marseille. SVEAM did not survive its failed journey and was dissolved shortly thereafter. Most of the tour members returned to Europe via New York with the Thomas Cook agency. A handful of travellers decided to continue their world tour.
The second half of the journey round the world
Alfred Bertrand and Emilio Balli were part of the group that did not want to stop half-way. The two friends crossed the US and visited the Niagara Falls, Chicago, Salt Lake City and finally San Francisco, from where they sailed to Yokohama. After two months in Japan and three weeks in China, they discovered Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta (known as Batavia at the time), India – which they crossed by train – and Egypt, before returning to Marseille, where they arrived on 28 September 1879 after 472 days of travelling - 152 days later than planned.
It turned out to be a proper voyage of initiation for both young men. Alfred Bertrand’s widow confirmed that in 1925: “Not only did the expedition awaken a passion within him for faraway cruises, his power of observation, love of independence and endless tenacity in surmounting obstacles, it also really firmed up his moral fibre. As he said himself, he returned a man.”The journalist and travelling companion Gaston Lemay published his travel journal as a book.Photo provided
A well-documented journey
The journey organised by SVEAM is well documented through reports by journalist Gaston Lemay, the expedition’s spiritual guide Abbot Mac-Erin, natural history teacher Louis Collot and Alfred Bertrand. The promotional brochure and report about the tour for the company members provided additional valuable insights, as well as the many articles that appeared in the press. There are also the memoirs of Emilio Balli, which were not published until the book came out in 2024 ‘Around the World in 472 Days’, plus the many souvenirs brought back by Bertrand and Balli. Many of these souvenirs still exist today. Bertrand’s keepsakes are to be found in the Museum of Ethnography and the Natural History Museum in Geneva, while Balli’s mementos are distributed among his heirs and the Cantonal Museum of Natural History in Lugano.
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