Philip Barnes, who has died after a long illness at the age of 83, was a pioneer in cultural tourism. He founded the Association for Cultural Exchange (Ace) in 1958, which has organised about 4,000 study tours for more than 80,000 participants to 90 countries. There are also shorter tours around Britain – sometimes with a specific theme, such as music, archaeology or natural history.
Initially Ace managed tours and summer schools for (largely) Scandinavian teachers and students coming to Britain. In the early 1960s Philip built up contacts in the US, and Ace organised courses on European history and art for US students in Oxford, followed by a six-week study tour of Greece, France, Italy and the Netherlands. Ace subsequently responded to a growing lay interest in archaeology, again focused initially on Scandinavia, and also East Anglia.
Study tours of Denmark included visits to stately and royal homes. On one occasion, a tour group was asked to be particularly punctual for a visit to the Royal Summer Palace at Sofiero, Sweden. There they were received at the door by King Gustaf VI Adolf himself, then in his 80s, who showed the visitors around personally.
In the late 1960s Philip took advantage of a British enthusiasm for overseas travel that went beyond sea, sand and sun. At first, tours were to churches, castles and art galleries in western Europe. Participants travelled by coach, but in time further destinations with relatively cheap air travel became feasible. A pioneering trip to Mexico in 1974 was enormously successful, followed by Peru in 1977. In the late 1970s Philip revisited the scenes of his wartime military service, researching and then leading a tour of Moghul India. After that, tours extended to China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand as well as north Africa and the Middle East.
An only child, Philip was born in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, of East Anglian stock. His father died in 1930 and in 1938 he moved with his mother to Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. In 1939 they were instructed to move to Chelmsford due to the fear of invasion after the outbreak of the second world war. Philip left school at 16, then worked as a clerk in a firm of chartered accountants.
He enrolled to study economics at Birkbeck College, London, but in 1945 was called up for military service. He was in intelligence for more than three years, including in India and Singapore. After demobilisation he completed his degree and went on to Jesus College, Cambridge, to read philosophy. He visited Norway during a university vacation and found inspiration in Scandinavia – not only the postwar design, but also the wealth of ecclesiastic medieval art.
On graduation he became a journalist with Reuters, based in Denmark, where he met his wife, Inger. He was a natural linguist, being at home in most western European languages.
Ace was established as a non-profit company in 1958. For the first 10 years it operated on a shoestring. Philip invested his savings and had other jobs, as a supply teacher in London and then as managing director of a publishing and printing firm that produced the Haverhill Echo and Liberal News.
Philip led 229 Ace tours himself, as well as managing the company with imagination, enterprise and determination for more than 40 years, after which he handed direct management to his son Hugh.
He is survived by Inger, two sons, a daughter and five grandchildren.
• Philip Brooke Barnes, cultural tour operator, born 15 June 1926; died 27 July 2009
