BACKGROUND
England and Wales hosted the Rugby World Cup in 2015 and welcomed more than 400,000 international visitors to the tournament.
Teams from 20 nations, comprising of more than 900 players and coaching staff, played 48 matches at 13 venues in 10 cities.
This was the biggest ever Rugby World Cup with a total of 2.3 million tickets sold and more than 400,000 international visitors travelling to England and Wales for the tournament.
Our Role
STH Group had previously delivered successful and award-winning programmes for the Rugby World Cup in France in 2007 and again at the Rugby World World Cup in New Zealand in 2011.
In 2010, we were awarded the exclusive Travel and Hospitality rights for Rugby World Cup 2015 in England and Wales and Rugby World Cup 2019 in Japan.
These rights gave us the exclusive authority to design, market, sell and operate the travel and hospitality programmes for the Rugby World Cup.
In 2013 we advertised around the world for sport travel companies to apply to become Official Travel Agents (OTAs), responsible for developing travel packages for rugby fans within their territory.
We had applications from hundreds of companies. We then undertook a comprehensive tender evaluation and selection process before appointing 15 leading agents from 10 countries.
The OTAs ensured fans from around the world and in the UK were offered a wide choice of match ticket-inclusive supporter tours and travel packages.
We experienced unprecedented demand for our range of packages, making the tournament the most commercially successful travel and hospitality programme in Rugby World Cup history.
The success of the hospitality programme was also recognised by the Ticketing Technology Awards who awarded the programme the best Premium / VIP Ticketing Award at the annual Ticketing Technology Awards.
Our world class sports and hospitality services ensure spectators can completely immerse themselves in the passion and drama of the occasion and enjoy a shared experience they will remember for a lifetime.
STH is a partner that you can trust. With the strong backing of our shareholders Sodexo, the foundations of our business is secure, and their expertise is also called upon when required to further enhance the professionalism and expertise we bring.
We are industry leading, innovative and trustworthy, with a long and enviable track record of consistent excellence across some of the biggest sporting events in the world.
