The New Name In Sports Travel
Destination Sport Travel may be a new name in the industry but as the UK’s leading travel solution for elite sports clubs and governing bodies, it’s a name you’ll be hearing more frequently.
Initially formed as Clarity Sports in 2019, Destination Sport Travel counts several high-profile clients including Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Everton, Rangers and Football Association of Wales.
“The business was initially formed following the unfortunate demise of Thomas Cook Sport,” said managing director Rob Slawson.
“Within 24 hours of Thomas Cook’s liquidation, myself and the team had moved across to form Clarity Sports, where we were able to continue delivering for our clubs.
“Since then, the wider Destination Sport Group has been established to encapsulate five market-leading brands with over 120 staff. Alongside DST, we have Sportsbreaks.com, inspiresport, Destination Sport Experiences and Amaze.
“The rebrand to Destination Sport Travel was to bring us in line with the wider group and position us for our next stage of growth.”
As Slawson explains, Destination Sport Travel counts a diverse range of clients across multiple sports.
He added: “We deliver team and business travel across a variety of sports including football, rugby, cycling, cricket and netball.
“We deliver travel for the likes of Saracens Mavericks netball through to the biggest global football clubs.
“We’re really proud of the range of partners that we work with and can honestly say that we offer the same level of attention to detail across all clients.”
Destination Sport Travel are a year-round partner, working with their clubs to ensure travel is navigated as seamlessly as possible so players and coaches can focus on the on-pitch action.
“We work with our football clubs 12 months a year,” Slawson added.
“The season starts with global pre-season tours and training camps, travel to domestic and European away fixtures, mid-season breaks and everyday business travel.
“When a team is embarking on a domestic or overseas trip, we would procure the aircraft and source high quality hotel accommodation, in addition to ground transport and logistics.
“A team is assigned their own Team Travel Manager who works with the club year-round, travels with the club including any advance travel and recces and is pretty much contactable 24/7.
“From an everyday business travel perspective, our specialist business travel consultants arrange individual travel club-wide with some of the more frequent travellers including CEOs, scouts and commercial departments.”
So, what are the challenges that Destination Sport Travel encounter when manging travel for some of the world’s biggest clubs?
Slawson explains: “Football teams are frequent travellers and the turnarounds between matches are tight, especially for our teams playing in Europe.
“The demands on players can be intense so we need to be able to provide teams with a quality hotel who often need to make special arrangements for their visit, for example bespoke food menus plus additional facilities for meeting and treatment rooms.
“Security is paramount and there are also a lot of unseen logistics, for example getting kit from the stadium through the airport quickly to avoid delays.”
Having delivered travel for many of the biggest names in football, does Slawson have any particular highlights from the previous season?
He said, “There have been a number of success stories this season, for example supporting Manchester City on their title winning season and delivering all travel for Rangers on their journey to the Europa League Final.
“The Football Association of Wales are a long-standing client of ours so we’ve been working with them throughout World Cup qualification and will be privileged to take them to Qatar.
“One of the highlights of the past few months has been seeing our teams embark on a normal pre-season with travel far and wide to the likes of the USA, South Korea and Australia after a couple of years of covid uncertainty.”
Slawson explains how global pre-season tours can be particularly challenging for clubs who rely on the diverse background of Destination Sport Travel to deliver these complex trips.
He said: “Anytime a club, or to a certain extent ourselves, travel to a destination that is not as common then it presents challenges.
“In pre-season, we’re typically visiting destinations such as South East Asia or Australia which are further afield and may bring complications around post-Brexit travel and covid protocols. There can be challenges around visas or carnets to be able to transport equipment.
“But that’s where we come in. Not only do we have a large headcount to allow us to deal with the volume that pre-season brings, we also have a unique amount of experience within our team.
“Some of the team have been delivering travel on behalf of Premier League clubs since the mid-90s. Others have experience working inside clubs or governing bodies, or even outside of sport in airports.
“This varied experience and the ability to share knowledge and best practice gives us a real advantage, we can confidently say that there is rarely a situation that one of the team haven’t come across before.”
When travelling within Europe, Destination Sport Travel also count on the experience of sister company Amaze for specialist destination management.
“I’m not aware of another sports travel business within Europe who own their own destination management company,” Slawson added.
“This means we can deliver a truly end to solution. When we’re taking a team across to a European fixture, we look after them from take-off through to touchdown and back again, including everything in-between.
“Our colleagues at Amaze are hugely experienced in their respective territories. They speak the local language, have detailed knowledge of the destination and are highly connected with the likes of local consulates and police forces.
“The ability for our team travel managers to collaborate with Amaze as colleagues, rather than a third-party supplier, brings an added level of trust and confidence for our teams.”
Slawson believes another benefit to Destination Sport Travel is its buying power and technology which is strengthened due to a continued relationship with Clarity Travel.
He said: “As part of the Portman Travel Group, Clarity Travel remain a sister company and this is hugely important for the business.
“Clarity Travel are one of the UK’s leading corporate travel providers with a number of high-profile accounts.
“We plug into Clarity Travel’s technology including a proprietary booking system. The buying power and relationships we have with the major airlines and hotel chains is another significant benefit.
“This continued alignment with one of the UK’s leading travel management specialists, combined with the strong skillset that our team travel and sports business travel teams have in sport, is a really unique offering.”
With Destination Sport Group expanding rapidly, Slawson believes both the team and business travel division, plus the wider group will continue to grow.
He added: “From a team and business travel perspective, we’re confident that the next few years will bring more organic growth.
“There are a number of conversations ongoing with prospective clubs and governing bodies at any time, and increasingly we’re getting prospective partners approach us because they’ve had recommendations from across the industry.
“At a Destination Sport Group level, we’ve had a few years of rapid growth which will continue across all divisions.
“We’ve identified a number of strategic international markets where we know we can make a difference, so we’ll continue to pursue those which in time will bring further benefit to the clubs with whom we work.”
For more information on Destination Sport Travel visit www.destinationsport.com
