A remarkable summer of sport - Travel management for the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games
An incredible summer of sport in Paris concluded on Sunday 8 September with the closing ceremony of the Paralympics taking place at an electric Stade de France. Over 15,000 athletes competed in both the Olympic and Paralympic games throughout a summer that enthralled spectators and set a new standard for future events, and we were proud to have played our part.
Successes from the event
Athletes
Media personnel
days
The challenge
Travel Places is proud to have supported the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the British Paralympic Association (BPA) since 2008. Paris 2024 marked the fourth Summer Olympic Games that we have worked on. Despite being close to home, any global event of this size presents its own set of unique challenges that require expert travel solutions and years of expertise to navigate.
Travel Places was tasked with nearly all travel for athletes and support staff for the BOA and BPA to and from Paris. We also supported our clients at Warner Bros Discovery Sport, securing flights and trains for the media production crews working on the Games.
Complex Group Travel
In keeping with the aim to make the Paris Olympics the greenest Games in Olympic history, the BOA & BPA signed a deal directly with Eurostar for this event, allowing us to utilise the network as the primary mode of transport for our clients. Whilst we still secured flights for those travelling from further afield, the Eurostar provided us with a consistent and reliable service to transport personnel back and forth. We are proud of our expertise in group flight specialism, however our vast experience in using other modes of transport for large scale events ensured the team seamlessly delivered the same high-level experience for our clients.
In the months leading up to the Games, we worked closely with Eurostar to ensure our clients’ needs were met before, during and after travel. These preparation plans even extended to the development of Eurostar’s existing booking system - changes which assisted us to keep track of our clients’ budgets, allowing for clearer analysis of their total spend.
As with most major events we work on, members of the team travelled to Paris to work onsite for both the Olympic and Paralympic Games, supporting our clients with their travel needs as soon as plans changed. Being there in person during an event means we can provide guidance, expertise and reassurance when it matters most. Prior to the Games, it was decided that every athlete would be required to depart the Athletes' Village within 48 hours of completing their respective events, with the majority heading straight home. Despite the BOA and BPA best efforts to forecast the timing for each athlete, many surpassed performance expectations, while others concluded their events sooner than anticipated. The team on the ground in Paris were on-hand to update the departure schedules and rearrange tickets when needed, both for those travelling home with Eurostar as well as those who were flying.
Disability Travel
We understand that each sport is unique, and we pride ourselves on giving a highly personal, flexible and responsive approach. Our experience working with disability sports teams over many years means we understand and, most importantly, can anticipate the requirements for a variety of disabilities and impairments. We have detailed knowledge on how suppliers and providers accommodate disabled travellers and the provisions needed each step of the way.
For the Paralympics, we had to abide by the pre-existing health and safety restrictions put in place by LeShuttle, which only included four wheelchair slots per train. This required our team to work with the BPA to determine which athletes were using electric wheelchairs and which athletes could remove themselves from their wheelchairs to sit in another seat for the journey. Once this had been decided, we were able to prioritise and spread the allocation of wheelchair athletes over all scheduled trains, ensuring everyone arrived home safely and as quickly as possible.
Our team is fully trained in identifying, understanding and taking appropriate steps to meet the needs and challenges of travellers with impairments, ensuring that all relevant information is relayed and actioned. We pride ourselves on ensuring the business traveller experience is the same for disabled travellers as it is for non-disabled business travellers. And we are passionate about our duty of care obligations, ensuring we have provisions in place to keep all travellers safe, secure and comfortable.
Success for Team GB and ParalympicsGB
The first post-pandemic Olympic and Paralympic Games were a resounding success for Team GB and ParalympicsGB, with both teams achieving more medals than in Tokyo three years ago. We are proud of the role Travel Places played in contributing to this success.
Something that stood out to our events consultants in Paris was the excellent team spirit on show. Each medal winner received their own ceremony back at the Olympic village attended by family members and other Team GB athletes. Furthermore, the BOA offered all British athletes who had returned home the chance to come back on the Eurostar for the closing ceremony. With 230 athletes taking up the offer, Travel Places helped to oversee these additional journeys.
We believe the success we’ve had in managing travel for major events such as these is down to the relationships we build. We always see ourselves as an extension of the team and Paris 2024 was no different. Our events consultants on-site at both Games allowed the BOA and BPA to focus on the performance of the athletes without having to worry about any travel details.
Travel Places would like to add a huge well done to all athletes and support staff for putting on an enthralling sporting spectacle over the Summer and to the Travel Places team who helped organise another hugely successful Games.
We have now worked with Travel Places for the last three Olympic cycles, and they have delivered an excellent service on each occasion. Always willing to go the extra mile and flexible in approach, which is important in such a dynamic sporting environment.
"For Paris in particular, Travel Places secured return travel for each member of our delegation of 1,200 travelling to the Olympics, working closely with Team GB staff and our Official Partner Eurostar to make sure all passenger needs were met. With departures from the UK spread across a wide range of dates, and complex baggage requirements for many sports, the outbound travel alone was no mean feat. We also had Debbie and Jade in Paris with us, working as part of our Central Operations team, making sure that all change requests were handled efficiently. Then finally, Travel Places played a key role in the travel bookings for our charter train, following the Closing Ceremony of the Games, to make sure team members returned home safely."
Andrew Free, Games Services Manager, Team GB
