Book your tour

The British & Irish Lions appointed four Official Licensed Operators (OLOs) for the tour to South Africa in 2009. Supporters could purchase official travel and hospitality packages through these four companies.

The four Operators were appointed after a competitive tender process and were able to sell official ticket-inclusive travel and/or hospitality packages.

The four OLOs were England Rugby Travel, Gullivers Sports Travel, Sportsworld and Thomas Cook Sport.

Details of each of the OLOs are above. The Official Licensed Operator programme ensured that supporters could book packages to the Lions tour in South Africa with complete confidence in the company they are booking with.

Each of the OLOs is a fully bonded member of ATOL and ABTA and hold IATA membership to ensure that Lions supporters were booking with reputable companies who offer the correct licenses and memberships needed to operate tours to South Africa.

In addition to this, all tickets that were supplied by OLOs come through the official channels, thus ensuring entry into the stadiums for each of the Lions matches.

British Lions Limited and Lions Tour Limited recommended that all Lions supporters who were thinking of travelling to South Africa for the tour, did so through an Official Licensed Operator.

Please also note that the four Official Licensed Operators (OLOs) could appoint sub-agents to sell packages on their behalf. Sub-agents needed to clearly display who they were a sub-agent of and they were not permitted to use the Official Licensed Operator logo that is displayed on this page.