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Over the years, our members were an active part of some of the most important events. We are proud to say the all the GPN members offer the same level of comfort and the same quality to all their customers, no matter how big or small an event is. In this article, we gathered together just a small part of the experiences that our members had, their involvement in offering transportation for Sport Events, for Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) and any other type of events.
If you are looking for an events coach hire provider, you are in the right place.
Please check below stories from our colleagues in Bulgaria, Lithuania, Austria, Finland, Romania, Ireland, Norway, UK, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Malta.
Bulgaria - Events Coach Hire
Kaleia & the 2021 FIS Ski World Cup
For the 8th year in a row, Kaleia has transported the athletes for the 2021 FIS Ski World Cup round in Bansko, Bulgaria. In cooperation with their partners, Kaleia transported more than 300 athletes, official guests and press, and more than 11 teams for this years’ event.
Coach Hire for Cirque de Soleil
Lithuania Events Coach Hire
Coach Hire for the World Rowing Championship under 18
In 2017, from August 2nd to 6th, Lithuania hosted World Rowing Championship under 18 years old. The event was held in Trakai, where 800 participants from 60 different world countries competed for the “Best” title. For this event, Ollex was chosen as a transportation service provider that took care of all the teams and the staff members’ comfortable and safe trips to the competition place and hotels.
On top of that, during the athletes’ free-time, Ollex has provided additional tourism services, such as taking teams to see famous Lithuanian sightseeing.
Ollex - Official Transportation Provider for the Council of European Union
Austria Events Coach Hire
Wings for Life World Run
Coach hire providers for Eurovision
60th ESC-Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna – Blaguss Austria was the official coach partner of the ESC-delegations!
The 60th Eurovision Song Contest was held in May 2015 in the capital of Austria, Vienna, the first time Austria hosted the event since 1967. The right to host the contest came when Conchita Wurst brought home the trophy with her “Rise Like A Phoenix” from Copenhagen the year before.
During their stay in Austria, every participating country had its own Blaguss coach for shuttle services within the city (airport and hotel transfers, rehearsals, main events etc.). All coaches were branded with a special ESC design and had signs with the names of the respective participating countries in their front windows.
Blaguss Austria was really honoured to be the exclusive coach shuttle partner of such a glamorous international event!
Finland Events Coach Hire
Coach Hire for the 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship
The event took place in April 2019, with 10 participating teams, around 50 members per team (Finland, USA, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Japan, Germany, Czech Republic).
The client was the Finnish Ice Hockey Association. o We provided all transportation services for the teams during the 2 weeks of tournament + training camp transportations before the tournament. When traveling to ice practices, games, airport transfers, hotel transfers, city tours for teams on their day offs, all team related transfers were coordinated and delivered by us. Finnish National team had their own personalized coach. Drivers were picked for the service as per their customer service skills, knowledge of special needs of sport events and what languages they could speak besides English. For example Swedish team did have a driver that could speak Swedish.
Feedback from the client was excellent. The reasons for positive and successful event were: good smooth communication between us and the client. Fast replies to their questions and very fast reactions to problems/issues that needed to be fixed immediately. High quality of the fleet, coaches were only EURO 5 and 6 standards. High quality of drivers, all drivers were able to speak English, they knew the routes very well and were helpful for the teams in all matters.
Coach Hire for the Private Finnish medical company 110-year party
Our client, CWT Meetings & Events Finland has organised the party for 2500 participants. The Medical company has offices all around Finland. They held a major company party in Helsinki and needed to get their staff easily to Helsinki from the following cities: Imatra (275 km distance),
Jyväskylä (285 km distance),
Kouvola (150 km distance),
Kuopio (400 km distance),
Lahti (120 km distance),
Salo (120 km distance),
Tampere (190 km distance),
Turku (170 km distance).
We arranged through our own and our great partner companies the service from all cities to location in Helsinki and also back to their home towns after the party. We also provided a coordination service at location for the client. Our traffic coordinator was at the location guiding the groups to correct coaches and monitoring at sight that all services are going out as planned.
The services went as planned and client CWT was very pleased. The key to success was that we could cover all the cities and the client did not need to look for multiple coach hire companies in Finland. It made our client’s life easier when they only had one point of contact for any changes. Also good and fast communication with the client was important. The quality of our coaches was also important for the client as we were able to match their need for high-quality coaches.
Romania Events Coach Hire
European bodybuilding championship Baia Mare
In 2015, the European bodybuilding championship took place in Baia Mare, Romania. For our client, Romanian Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation we offered coach transfer from Cluj-Napoca to Baia Mare for over 400 participants. The client was very happy with the services we provided.
Coach Hire for International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO)
Ireland Events Coach Hire
Transportation for the Irish Rugby Team (IRFU)
Ei Travel Group was delighted to have had the opportunity to provide transport for the Irish Rugby Team (IRFU). We safely brought them to Dublin airport ahead of their trip to Japan in 2019. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, we were unable to continue providing transport for the team. However, it was honour to transport the team around to matches and events in Ireland.
Official transport provider for the International Commission on Alpine Rescue (ICAR)
Ei Travel Group were the official transport provider for the International Commission on Alpine Rescue (ICAR) conference from the 14th to the 17th of October 2015. ICAR is an organisation for mountain rescue teams and related organisations with the goal of improving mountain rescue service and their safety. This was the first ICAR Congress to be held In Ireland with 405 persons in attendance representing 33 countries. It was held in Killarney in County Kerry.
Norway Events Coach Hire
Over 3500 supporters transported in one day
The final of the Norwegian men`s football championship in 2007 between Haugesund and Lillestrøm was kicked off, as every year, in Oslo. Unibuss Tur organized transportation for Norwegian Football Association, and we successfully transported, with 22 touring coaches and 25 articulated coaches, over 3500 football supporters this day. NFF have been a customer of Unibuss Tur for several years after this event.
Transportation on the Norwegian Constitution Day
Germany Events Coach Hire
Official Transportation Partner for the Soccer World Cup 2006
One of our major sports events was the Soccer World Cup 2006
with fans of the Australian national soccer team in Kaiserslautern, Munich, Stuttgart.
We organized and coordinated the transfers for the World Cup trip of 1,500 Australian soccer fans to the various venues of their national team across Germany. For that, we have provided over 30 coaches.
Experience Bus Trip
Spain Events Coach Hire
Transportation for the UEFA Champions League Final in Madrid
In 2019, the month of May was very intense to Cartour. Apart of our regular trips and tours, Cartour managed to transport more than 3500 people to the two biggest events in Madrid.
The first one was the international football tournament, where the participants were young people from all over the world. This tournament lasted for 1 week and the winner had the grand prize of watching the champions league final at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium. Cartour provided a range of transportation services, like Airport Transfers, Tournament Transfers to Leganes Stadium and City tours for all participants.
The second big event was the Champions League final between Liverpool and Tottenham, where Cartour provided transport to fans from both teams, for the UEFA Sponsors, from arrival and departure transfer, transfers to the match and also tours in Madrid and surroundings.
Experience Bus Trip
In October 2018 the city of Madrid hosted the largest pharmaceutical event in the world (CPhI Worldwide) at IFEMA. Cartour was responsible for the transportation of more than 1200 people. Apart of transfers to airport/hotel and hotel/event, Cartour also provided city tours in Madrid and its surroundings as well as dinner services.
Those were 3 very intense days. The event ended with a big dinner, to which Cartour was invited, demonstrating the satisfaction of all customers.
The result was fantastic and since then we have continued to work with this amazing client (Rainbow Trade Fair Tours).
Portugal Events Coach Hire
Official Carrier for the 2014 UEFA Champions League Final
In 2004, GPN Portugal – Frota Azul – was appointed official carrier for the 2004 European Cup organized by FIFA and FPF (Portuguese Football Federation) in Portugal.
The project included transportation services for Major Sponsors Carrier, national delegations and fans Carrier. Overall more than 11.000 passengers were transported in several cities in Portugal.
The project was a huge success as Frota Azul delivered excellent service, despite the challenging dates (summer) and the project’s detailed and tight schedules.
Frota Azul was also appointed as the Official Carrier for 2014 UEFA Champions League Final organized by UEFA in Lisbon.
Additionally Frota Azul was Major Sponsors Carrier for companies such as (Adidas, Mastercard, Hyundai, Heineken, Gazprom, etc).
During this event more than 6.000 passengers were transported and was a complete success because all the extremely strict requirements were met without a single hitch.
Portugal Events Coach Hire
2014 International Water Congress in Lisbon
GPN Portugal – Frota Azul has provided transportation services for many events over the years from congresses, large corporate events, international organizations.
One of the biggest events in terms of volume and resources allocated was the 2014 International Water Congress in Lisbon organized by ABREU (Portuguese largest DMC) with a total number of participants of about 5.000 people.
The BOOM Festival (one of the largest alternative music festivals in the world) takes place every 2 years in Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal and GPN Portugal – Frota Azul – is the Official Carrier for the event.
The transportation project includes transporting about 9.000 passengers from airports in Portugal, Spain and France to a very remote area of Portugal. The event is very difficult to handle and to operate but the efficiency, expertise and professionalism of Frota Azul make it a success.
Malta Events Coach Hire
A considerable amount of Sporting Events and Tournaments are held in Malta every year. Zarb Coaches Ltd has been hired by several Football, Wrestling and Powerboats Teams amongst others. It has been our pleasure that in January 2018, we were in the service of PFC Levski Sofia of Bulgaria. Also recently we have been the official Transport providers to the Swedish Women’s Football Team – MFA Women’s Championship being held in 2021. Our clients were satisfied with the overall services that Zarb Coaches provide, most importantly the availability of the vehicles and the punctuality.
Events and Conferences
