The Rugby World Cup 2015 is to be held between 18th September and 31st October 2015 and will be hosted in twelve venues across England & Wales.

We are entering into one of the most exciting times for English tourism and the Rugby World Cup 2015 will be intrinsic in securing England’s place as one of the most dynamic and beautiful destinations in the world.

Sport in this country is an incredibly powerful sales tool that has the power to attract millions of international visitors, and acts as an important catalyst to stimulate domestic visits from our vast home-grown fan-base.

Hosting the Rugby World Cup 2015, the third largest sporting event in the world after the Olympics and FIFA World Cup, is estimated by Deloittes to be worth £2.1bn to the British economy. It affords tourism with a tremendous opportunity, not least through building on, and securing our industry’s place as an intrinsic part of the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. But also through the sheer scale of the tournament, with host match venues and training camps spanning the breadth of the country, spreading the opportunity for tourism far and wide.

The tournament forms a central plank of Britain’s “decade of sport”, which also includes the 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games, the 2013 Rugby League World Cup, and the 2014 Tour De France.

The Host Cities

The Rugby World Cup 2015 host cities will be spread all over England – the North, Midlands, South, West and London – making this a genuinely pan-England event. Thirteen venues have been confirmed, twelve of which are based in England. Below is the full list of the confirmed venues:

• Twickenham Stadium, London
• Brighton Community Stadium, Brighton
• Kingsholm Stadium, Gloucester
• Elland Road, Leeds
• Leicester City Stadium, Leicester
• St James’ Park, Newcastle upon Tyne
• Stadiummk, Milton Keynes
• Wembley Stadium, London
• Olympic Stadium, London
• Villa Park, Birmingham
• Sandy Park Exeter
• Manchester City Stadium, Manchester
• Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

This geographical spread is a gift for our industry enabling the UK to showcase our incredible assets as a world class tourist destination as has never been done before in order to boost tourism spend, stimulate the continued growth of the English visitor economy, and create all important jobs for England.

Silverstone is one of the oldest races on the calendar and started life as an airfield. The end of Second World War left Britain with no major race track. An ex-farmer, James Wilson Brown, was employed by the RAC and given just two months to turn the site from a wartime airfield and farm into a race track for the first RAC International Grand Prix.

On the 2nd October 1948, an estimated 100,000 people flocked to see Luigi Villoresi drive from the back of the grid to beat a field of 22 others in his Maserati with a top speed of 72.2mph. Silverstone racing history had begun.

From the 50 races we have held here at the circuit, Alain Prost holds the record for most wins at the circuit in 1983, 1985, 1989, 1990 and 1993! Nigel Mansell is only just behind Alain with 4 wins here at Silverstone in 1986, 1987, 1991 and 1992.

The 2015 Formula 1 British Grand Prix will be held on the 05th July 2015 and visitors have an action packed week to look forward to. On top of 3 days of racing, there will be live music from MADNESS, Deacon Blue, Nik Kershaw and others as well as other activities like Zorbing, Boldogs (motorcycle display team), High Ropes, Segways and rookie rides.

Those staying for the duration will need some form of accommodation, camping seems to be the most popular as it keeps you in the mix for the whole weekend and for relatively little cost but many local hotels will be booked up already, so get your skates on and don’t miss out.

If you are visting for the 1st time then you should be looking for accommodation in the nearby towns of Whittlebury, Syresham and Towcester, or a little further afield you will find cities like Milton Keynes, Northampton and Banbury.

If you are visiting the UK for the race then why not hire a car on your arrival from any of the Eurostar stops or major airports like Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton.