verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message a major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject . it may require cleanup to comply with wikipedia s content policies particularly neutral point of view . please discuss further on the talk page . july 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message sta travel holding ltd sta travel logo introduced in 2013 type private industry travel founded 1971 headquarters zurich london australia area served australia new zealand united kingdom the united states canada south africa asia central europe south america key people andreas w. keller chairman 1 john constable chief executive officer 2 products student and youth travel operating income chf 997 million us 1 126 million 2011 3 profit chf 141 million 2011 3 number of employees approx 1943 2011 3 website http www.statravel.com sta travel is a travel company owned by the swiss diethelm keller group with headquarters in zurich and london . 4 it claims to be the world s largest travel company for students and young people . 4 the sta group employs nearly 2 000 people in over 200 branches in 12 different countries with franchises and business partners in another 48 countries . in 2011 its gross turnover was chf 997 million us 1 126 million with net sales mostly commission on ticket sales of chf 141 million . 3 history edit the business that became sta was founded in the 1970s . some sources say the it was established in 1971 by the australian union of students aus ; 5 others that it was founded in 1976 by dick porter and another student who had returned to australia from a round the world trip . 6 originally trading as aus student travel the australian business became insolvent in 1979 . 7 its business including a related uk company were acquired by diethelm keller in july 1979 . 4 it became student travel australia and then sta travel . 8 by 1985 the group s income had reached us 60 million expanding into the us and the far east in the 1980s and 1990s . as of 2013 it has branches in 12 countries including the uk usa new zealand japan malaysia and thailand . 9 in 2010 the sta travel group launched its new travel brand bridge the world marking the company s first venture outside the youth and student market targeting an older and more affluent demographic . 10 sta travel acquired the bunac brand and its business of arranging overseas work and volunteer programmes in 2011 11 12 and signed marketing partnership deals with tourism new zealand and tourism australia in 2013 . in 2014 the company opted to replace the student travel association abbreviation with start the adventure so as not to dissuade anyone that is not a student or under the age of 26 . 13 14 irrelevant citation references edit diethelm keller group sta travel board of directors diethelm keller group sta travel management a b c d diethelm keller group sta travel facts and figures a b c diethelm keller group sta travel overview sta travel who we are the challenge judges australian business http coventgarden.com business sta travel companies house records for sta travel limited company no. 01263330 diethelm keller group sta travel profile sta travel group launches bridge the world breakingtravelnews.com 17 september 2010 bunac remembrance of bunac past times higher education 4 april 2013 tourism new zealand and sta travel join forces to boost youth travel with 1.2 m mou world youth student and educational confederation 16 june 2013 tourism australia strikes 6m deal with sta travel . travel weekly . 16 september 2013 . retrieved 16 september 2013 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title sta travel & oldid 743588862 categories travel agenciescompanies established in 1971hidden categories articles needing additional references from september 2013all articles needing additional referenceswikipedia articles with possible conflicts of interest from july 2015all articles lacking reliable referencesarticles lacking reliable references from october 2016 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutschsvenska edit links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 09 03 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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