Worldwide golf tourism in rude health as 18th IGTM gets under way

International golf tourism continues to grow strongly and will notch up its fourth successive year of growth in 2015, IAGTO Chief Executive Peter Walton revealed as the 18th International Golf Travel Market (IGTM) got under way in Tenerife.
Welcoming the 1,400 delegates in his keynote opening address at the island’s Magma Convention Centre, Walton said that figures supplied by both golf tour operator and supplier members showed that the number of golfers travelling to play had increased every year since IAGTO launched its annual golf tourism survey three years ago.
Data collection was stepped up for 2015 with the introduction of quarterly golf tourism surveys and core data gathered from more than 700 operators and suppliers in the first two quarters of this year underlined the upward trend for golf tourism. Golf tour operators reported that the number of golfers they carried between January and March was up by 8% and rose 5% between April and June, both compared with the same period of 2014. That surge was mirrored among IAGTO golf courses and hotels; they saw golf visitor arrivals grow by 7.2% on average for the first six months of 2015.
The outlook is positive, too. As of the beginning of July, golf tour operators reported that forward bookings were up 6.7% year on year, while golf courses and hotels were seeing an increase in forward bookings of 4.6%.
“Globally, IAGTO golf tour operator sales grew by 9.3% in 2012, 11.1% in 2013 and by 8.9% in 2014. We can now confidently assert that 2015 will be the fourth year of consecutive growth,” said Walton.
Walton announced that IAGTO would be launching a new service in January 2016 that would enable any of its member golf destinations to track the number of rounds played by golf visitors on a month-by-month basis, having helped numerous destinations track international golf visitor arrival numbers and after pooling the knowledge and experience gained from those individual projects.
Delegates were told about the work IAGTO has been undertaking to help golf destinations following the unveiling of the global golf tourism organisation’s Blueprint for the implementation of Integrated Golf Tourism Strategies at IGTM 2014 in Lake Como, Italy.
Several destinations had implemented strategies in full or in part based on IAGTO recommendations, Walton said. The biggest project was the launch of a nationwide drive in the United States in conjunction with Brand USA to collect essential golf tourism data from golf courses attracting international golfing visitors.
Within three months of its launch, 60 state and regional tourist boards had signed up to the project, and more than 250 golf courses have already submitted comprehensive data. The results will be published at IAGTO’s 8th North America Golf Tourism Convention, which is being staged at Pinehurst Resort, North Carolina, in June 2016.
Other golf tourism strategy projects outlined in the keynote address were:

• Dominican Republic: In September 2015, the Ministry of Tourism of the Dominican Republic confirmed that it would immediately begin the implementation of a national golf tourism strategy as recommended by IAGTO.
• Morocco: At the Hassan II Trophy in Agadir in March 2015, Morocco’s tourism and golf bodies staged a golf tourism forum at which they announced that the country would continue for a second year the implementation of IAGTO’s golf tourism strategy, signing an agreement with IAGTO partner, the Golf Environment Organization, with a view to developing a country-wide sustainability plan.
• Wallonia:  In 2002, IAGTO carried out one of its first Golf Tourism Audits in the Belgian region of Wallonia. IAGTO was asked by Wallonie-Bruxelles Tourism to update its report in 2015 and to make recommendations for further golf tourism promotional development. The project is now under way.
• South Africa: The South Africa Golf Tourism Association (SAGTA) and IAGTO are working together to launch a Golf Destination South Africa website by the end of 2015. South Africa is bringing more exhibitors to IGTM than ever before and the Chairman of South Africa Tourism is also attending.

“We are inundated with requests to help golf destinations worldwide position themselves in the best way possible to attract more golf tour operator sales and deliver the best experience to visiting golf travellers,” said Walton. “This is a very important role for IAGTO as it helps all aspects of golf tourism, including both supplier and buyer business and, most importantly, customer satisfaction.”
IAGTO’s Chief Executive also told delegates that the Tenerife IGTM was a “homecoming” for him. He was UK Director for the Tenerife Tourist Office from 1994 to 1997 and his remit included turning the island into a successful golf destination.
“It was during hosting the first UK golf tour operator fam trip to Tenerife in 1995 that the importance of the golf tourism market became apparent, but also that I recognised the disparate nature of the golf tourism industry,” he said.
“Taking a day off after the fam on the island of La Gomera, I formed the idea of both IAGTO and the International Golf Travel Market to both bring the golf tourism together under one roof and to provide an annual venue for the industry to do their business.
“The rest, as they say, is history.”