GTS February Forum Series

Leading golf experts have been lined up for a February forum series in Scotland.

An exciting programme of seminars has been unveiled that will provide invaluable advice to businesses in the travel, hospitality and golf service sectors operating in the Home of Golf. The series of five February Forums will be held at venues across Scotland in 2011 and will include insights from leading lights of the golf industry.

Born out of a collaboration between Golf Tourism Scotland, Scottish Enterprise, VisitScotland, Scottish Development International, Tourism Intelligence Scotland and the Scottish Golf Union, this year's events will consider how to use market intelligence to get ahead. For instance, what is good information, how can it help businesses make better decisions and how can it be used to improve the bottom line?

The enlightening sessions will bring together leading practitioners in tourism intelligence who will motivate golf tourism businesses to generate fresh ideas and drive growth through innovation. As well as three key-note presentations, the seminars will also include Q&A sessions, creative innovation workshops and networking buffet lunches.

As Lee Derrick, the chairman of GTS pointed out, the 2011 forums have been designed to provide a networking opportunity that will encourage industry engagement and collaborative working at both national and regional levels.

"This year's forums will follow a clear agenda to provide delegates with the best advice to help their businesses grow in 2011," he said. "We have taken a lot from last year's forums and added even more delegate participation. The new format means there will be even more opportunities to share ideas and form relationships. The forums are all about sharing best practice and inspiring the golf industry for the year ahead."

Heading up the impressive line-up is Mike Williamson of MW Associates who will provide a summary of the 2010 Golf Tourism Monitor, while Tourism Intelligence Scotland will outline key practical insights into golf tourism that will inspire everyone to get ahead. There will also be a special 'international' presenter at each event who will reveal how market intelligence continues to help their business flourish, and the afternoon will conclude with an innovation workshop that will show how to use market intelligence and customer insights to generate new ideas and improve the customer experience.

"It's certainly an impressive line-up that will undoubtedly reveal a range of useful insights and practical hints on how to use market intelligence to prosper," said Malcolm Roughead, chief executive of VisitScotland. "The objective is to enable golf tourism businesses develop innovative products and services based on good market intelligence so they can maximise the scale of business opportunity that exists within the golf tourism sector."

The series of five afternoon sessions will take place during February and will be open to all GTS members and any golf-related companies looking to maximise profits and grow their business. Bookings can be made by emailing admin@golftourismscotland.com

Golf Industry Reveals Gold Standard Winners

This year’s top golf honours have been announced at the glittering Golf Tourism Scotland’s Gold Standard Awards held at the Macdonald Marine Hotel & Spa in North Berwick. The sell-out event has become the golf industry’s annual jamboree during which the very best of Scottish golf tourism is celebrated.

More information here...

GTS Gold Standard Awards 2010

The GTS Gold Standard Awards awards dinner is taking place this Thursday, 11th November at the Macdonald Marine Hotel & Spa, North Berwick.

This is the time of year when Golf Tourism Scotland, through its annual industry awards programme, recognises and publicises the best of Scottish golf tourism by nominating those golf courses, accommodation providers, tour operators and others that have gone the extra mile in their delivery of superb service.

More information here...

GTS Chairman's Report 2010

If the analogy for running a golf tourism business at the present time is that we are all travelling through a tunnel with the lights out, the first thing to say is – the tunnel has an end to it and daylight can be seen as you near that point. The second observation is that some businesses are closer to the end of the tunnel than others. Therefore, they find it easier to see what to do for the future, while others are still struggling in the dark.


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20th Anniversary Celebration at the British Golf Museum

The British Golf Museum is opening its doors for free on Saturday 18th September. 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the British Golf Museum and the 150th anniversary of The Open Championship.

Originally a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ started by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 1864, the collection formed the basis of the Museum, which now displays the largest collection of golfing artefacts and memorabilia in Europe.

Since opening in 1990, the museum has won several major awards and is currently one of only nine museums in Scotland to have been awarded 5 star status by VisitScotland. For 20 years it has been bringing to life the history and traditions of the game of golf. To meet the expectations of visitors it continues to showcase exceptional collections through visually outstanding displays and interactive interpretation.

To mark its 20th anniversary, the museum is offering free admission on 20 special free entry days throughout the year, the next of which is on its 20th Birthday, the 18th September 2010. Highlights of 2010 have already included the unveiling of three new exhibitions and in celebration of the 150th Open Championship the museum is also showcasing an Open Trail guidebook, which is free for every visitor.

St Andrews Links Trust Appoints New Chief Executive

St Andrews Links Trust has appointed Euan Loudon as its new chief executive.

Mr Loudon (54), who is currently chief executive of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, will take up his new position early next year. The Trust manages and maintains the seven public golf courses in St Andrews including the Old Course and The Castle Course.

A former assistant professional golfer, Mr Loudon joined the army in 1974 and quickly rose through the officer ranks. He commanded the 1st Battalion, The Royal Highland Fusiliers and in his final appointment, in the rank of Major General, he was General Officer Commanding the Army’s 2nd Division and Governor of Edinburgh Castle.

More info here…

Golf Tourism in Scotland: An Assessment of Growth Potential

Without question Scotland is one of the world’s premier golf destinations (voted Best Golf Destination of the Year 2009 by Today’s Golfer) and is recognised globally as the “Home of Golf”.

Similar to other tourism sectors, however, there have been significant changes in both the buying behaviour and destination choices of potential golfing visitors so it is vital that the industry keeps pace with this fast-moving marketplace. Scotland undeniably holds the accolade of being the country ‘where it all started’ with all the traditions associated with this, but can’t rely on this alone for the future growth and success of its golf tourism product.

With Scotland hosting the Ryder Cup in 2014 and increasing competition from other golfing destinations, time is now ripe for the golf tourism sector to work together to share up-to-date market intelligence to ensure that the industry remains competitive both now & in the future.
With this in mind, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Islands Enterprise, with support from GTS & VisitScotland, have recently commissioned SQW consultants to carry out an assessment of the growth potential of golf tourism at national & regional levels up to 2020 as well as benchmark Scotland’s future growth prospects with other leading global golfing destinations.

As part of their research, SQW will carry out detailed consultations with key golf courses, tour operators & other golf-related business interests in order to get an industry-led view of the golf tourism market over the next 10 years. The research findings will be made available to GTS members as part of a wider industry circulation by late Autumn & will be used to inform future strategy and investment decisions as part of the public sector’s support to golf tourism generally.

For further details please contact Gordon Todd, Senior Project Executive, Scottish Enterprise on 0141 228 2122 or via Gordon.Todd@scotent.co.uk.

Pitlochry GC To Host Highland Open

GTS member Pitlochry GC will host The Highland Open from Sunday 8th to Friday 13th August, a 6-day event open to amateur golfers. More information here...

Brunston Castle GC – Raising Funds for Help for Heroes

GTS member Brunston Castle GC is to take part in the United Kingdom's biggest amateur charity golf event, all in aid of 'Help for Heroes'.

On Saturday 24th July 2010, a week after the Open Championship at St. Andrews, the club will participate in The National Golf Club Challenge, the largest event of its kind to take place in the UK. The challenge will bring together hundreds of golf clubs and thousands of golfers to compete, have fun and raise funds.

More information here...

Golf Tourism Scotland to host forum on future of golf tourism

Golf Tourism Scotland will host a national forum on Tuesday 6th July to discuss the future of golf tourism in Scotland.

Held at Murrayshall House Hotel in Perthshire, the event will form a key part of the celebrations marking the trade body's fifth year of campaigning for the golf tourism trade sector and bring together an impressive line-up of key speakers from both public and private sectors to discuss what the next five years hold for golf tourism in Scotland. As a result, trend spotting will be the order of day along with a healthy dose of best-practice guidelines, with some educated and inspired projections for the future.

Included in the exciting programme of speakers is VisitScotland's Director of Visitor Engagement Malcolm Roughead (OBE), Scottish Enterprise's head of tourism Eddie Brogan, Golf Development Manager for the SGU and SGLA Andy Salmon and Lee Derrick, owner of the multi-faceted marketing agency Blue Spinach.

Also giving their insights into what lies ahead will be Seamus Coen, a regional general manager at Macdonald Hotels and Max Hare, a German tour operator serving a host of European countries including Scotland.

"It's an extremely exciting line-up, made all the more intriguing by the theme of the forum," noted GTS chairman Nick Hunter. "We've given them a fairly strict brief to identify key trends that will influence their sector and reveal how they intend to develop their organisations within these parameters. It will be a fascinating day, finding out what the future holds for each of us."

Greywalls - A New Beginning

One of Scottish golf tourism’s most treasured establishments has just reopened as a hotel once again.

Situated on the edge of the world famous Muirfield golf course and only forty minutes drive from Edinburgh, Greywalls has opened its doors with a new restaurant by legendary chef Albert Roux. Designed by Edwardian architect Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1901, Greywalls has stayed true to its roots and today retains the original classical style for which it is renowned. The house offers 23 en suite bedrooms, warm and inviting public areas including a dedicated whisky room and traditional style library, elegant walled gardens, two tennis courts, a putting green and a croquet lawn. There are twelve golf courses within five miles of the hotel, including Gullane, Luffness, North Berwick, The Renaissance Club and Archerfield.

More information here...

Fife Council takes Fife golf to the next level

Fife golf courses and the tourism trade are being encouraged to take a bigger share of the golf tourism market by giving their views on the way forward for more collaboration, through a Fife Golf Alliance. The aim is to improve services, facilities and the golf product, boost business, generate a bigger and better offer to visiting golfers and spread the benefits of golf tourism across the region. With an estimated 1200 golf related jobs in Fife, the market is increasingly competitive and new international destinations are investing heavily, so the planned Alliance would help protect and boost jobs too.

BTS consultants, appointed by Fife Council, are inviting the tourism trade to express their opinions through an open survey and online forum.

Golf tourism generates around £220m for the Scottish economy. This includes the value of visiting golfers staying overnight (£187m) and a further £36m through expenditure by visitors to the major golf events (source VisitScotland). There are already good examples of local collaboration occurring in golf – through the St Andrews Links Trust, St Andrews Golf Development Group, First in Fife Golf pass, Links with History and Elmwood College for instance –and Fife Council believes that there are definite opportunities to be realised by further enhanced joint working.

The Face in a Crowd

Gary Forbes the golf professional at GTS member, Murcar Golf Links, has been selected as one of 14 eclectic individuals to represent Scotland, in VisitScotland's latest European Touring Campaign entitled 'Meet the Scots...'.

"We are delighted to see golf represented in this £1.25m campaign for 2010, as it certainly is one of Scotland's biggest draws" said Nick Hunter, Chairman of Golf Tourism Scotland.

The touring campaign is due to run from February until June this year and will target Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands en route.

Check out VisitScotland for further information.

Double Cause for Celebration at the British Golf Museum

The British Golf Museum, a new GTS member, is opening its doors for free this Saturday, 27th February, to kick start a year of celebrations.

2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the British Golf Museum and the 150th anniversary of The Open Championship. To mark its anniversary, the museum is offering free admission on 20 special free entry days throughout the year. Highlights of 2010 will include the unveiling of three new exhibitions. In celebration of the 150th anniversary of The Open it is also showcasing a unique Open Championship collection in the Open Championship Trail, booklet, which will be available for Easter.

Originally a ‘cabinet of curiosities’ started by The Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 1864, the collection formed the basis of the Museum, which now displays the largest collection of golfing artefacts and memorabilia in Europe. Since opening in 1990, the museum has won several major awards and is currently one of only nine museums in Scotland to have been awarded 5 star status by VisitScotland. For 20 years it has been bringing to life the history and traditions of the game of golf. To meet the expectations of visitors, it continues to showcase exceptional collections through visually outstanding displays and interactive interpretation.

The British Golf Museum is a 5 star museum, situated at the heart of the home of golf in St Andrews. Imaginative exhibitions and stunning multimedia bring to life over 500 years of golfing history. The British Golf Museum is the world’s premier heritage centre for golf.

For further information please contact:

Judy Chance

01334 460051 (Direct line)

01334 460046 (Museum reception)

Email: judychance@randa.org

Scottish Golf at PGA Show 2010

Today, prior to the annual PGA Show in Orlando, Florida, GTS is hosting a Scotland Golf Day, sponsored by VisitScotland and Scottish Development International.

"Scotland, the Home of Golf" is taking over a little piece of the USA for the day, with 64 individuals representing various areas of the golf industry getting together at the Celebration Golf Club, to network with fellow travel professionals and to entertain some of those who have supported our country with business over the years.

With the added help of our sponsors, stand space at the PGA Show itself has been made available to a number of industry partners for them to showcase their own businesses and beat the drum for Scottish golf as a whole. GTS will also be co-hosting an evening drinks reception with Golf East Lothian during the event.