Thursday, August 12, 2010

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.