Golf Tourism is perpetually faced with shifting markets and evolving products and GTS believe that what is needed to achieve greater market share is a proactive membership that will innovate, work together, comment and participate in ways that will take golf tourism in Scotland to a new level.

 

How is golf in Scotland doing competitively?  International competition continues to grow and still not enough is done to segment and then match Scotland’s golf tourism products and markets.  There continues to be fragmentation of effort, both across sectors of the industry and regions of the country.  Market information is inadequate and marketing and customer service skills are variable across all sectors.

 

Continuing to help bring the industry together within Golf Tourism Scotland and then forging a real private/public sector partnership can make Scotland not just the recognised Home of Golf but also the world’s number one golf tourism destination.  The SGU is leading a “One Plan for Golf” project; VisitScotland is consistently hosting cross-industry meetings and reviewing its golf marketing, while Scottish Enterprise has been restructuring its delivery of business development support.  GTS will continue to develop strong channels of communication with the public bodies but it will always remain the mouthpiece of its members and the champion of their interests.  

 

This year, 2009, sees Homecoming Scotland in full swing and GTS has been involved in ensuring that golf is central to the programme.  Next year will see the Open Championship back at St Andrews and the 150th anniversary of the Open’s birth at Prestwick.  And then, of course, there’s the countdown to The Ryder Cup 2014 – a project GTS feels the industry should be much more involved with in terms of planning for and the legacy afterwards.

 

Help us be heard.