Cheryl Parker
What is the significance of hosting a major golf tournament for a region and the potential golf travel benefits?
For any region hosting a professional tournament that receives mass media coverage, it is an important opportunity. The fact the Open Championship at Royal St George’s Golf Club will be watched by 100 million television viewers via 50 broadcasters around the world makes it doubly important, as they will be exposed to Kent as a golf destination. We estimate that the inward investment to Kent – including golf travel – will be approximately €80 million. Putting a value on the media coverage, raising awareness and creating a reputation is harder to measure.
As a region, what are you doing to optimise the opportunity of hosting a major tournament?
Our strategy has been to take a view that benefits the region before the event, and then secures a legacy for Kent after the event. Visit Kent established a golf specific marketing campaign and secured funding that has allowed us to create an advertising campaign (created by Saatchi & Saatchi), produce a high quality golf video and DVD, a Kent Golf customer magazine, attend events and retain a specialist golf PR agency.
What are the challenges you face?
As soon as the event has happened, attention will quite naturally turn to other tournaments and ultimately the following year’s Open venue. Our job is to secure the legacy and keep reminding people of what a great region Kent is and why they should take a golf break here between now and the next time the Open returns, perhaps in 10 years’ time.
Have you seen an increase in interest from golf travel companies and golfers wishing to visit the region? Where have you had the best response from?
Absolutely. Kent hasn’t previously been marketed as a golf destination, but when people are reminded of the fantastic links and coastal courses we have, the fact we are the nearest Open Championship venue to London, and that we have a top-ranked Nick Faldo designed course and a European Tour Destination, people want to come. Much of the demand has come from the UK domestic market, but our close proximity to the Channel Tunnel means that we are now welcoming many golfers from France, Belgium and Holland, too. We are also experiencing interest in Scandinavian countries after we exhibited at the Open in St Andrews in 2010.
What do golfers want when they visit – how important is price?
They want clusters of good quality golf courses to play in an easily accessible region, they want good places to stay and excellent restaurants and bars to eat and drink. Fortunately, we can offer all of these benefits in abundance, which is why I think we are now a fast emerging golf destination. Price is important, but value is even more important.
How important has the media been in your campaign?
From the outset, raising awareness and creating a reputation for Kent as a golf destination was a key strategic goal. We hired a specialist agency to help us with this and since they started work with us in July we have received a great deal of coverage and a stream of golf and travel journalists visiting and writing stories. We have been surprised and delighted by the interest shown from press in Scandinavia who are now looking at Kent as a serious destination for golf.
What advice would you give to other organisations looking to market their region to the golf travel market?
Get your golf industry behind you and all working in partnership. Resources are limited but there is huge potential if you are all working collectively with the same end goal – i.e. more golfers to the region.
