As a niche travel vertical, Golf Tourism delivers tremendous value to a destination. Apart from directly generating revenues for golf clubs through green fees, cart hire, equipment rental and F&B, it has a huge impact on the entire tourism cluster. It is a well-established fact that golfers spend - on average - 2.5 times more than leisure tourists on holiday. Research indicates that for every $1 spent on green fees, a further $3 is spent elsewhere, hence increasing international tourism spending.
In addition to the direct economic impact, Golf Tourism boasts a a multitude of ancilliary benefits for a destination. Golf Tourism improves the picture of the quality of destination and positions the destination at a different level; consequently the quality of tourism increases.
Golf Tourism adds value to tourism products, enhancing and diversifying them with new activities, facilities & services and contributes positively to the development and growth of certain sectors such as the Spa Sector. It also extends revenue from tourism ancillaries (meeting and incentive trade) and prolongs the season for many destinations. Equally important in the post Covid-Era, the golf travel niche is one of the most resilient travel niches as proven during the 2008 recession and other natural desasters.
The importance of golf tourism lies in attracting high-spending visitors to a destination and dispersing their spending power throughout the local economy.
In this scenario, GTC is uniquely positioned to assist destinations in developing a coordinated Strategy and implementing a success-proven roadmap.