A year ago, I met a very interesting person, Andrew Davis at the annual conference of EGCOA (European Golf Course Owners Association) in Amsterdam. I really enjoyed his presentation about pricing strategies as a key driver of revenue growth and about the Australian golf industry. He and Guy Chapple launched in 2016 a successful golf business event the Golf Business Forum. They were able to attract 197 golf industry leaders and become Australia’s largest golf industry event.
Their next event will be held in Melbourne from Monday 30 July to Tuesday 31 July in 2018. For next year they are expecting over 250 attendees, 15+ speakers.
What should we know about the Australian golf industry?
I have got an impression that we do not take as seriously the Australian golf industry as we should. So, I collected some interesting facts that can help you to understand the importance of this golf market:
- 394,000 club playing members (source: Golf Australia, Golf Club Participation Report 2016)
- 766,000 casual golfers (source: Australian Golf Industry Council, ‘Australian Golf Landscape’, 2015)
- 1497 golf courses, 166 driving ranges, 33 virtual golf centers.
- Golf is the 5th biggest adult sport in Australia.
- Golf is the 2nd biggest participation sport in Australia.
- The community contribution of golf in Australia: $3,614,409,411 (source: Australian Golf Industry Council, Community impact study 2017)
- Value of Australian golf tourism: $477 million (source: Australian Golf Industry Council, Community impact study 2017)
- Value of golf retail, coaching, and training: $581 million (source: Australian Golf Industry Council, Community impact study 2017)
- Australia is one of the TOP 10 golfing countries (source: The R&A)
- TOP 5 countries of international visitors: 1. New Zealand, 2. China, 3. US, 4. UK, 5. Japan.
- Domestic golf tourism in 2013: Tourism Research Australia report that 1.575 million golf trips were taken in Australia in 2013, generating 8.4 million golf visitor nights.
- The TOP 3 golf tourism destination regions: Queensland, Victoria, and NSW.
- Inbound golf tourism in 2013: Tourism Research Australia report that there were 174,000 international tourists who played golf when visiting Australia in 2013, representing 3.2% of all international visitors. The United Kingdom accounted for 25% of total golf visitor nights in 2013.
