When we are discussing the challenge of how could golf broaden its appeal and attract new audience demographics we cannot or it is hard to neglect the importance of such technology innovation like artificial intelligence. Let me give…
Recently, I had to realize that with my friends and family members, we talk quite a lot about the great Portuguese wines. These discussions usually start with mentioning the wine region of Porto or Madeira. Soon I understood…
Last week I had an interesting conversation about the possible effects of Brexit on UK golf clubs. I thought to share with you some of our worries/concerns before letting you know the high hopes of Royal Portrush Golf…
When we hear the word Algarve, many great golf holiday memories and fabulous golf resorts (e.g. Monte Rei Golf & Country Club; Amendoeira Golf Resort, Vilamoura Dom Pedro Golf Collection, etc.) and golf courses are coming to our…
My Portuguese friend, Carlos Ferreira (owner of Tee Times Golf Agency) wrote me a few weeks ago about an almost 30% growth in the number of played rounds among his clients between the periods of November 2017 –…
If you remember, Reed Exhibition in cooperation with Sports Marketing Surveys came out with a study about the trends in the golf tourism industry in 2017. They asked over 10,000 regular golfers (=those who play at least 10…
I hear quite often from golf clubs how much green fee revenue they lose when they are using third-party tee time vendors’ services (e.g. GolfNow, TeeTimes.com, and TeeOff.com). Should we be relying on third parties for the growth…
For years, we used calls, mails/letters, in-person meetings to communicate with our golf club members. Then came the social media and significantly changed the way how our golf club members, guests and visitors want to communicate with a…
We might have the impression that in the age of social media and smartphones golf travel agencies’ role will diminish in golf holiday package sales and golf destination promotion. However, who had been to the latest IGTM event…
During the latest IGTM event in Ljubljana, Slovenia, I thought I will be able to interview David Ashington (Director of Sales & Hospitality, Monte Rei Golf & Country Club). Very soon I had to realize that due to…
Last month, I had an interesting conversation with Carlos Ferreira, the owner of Tee Times Golf Agency (a leading Portuguese golf travel agency) about the possible new roles of golf travel agencies in the promotion of existing and/or…
It was a great pleasure and honour to give a presentation on customer journey mapping in golf clubs at the latest CMAE European Conference on Club Management 2018 in Marbella. I thought to share with you what do…
We can all agree on that 2018 was a great year for the Portuguese golf tourism industry: Just like in 2017 Portugal won the World's Best Golf Destination title at the World Golf Awards. I go even further, Portugal…
I think it was in 2015 when I wrote last time about the Troon Card program. This is why I was curious to see what can the 2019 Troon Card program (a discount card; the golf industry’s leading loyalty…
Some European golf markets have to realize that the golf season is getting to the end. However, there are few countries, among them Portugal and its Algarve region where we can still enjoy the sun and superb golf…
Back in 2010, on the Mobile World Congress in 2010, Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google said that designers should follow the “mobile first” rule/approach in product development. The "mobile first" means that our products & services (E.g. mobile application)…
The golf travel agencies are in a really challenging situation when golf tourists can switch easily from one distribution channel to another. In short, people have many booking options at their fingertips. Customer loyalty is not a simple…
I am so happy that Your Golf Travel came to the same conclusion as I did last July. In that post, I highlighted the Portuguese Tee Times Golf Agency's 'unlimited golf concept' as a great offer. The reason why…
I have already heard many promising great news about the latest success of the Portuguese golf tourism industry, but I wanted to hear from first hand about the details. This is why I asked Carlos Ferreira, the Founder…
The latest new business win of Troon Privé is probably the first time when I hear from them about winning an assignment of a non-golf country club. The Santa Ana Country Club (in San Jose, Costa Rica) is a new, non-golf country…