The third Scottish Golf Tourism Week was officially opened today (October 31) by Fiona Hyslop, cabinet secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs, as part of Scotland’s drive to hit the £300 million target for golf tourism by 2020.
Scottish Golf Tourism Week is taking place at Fairmont St Andrews and brings the world’s leading golf buyers to Scotland for a week of familiarisation trips and one-to-one meetings with golf tourism businesses from across the country.
The event is supported by VisitScotland and Scottish Enterprise and is now in its third year, bringing together over 90 of the world’s leading golf tour operators with 93 businesses interested in attracting visiting golfers. The result will be almost 4,000 face-to-face meetings, with the potential to significantly increase the 220,000 golf tourists visiting Scotland annually.
A recent study highlighted the value of golf tourism to Scotland at £286 million per year, an increase from the 2007 figure of £220 million and on track to achieve the £300 million target by 2020 listed in Scotland’s Golf Tourism Strategy, Driving Forward Together.
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland said: “Scottish Golf Tourism Week provides the perfect platform for international golf tour operators to get a taste of what Scotland has to offer and to encourage them to bring even more of their clients to experience the game in the country in which it was created. It also affords the opportunity to showcase our magnificent golfing product through a series of familiarisation trips and ultimately contribute to the growth of an industry which is already worth in excess of £286 million per year to Scotland’s economy.”
Scottish Golf Tourism Week also offers seminars and networking opportunities throughout the week, culminating in the Scottish Golf Tourism Awards 2018, where the leading golf courses and hotels in the region will be vying for the top prizes, as voted for by the public.