Some of the most progressive minded golf course owners and operators in Thailand have come together to promote golf aggressively.
Under the banner of “Golf In A Kingdom”, the promotional thrust will lay special emphasis on positioning the Kingdom of Thailand as one of the game’s most attractive and exotic destinations for golf.
“Golf In A Kingdom” is a destination marketing initiative started in 2009 to promote and raise the awareness of “the Thai Golf Experience”. The founding golf club members are Banyan Golf Club, Hua Hin, Chiang Mai Highlands Golf Club, Chiang Mai, Muang Kaew Golf Club, Bangkok, Siam Country Club, Pattaya and Thai Country Club in Bangkok. Black Mountain Golf Club, Hua Hin became a member in 2010. All of the founding members are classic five-star award winning facilities.
The big international push was staged at the host venue, Banyan Golf Club which is located in the Thai royal city of Hua Hin.
Kicking off the meeting, Mark Siegel, managing director Golf Asian commented: “Banyan is a great example of how a development can combine its golf club, resort and residential villas into a complete lifestyle destination. It’s the arrival experience, caddies, course conditions and friendly Thai team members that make you feel so special and welcome in Thailand and Banyan does this very well.”
In fact, all of the members of this special collaboration are noted for their stand-out facilities and service experience. “We believe very strongly in providing a world class experience for any visitor who comes to Thailand for golf and all of our fellow members take great pride in providing a standard of service and experience that is rapidly becoming recognized as a benchmark standard globally,” said Stacey Walton, general manager of Banyan Golf Club.
The global media partner for the “Golf In A Kingdom” programme is the Asia Pacific Golf Group (APGG).Mike Sebastian, CEO of APGG who was present at the meeting said, “We are proud to support this initiative and we feel that a programme of this sort will help Thailand grow golf tourism to its shores.” He went to add, “This is the beginning and if all stake-holders in golf can work together, this model can be used very effectively to makeThailanda major golf tourism destination in particular andAsiain general.”
The program has its own designated website www.golfinakingdom.com and has received over 30,000 hits to date, hosted 9 familiarization trips and has received accolades in over 450 articles and feature stories across the world from the USA to Australia.