SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC. – the leading golf industry sports research consultancy – are looking to set up a panel of golf courses throughout the UK to provide insight into the issues and trends facing the market. In particular, they are looking at working together to establish better data on rounds played and course closures. This information will help the industry to plan more effectively around the number of days lost to bad weather and will also help to inform the participation statistics which are also of interest to many.
In England, the largest participation survey is the Active People Survey which is commissioned by Sport England. This measures participation every month through a question “how many times have you played golf for at least 30 minutes in the last four weeks”. They only count a golfer as someone who has played four times – therefore the equivalent of weekly golf or 52 times per year. Equal survey samples are taken every month and so the survey does not take into account any seasonality.
Through this new panel and programme, SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC. will identify the number of days that were lost to the weather due to course closures and to use this seasonality data to further inform the strong statistical base that we now have around golf participation. SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS will use this data aligned with their “rounds played” national analysis, and figures on rainfall / temperature to show the impact of seasonality on regular weekly participation and in particular the direct impact of course closures on weekly participation figures.
David Joy, the CEO of England Golf said; “I welcome this further research being conducted by SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC.. Increasing weekly participation in golf and increasing club membership are two of our highest priorities over the next few years. Further understanding and being able to quantify the impact of the weather and course closures on participation trends, will be of value to many in the industry and will certainly assist us to understand the seasonality issues within the Active People survey, which we use to measure golf participation trends in England.“
Working To Help Golf
SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC. would like to hear from venues able and interested to join this UK Wide Panel. The plan is to set up this monitoring programme for 2014 (starting from November 2013 – the next Active People Study measurement period) on recording the number of days that a course is closed.
The following information would be collected or required from participating venues:
- Number of days closed by week (recorded by week of the year)
- Reason for closure
- Analysis of closure by part day from ¼ of a day to a full day – for example for initial frost-protection to a complete ‘snow-day’.
More information on the information that is required and the process can be obtained from SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC.
Those who provide data will receive a quarterly report on the national closure, and also some top line figures from SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC. Rounds Played national report.
For more information on this initiative, please contact Richard Payne at SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC. richard.payne@sportsmarketingsurveysinc.com Tel: +44 (0) 1932 345 549
SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC. www.sportsmarketingsurveysinc.com