So, 2020 was the year that never was, and in retrospect 2021 proved to be precious little better, writes John Cockayne.
However, things finally look like they are really changing in tourism terms and equally, as this applies to the world of golf tourism, which is particularly important for this part of the World, as it is so reliant on tourism revenues.
Of course, the idea of light, and by extension – tunnels – immediately brings to mind the old cherry, about that not being a light that you are seeing at the end of said tunnel, but just another train coming.
History will show that the Pandemic was, for many business sectors, a bloodbath, and must have felt not dissimilar to the sensation of being hit by a freight train.
But after being run over, and in terms of the idea that what really matters is what you do next, as opposed to what you might have already done, the survivors have picked themselves up, dusted themselves down and rolled up their sleeves.
One part of this process will relate to the need for iterative marketing activities.
This need is especially important for Southern Africa, as the region needs to keep its brand presence and product offering ‘fresh’ in the eyes of its potential customers in the UK, Ireland, USA and Europe.
In the need to market continually, I would refer to GBN’s own Geoff Russell (pictured), who, when quizzed about this in a Q&A about media and marketing in a recent issue of Business of Golf Management (BGM), commented as follows; “I think that it (the need for people to understand the need to market continually) must be an ongoing ‘educational’ process in which we, as the media, must play a part.
“This type of discussion series forms part of an ongoing narrative, which must be as continual as the need to market and communicate effectively is.
“I remember you commenting that when you were launching Destination Golf Travel’s Golf Guide for Southern Africa in 2019, that 11 of the first 12 clubs and venues you approached had no defined marketing resource for the golf course. This is a serious problem, and it is not limited to your market, but it happens here too.
“I get the sense that too many golf clubs (the brands and service orientated business in the golf market are different), do indeed see ‘marketing’ as something to be ‘ticked off’ on a to do list so that they can then move on.”
So, when you think of marketing, conjure up an image of painting the Forth Road bridge – where you get to the end of the job and pick up your brush and paint pot and go back to start all over again – and you have a clear image of the continual nature of the process!
As is often the case, a winnowing leaves gaps, and new opportunities appear to help fill the vacuum.
Some of these opportunities often evolve by chance, while others are the result of conscious decisions.
In the case of the first example – chance opportunities – the apparently global surge in interest in golf would be one.
On this same subject, a ‘bubble’, whatever the reasons, can be welcome, especially if the unexpected gains can be held onto.
After confirming that the light was not in fact another locomotive (there may still be one up the line somewhere), this year has also given us the chance to revisit opportunities, which were forced to be allowed to go fallow.
In this number we would include the second edition of Destination Golf Travel’s (DGT) SAIO (Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands) golf guide, the first having been prepared and launched to coincide with 2020 – yes indeed, even my little used, and misfiring, golf swing’s timing, is better than this!
The second item – the point concerning conscious decisions – were the key tours (calls to action), which had originally been developed for the first SAIO Golf Guide to bring the sparkling prose (!), and fantastic images, into a less abstract and much more immediate context.
In this strategy, the three standard bearers were – the Royals Tours, which naturally focus the attention on South Africa’s 4 Royal Golf Clubs and the Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player Designed Courses Tour
All three take in the best South Africa has to offer, including Gauteng (SA’s economic hub, but which region is also home to some of the best designed and conditioned golf courses in Africa), and KwaZulu-Natal, which is home to the Zulu Kings and a Prince among SA’s destinations.
Naturally, the attractions of the Sunshine Coast, the Garden Route and the Western Cape are also all very well represented, and with Southern Sun properties as the tours’ preferred accommodation provider, any visitor and their family will be assured of a top-class stay.
In keeping with the original mantra of – ‘don’t just take your golf clubs but bring the family too! there is so much to do, for the non-golfer, on all of these tours that any golfer disappearing for a day on the links, might not even be missed by the rest of their family!
In a recent issue of Business of Golf Magazine’s (BGM), Tourism & Travel section, I was talking to Cale Jansen who is the tour operator in the vanguard of marketing and delivering the on-the-ground logistics for these tours, and I asked how he came to ‘connect’ with what we had been doing with DGT and BGM:
“I was in a meeting with Damian Wrigley, the former GM at Pearl Valley (one of Jack Nicklaus Designed Courses Tour – Golf Holiday Tours – Fairways to Africa stops), and during our discussions, Destination Golf Travel, the calls to action with the tours, and Golf Staycations (which combine distressed or off-peak product inventories from hotels and adjacent golf courses) that you were working on came up, and just sounded like a perfect fit to how we see operating, both in local and international terms.
“I think that you see the need for SA golf tourism to have an international shop window, and for the golf travel sector to be both proactive and ‘different’, so there was match there too in strategic terms.
“From a marketing perspective, the reach you have created with the platform you have developed was very exciting. We believe in collaboration too with like-minded people and businesses, so this also made another, almost ideal, match in terms of our strategic thinking.”
The references to being like-minded and concepts like collaboration, or good old-fashioned teamwork (not something too closely aligned with the golf DNA it must be said!), was a key-point made by Dermot Synnott (co-founder and CEO of DGT) in his recent presentation to club managers, at one of CMASA’s (Club Management Association of Southern Africa) on-line webinars which can be viewed below.
During the discussion, Dermot pointed out that it came down to understanding that any ‘noise’ about SA’s terrific golf tourism offering, would be heard much more clearly, if golf clubs pooled their resources and worked collectively to spread the word and market the region.
It will be interesting to see who ‘gets’ this key aspect, of golf tourism marketing, both in terms of the golf clubs and the tourism bodies, in the coming months.
Link to the CMASA webinar presentation.
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) certainly gets it, and BGM has embarked on an innovative initiative to promote golf tourism into KZN and its commercial hub Durban, with Tourism KwaZulu Natal and Durban Tourism, both of which ‘get’ the attractions of a high-spending sport tourism niche that is particularly well matched with what the region, as a whole, has to offer.
If KwaZulu-Natal is a Prince among destinations, then Durban is not only the warmest place to be in terms of vacations, but could be seen as, in terms of a vacation for a golfer and his or her family, the only place to be!
This destination has seen the resumption of direct flights from the UK, into the new King Shaka International Airport, so, the region not only has its own point of entry, but also provides a gateway for onward travel into the rest of Southern Africa.
And what of the rest of Southern Africa you might ask?
Rest assured – the first three tours are not the end of the tale – far from it!
Specific tours for various regions are on the drawing board, but as every tour package is in fact customised, everything is now already ‘in play’, including optional or add-on packages to such regional favourites as the Kruger Park, the Cape Winelands, the KZN Midlands and the majestic Drakensberg Mountains.
John Cockayne, CEO: The Business of Golf
Email: cathco@mweb.co.za
Useful Links
- Gary Player Designed Courses Tour (fairwaystoafrica.com)
- Jack Nicklaus Designed Courses Tour – Golf Holiday Tours – Fairways to Africa
- Golf Holiday South Africa (fairwaystoafrica.com)
- CMASA Webinar link: https://youtu.be/xcD1Ytr4giw
- Jack Nicklaus Designed Courses Tour – Golf Holiday Tours – Fairways to Africa
- Gary Player Designed Courses Tour (fairwaystoafrica.com)
BGM Media & Marketing in issue 4: https://www.thebusinessofgolf.co.za/BGMVol2Issue4/#page/104
Durban Tourism: https://www.thebusinessofgolf.co.za/BGMVol2Issue6/#page/84