International Golf Travel Market (IGTM) 2019, the leading business to business event for the golf travel community announces the headline content of its official welcome forum. Following a re-launch in its 22nd year the event will be taking place in Marrakech, Morocco 14th-17th October 2019.
The overall theme will be ‘Grow Golf Together’ to highlight how international golf travel suppliers can widen their appeal to a more diverse audience, including women and millennials. Headline speakers include BBC’s Naga Munchetty, R&A’s Director of Sustainability Steve Isaac and IAGTO’s CEO Peter Walton.
A familiar key face of BBC News, Naga Munchetty is one of the main presenters for the BBC’s flagship Breakfast programme. Keen to empower and inspire women to achieve success, Naga was named in the Asian Power list as one of Britain’s most powerful Asian women. Naga will be sharing her experiences as a female golfer and will talk about how golf resorts and tour operators can appeal more to the female golfer.
Steve Isaac, Director of Sustainability at R&A will be looking at how to improve the golf experience and share insights into the R&A’s sustainability initiatives. These include Golf Course 2030, GreenLinks (The Open’s sustainability programme) and support for greenkeeper education. The R&A works in collaboration with many organisations, including national governing bodies in 143 countries, greenkeepers, club managers, course owners and architect associations.
Peter Walton, CEO of IAGTO, will also be providing an industry update.
David Todd, IGTM Event Manager commented: “With our refreshed brand image and website, together with a new organising team, it’s time for a change. We wanted to shake up the content of our official opening address for our participants; highlighting the changes in golf travel today and how businesses capitalising in this area can go above and beyond to ensure they are keeping up with the needs of their clients and appeal to a wider audience.”
Over 450 golf tourism suppliers from over 40 countries will join 400+ pre-qualified buyers from 45 countries for 4 days of pre-scheduled appointments, networking and education sessions.
This year has seen a huge rise in US buyers with a 71% year on year increase. Some of the exhibiting companies already signed up include The PGA, Dominican Republic Tourist Board, Tourism Ireland, Monte Rei (Portugal), Costa Navarino (Greece), Andalucian Tourist Board, European Tour Destinations and Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs (New Zealand).
On the media side, over 40 international travel and golf journalists will also be attending to seek upcoming stories on what’s new in golf travel.
The event will be designed to further enhance the business opportunities for this leisure sector where the spend per head is 120% more in a destination than the average tourist according to the latest SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS report. A series of educational content sessions will also be available for everyone to attend to provide participants with industry insights which will help grow their golf business. Networking events are planned as an added opportunity to continue to build relationships, as well as the official golf tournament on 14th October taking place at a number of Morocco’s most famous golf courses.
IGTM www.IGTMarket.com