The eyes of the golfing world were focused on some of Ireland’s finest links courses last week when golf marketing company North & West Coast Links Golf Ireland led the Irish field at The PGA Show in Orlando, Florida.
The PGA Show is the biggest golf show in the world, attracting more than 40,000 visitors and over 1,000 media from 25 countries to the four-day event which saw North & West Coast Links fly the flag for a number of Irish golf courses and hotels, including the spectacular Ballyliffin Golf Club, host venue for this year’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open.
To tee the week off in style, the company organised an Irish Golf Day prior to the show on behalf of the Irish Golf Trade and in association with main sponsor Tourism Ireland. Over 100 golf tour operators, golf media, group leaders and Irish golf trade representatives took part at The Golden Bear Club at Keene’s Point, Orlando.
In addition to meeting with a range of delegates to attract more visitors to Ireland, North & West Coast Links also used the show to launch its new brochure and website www.northandwestcoastlinks.com.
A key part of the Tourism Ireland stand, this was the 29th year in succession which North & West Coast Links attended the show, promoting a range of bespoke golf tour packages to member courses including Royal Portrush, host venue for The Open in 2019, Ballyliffin, Carne, Enniscrone, Donegal, Narin & Portnoo, Rosapenna, Castlerock, Portstewart, Ardglass, Galway Bay, Westport and Portsalon.
In addition to the golf courses, the company also promoted tour packages with a range of partner hotels including The Ardilaun, Mount Falcon Estate, Harvey’s Point, Ballyliffin Townhouse, The Bushmills Inn, the Hastings Hotels group and many more.
North and West Coast Links CEO John McLaughlin said: “The PGA Show is quite simply one of the most important industry events in the global golf calendar. This was our 29th consecutive year attending the event which illustrates just how important it is for developing our business around the world.
“Ireland enjoys a special place on the global golf stage with some of the best courses in the world supported by a unique approach to hospitality which makes it very marketable to international visitors. The PGA Show provided us with an extremely valuable platform to meet industry representatives from over 100 countries,” he added.
“The increasing world profile of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in recent years at some of the links courses we represent, including this year’s event at Ballyliffin, provided us with a very attractive proposition from which to develop bespoke golf tour packages and make bookings for some of Ireland’s outstanding links venues.
“All in all, we’ve had a really great week with significant interest from US and European markets that will hopefully result in increased tourism in the area. And with The Open being staged in Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush in 2019, links golf in this part of the world is really on the up,” concluded John.
The PGA Show was the first in a succession of shows over the next three months that will see North & West Coast Links promote Irish links golf in Germany, Toronto, Sweden, Denmark and Great Britain.
Over the course of 2018, North & West Coast Links will target the UK, US, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand and selected Asian Markets, taking part in over 30 International shows and events in its efforts to grow the valuable international golf visitor numbers to Ireland.
North & West Coast Links Golf Ireland is a Golf Marketing and Destination Management Company (DMC) that carries out a range of marketing activities for its member clubs on a cooperative marketing basis. The company has 29 years’ experience of promoting Irish links golf to golf tour operators and golf enthusiasts around the world.
North & West Coast Links Golf Ireland www.northandwestcoastlinks.com.