Over 90 Scottish golf courses are now on Golfagent.com giving golfing visitors a huge choice of courses in Scotland where they can book tee-times on-line 24 hours a day. They range from championship courses such as Turnberry and Carnoustie to Open qualifiers such as Ladybank and Scotscraig to top class courses including Cruden Bay and St Andrews Jubilee.
The latest to come onto the system are the 44 golf courses in the Highlands including Tain and Golspie, which has had its first on-line booking.
“Golfagent is a tried and tested system and I’m delighted that it has proved its effectiveness already with one of the Highland clubs receiving a booking within weeks of joining,” said Neil Hampton, manager at Highland Golf.
Mike Young, Deputy Director of UK & Ireland Marketing for the Scottish Tourist
Board, added: “Anything that brings Scotland’s network of outstanding golf courses closer to visitors is good news for tourism. Already, Scottish golf tourism is worth
almost £100m annually and the introduction of web sites, like golfagent.com,
will help us make it even more valuable to the Scottish economy.”
Thousands of golfers have already taken advantage of Golfagent.com in the two years since its launch and golfing visitors are taking advantage of it in increasing numbers – currently around 400 a month. Golfagent.com offers golf courses the easiest and most effective route into generating bookings through the Internet – at no cost to the club.
“Golfagent is the first major marketing initiative for golf courses in Scotland to provide direct bookings and has been running successfully for two years. It has far-reaching benefits for everyone working in golf-related businesses in Scotland – from the clubs to accommodation providers to tour operators,” said Peter Mason, external relations manager with St Andrews Links Trust which pioneered the service with software developers, Baron Corporation.
“The Links Trust initiated the development of Golfagent over four years ago because it was convinced that golf in Scotland needed an overall marketing approach. This initiative should now be a fundamental part of any co-ordinated strategy for the development of golf tourism in Scotland.”
Golfagent.com is being used by individuals, tourist information centres, hotels, bed and breakfasts establishments and tour operators. It saves ringing around several golf clubs and has been praised by golfers for its simplicity and effectiveness.
“I booked four different courses in Scotland in the one transaction – it is a great system and hassle-free,” said Eric Hansen, a golfer from Dallas.
Golfagent.com is free for golf clubs to join and they receive all the necessary software and instruction. Each club entry has a photograph, a description and has full control over how many times to put on the Internet and they can be added or removed if required.
“We have had over 20 bookings since we joined – in excess of £1000 of bookings,” said Barrie Liddle, secretary at Scotscraig Golf Club. “It is easy to check bookings – we inform our pro and put it on the manual system so we do not get caught up in administration. We promote it in all our leaflets and adverts encouraging golfers to book.”