Golfers are teeing up another successful year for the Highlands after already providing a £500,000-plus off-peak spending boost to the area’s leading courses and hotels.
Players from across the UK and abroad have already booked 218 Play and Stay packages for the ‘shoulder’ months of April and October-November 2014, featuring three of Scotland’s top courses and four leading hotels.
The packages are provided by the partner organisation Highland Golf Links (HGL) which brings together Castle Stuart Golf Links, The Nairn Golf Club and Royal Dornoch Golf Club as well as the Kingsmills Hotel and Culloden House Hotel, Inverness; the Royal Golf Hotel at Royal Dornoch; and the Golf View Hotel and Spa in Nairn to promote destination breaks.
HGL was formed in summer 2011 and between then and November this year 1,669 Play and Stay packages have been booked as a result of the campaign. This represents 5,007 rounds of golf, 3,332 bedroom nights and spending worth at least £492,355.
Fraser Cromarty, sales and marketing director at Castle Stuart Golf Links and chairman of HGL, said: “The partnership has been extremely successful in attracting golfing visitors to enjoy the finest golf links and luxury accommodation in a beautiful part of the world. By doing so, we have generated significant sums of money to the area at traditionally quieter times of the year.
“We are encouraged by the numbers already booking packages for 2014 which looks like being another busy year, especially with the Ryder Cup in Scotland in September.”
The packages, featuring two nights’ accommodation and three rounds of golf, start at £315 per person next year. Details are available at bookings@castlestuartgolf.com or call 01463 79611.
Since the formation of HGL the partners have committed over £10 million to upgrading facilities to improve facilities for visitors.
Castle Stuart Golf Links, near Inverness, which attracted record crowds in its third year of hosting the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open in July, has opened three luxury lodges on the links for visitors and has longer-term plans for the Dormy House golf hotel which will welcome guests next year.
Royal Dornoch Golf Club has introduced some improvements to both its Championship Course, which is ranked No.14 in Golf magazine’s Top 100 golf courses in the world, and its Struie course, while the clubhouse at The Nairn Golf Club has recently been refurbished.
A new dedicated events venue, along with an additional 38 luxury bedrooms at the Kingsmills Hotel will open in January, while the Royal Golf Hotel and Golf View Hotel have also carried out substantial refurbishments in recent months.
Highland Golf Links www.highlandgolflinks.com