A new and engaging golf campaign aimed specifically at encouraging more women to travel to Scotland to play golf has been launched by VisitScotland.
In what is a world first by a national tourism organisation, the campaign features four women who, as friends, are filmed enjoying a golf break which also involves other fun activities off the course. The content will be aimed at VisitScotland’s key golf markets in the UK, Germany, North America, Scandinavia and The Netherlands.
The video content campaign, which has adopted the #HerScotland hashtag, will start organically from February 7, with the main 60-second video displayed on VisitScotland’s YouTube Channel.
In addition there will be paid in-market campaigns coinciding with key events in the golfing calendar. The bespoke landing page, www.visitscotland.com/womensgolf/, holds information about the featured cast, the filming locations and example itineraries aimed at female golfers.
VisitScotland want more women to come and experience golf on its many stunning, accessible and friendly courses as well as exploring the many other exciting activities on offer away from the golf course. Currently just 12% of golf visitors to Scotland are female, which represents a huge potential for growth considering that female golf participation in some European countries in particular is in excess of 35%.
Golf tourism is already a key part of Scotland’s visitor economy, worth more than £286 million on an annual basis with a target to grow that to £325 million by 2020. Research shows that golf tourists spend around 3.5 times that of a regular tourist, and with half of all female golfers visitors to Scotland describing themselves as either ‘luxury’ or ‘holiday’ golfers, this indicates a willingness for a high-spend and to undertake a variety of other activities during a golf trip, visiting multiple regions. VisitScotland hope the campaign will support this growth potential by dispelling myths that golf in Scotland is male dominated and only accessible to highly skilled and competent golfers.
The campaign will also be used to help support raise awareness of the 2019 Solheim Cup, which is being held from September 9-15 over the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles. The event aims to attract 100,000 attendees, providing an economic boost for Perthshire and Scotland as well as showcasing the country as an inspiring and welcoming golf tourism destination.
Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said: “VisitScotland is proud to be doing something that no other tourism body has done before by investing in a female focused golf destination marketing campaign. We pride ourselves on being a forward thinking and innovative organisation and I believe this campaign will help to put the focus on Scotland as a female friendly golf destination.”
He added: “Scotland’s commitment to women’s golf is unquestionable with an investment in excess of £23 million since 2007 through our staging of both the Womens British Open and The Aberdeen Standard Invesments Ladies Scottish Open cementing our reputation as ‘the Home of Golf’. It is a huge year for women’s golf in Scotland as we are set to host the 2019 Solheim Cup at Gleneagles in September. The event offers us a significant opportunity to increase the number of female golfing visitors to Scotland. Add in a TV broadcast audience, with the potential to reach more than 600 million households, and it means a lot of eyes will be firmly fixed on Scotland.”