Teeing-up tourists to support over 7,000 jobs

Visiting golfers help create over 7,000 jobs here, a major industry briefing heard yesterday.

The typical overseas golf tourist is worth up to three times as much to the economy here as the average tourist, golf industry experts were told at the Fáilte Ireland Golf Forum in Limerick. New figures show around 155,000 overseas visitors play golf while in Ireland, equating to €204m a year. This expenditure supports around 7,300 jobs here.

Forum chairman Dan Flinter said: “To build on the impressive performance reflected in this research, the Irish golf sector will not only have to continue to offer memorable experiences, but one that is good value for money. Most encouragingly, this new research shows that we are hitting the mark on both scores — with visitor satisfaction rates at 94% and value for money at 85%.”

The research, carried out by Amárach, was conducted at golf clubs across the country during 2011 through face-to-face interviews with almost 750 overseas golfers. Findings show Ireland is regarded to be a good value for money destination by the majority — with 85% of golfing visitors rating it as “very good” or “fairly good” value for money.

Satisfaction with the Irish golfing experience is very high with 94% claiming to be “very” or “fairly” satisfied with their golfing experience — North American visitors showed the highest level of “very satisfied”.

Key points from the research include that golfing visitors are much more likely to be repeat visitors; on average overseas golfers are playing four rounds of golf on their stay in Ireland; for over 75% of visitors who played here, the opportunity to do so was very important in their decision to visit Ireland.

The research also found 44% of golfing visitors are more likely to be travelling with friends or 33% as a couple and that the average size of a golf party was four people, with North American and female golfers tending to travel in larger parties.

Further research is planned by Fáilte Ireland and the Golf Forum during 2012 covering a longer survey period and a larger sample.

As the national tourism authority, Fáilte Ireland continues to invest heavily in the development and promotion of golf.

In 2012, Padraig Harrington will once again be Ireland’s face for golf tourism — continuing to be at the forefront of Irish golf promotion overseas and helping to promote Ireland’s golf brand, Time to Play.

Michelle McGreevy, Golf Officer with Fáilte Ireland, said the focus for golf moving forward would include generating awareness and consideration of Ireland as a world class golf destination through major events and strong international marketing campaigns in Britain, US, Germany and the Nordics.