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Managing director of Golf Ireland and Golf Scotland, Gulf region, Angus Fraser, senior general manager for SNTTA's Emir Golf and Emir Tours, David Milican, account manager for Tourism Ireland GCC, Aiveen Ryan and director Gulf region Golf Ireland and Golf Scotland, Colm Bennett, talk to MIME about why planners should be thinking golf when booking their next meeting or incentive.
SNTTA recently launched Emir Golf, which is a dedicated product for inbound and outbound tourism.
It will work in partnership with other divisions within SNTTA such as the incentive division and meetings division.
Managing director of Golf Ireland for the Gulf region, Angus Fraser and, director of the same company, Colm Bennett, have taken on the licence for Golf Ireland and Golf Scotland and are working with SNTTA in bringing golf to Ireland and bringing Irish golfers to the Middle East.
Who are you targeting with your campaign?
Fraser: Our intention is to attract the corporate market. As far as incentive tours go, a lot of connections will come from expatriates, corporations and locals, but the awareness of Ireland as a golfing destination will appeal to multinationals.
But it won't be just us doing that. We are working in close conjunction with SNTTA and Tourism Ireland to make sure that whatever initiatives we introduce are effective in getting to the corporate community in the Gulf region.
We are covering the Gulf and the majority will come from the UAE, but we want to spread across the Gulf.
Milican: We have quite a mixed range of corporate clients. Sometimes it's purely a golf, meetings and leisure programme. More often than not it's a meetings and incentive group that is going to a destination and there is an add on for golf, so there is a combination aspect to it. But we rely on the professionals from each destination to find the right product for each client.
Why should corporate bookers choose Ireland?
Bennett: We have more than 400 golf courses so the choice is fantastic ranging from lynx to championship.
Ryan: The most lynx courses and three of the top five courses in the world are in Ireland I believe.
Bennett: It's also close to the UK and people can play at St. Andrews in Scotland or somewhere like that.
What is the average length of stay for groups?
Milican: Maybe three, four or five days, but it won't be totally golf.
We mix a bit of meetings and some leisure time as well. It's finding the right combination and giving something unique.
Do you find the courses in Ireland are able to take on the meetings ELEMENT of the trips?
Bennett: In Ireland they are very prepared for meetings and a lot of the courses are attached to hotels.
Added to this is the social life in Ireland after the golf. It's fantastic and a very good reason for people from this end of the world to come and try something completely different.
What has been the response from Irish nationals when given the option of Dubai as a golfing and meeting destination?
Milican: For inbound into Dubai we've done a fair amount of work in finding out where our source markets are coming from and it's primarily Europe.
We work with the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO) in sourcing partners to work with and there's definitely a demand for Dubai as a destination particularly from Asia and Europe.
And then you have the Race to Dubai that happens in November 2009, so there is an immense amount of interest in Dubai.
