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Press
Release
20 July 2000
BOOST FOR GOLF
TOURISM TO SCOTLAND
On-line golf bookings
generate thousands for Scottish golf clubs
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 TouristBoard,
added: "Anything that brings Scotland's network of outstanding
golf courses closer to visitors is good news for tourism.
Already, Scottish golf tourism is worthalmost £100m
annually and the introduction of websites, 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 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 is being
used by individuals, tourist information centres, hotels,
bed and breakfast 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 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."
For further information
please see www.golfagent.com
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