Golf Business Community

The entire tourism industry has faced enormous challenges over the past two years and of course golf travel is not immune to global events affecting the wider tourism industry, but it has proved to be remarkably resilient both in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and in the current economic crisis.

In short, golf travel tends to recover quicker than general leisure tourism, with avid golfers refusing to be denied their regular golf travel fix. However, their choice of destination and resorts can change quickly and dramatically which means that not all golf tourism suppliers recover at the same rate from every downturn.

Like most industries golf tourism has its buyers, suppliers and consumers. The suppliers are the golf courses, golf resorts, hotels, car rental companies and airlines, whilst the buyers are the golf tour operators or specialist travel agencies either packaging holidays for golfers in their country or organising golf vacations locally for golfers travelling in from elsewhere.

The consumers of course are the golfers and the type of vacation they take divides cleanly into Golf Holidays and Holiday Golf. Golf Holidays are vacations taken where the primary purpose travel is to play golf, whereas Holiday Golf describes a leisure vacation where 1 or 2 rounds of golf are played but where the availability of golf impacts little on the choice of destination.

Dwnload the State of the Market Briefing to read more.

Also read KPMG's Golf Travel Insights 2010 report.

Read interview with Andrew Stanley, CEO of Golfbreaks.com, on how is the golf travel market performing, how are destinations, resorts and travel companies adapting, and what are the new trends in customer behaviour.