Fife Golf

Fife Golf is a public/private partnership of Fife golf courses, accommodation providers, places to eat, golf travel trade and industry trade associations who work together to maintain and further develop Fife’s position as one of the most sought after golfing destinations in the world.

Fife Council recognised the opportunity to grow the £52m golf tourism industry in the region and benefit businesses across the region through capitalising on its global reputation as the ‘Home of Golf’. Given the diversity of the industry across the region, success of the project centred on ensuring an approach that benefitted a large variety of business types and increased spend in golf tourism related businesses across Fife.

We undertook a significant number of focused discussions with key stakeholders in the region, including golf courses, golf resorts, accommodation providers, tour operators and other sector related businesses operating in the private sector, and VisitScotland and Fife Council. This approach enabled us to understand the challenges faced and build a strategy that was fully industry focused

The long term strategy has focused on developing a range of benefits that enabled membership growth and the development, and a range of tools and initiatives to engage with key customers in B2B and B2C markets. Initiatives include website and social media development, asset development (film and imagery) digital campaign promotion, media promotion, international tour operator engagement, direct marketing and trade and consumer event promotion.

The approach has seen membership grow the 70 businesses and benefits continue to evolve to meet industry and societal needs. The organisation has a database of over 100 golf tour operators who we work with to develop products that focus on the lesser known and golf experiences – this is supported by attendance at IGTM and providing an online hub where tour operators can log-in and access targeted information, including net rates and downloadable rights free imagery and film for promotional use. We have successfully collaborated with the food and drink and wider tourism sector to cross market the destination through targeted print and digital campaigns. Experience awareness has been developed through exhibiting at key events including The Open Championship, The Women’s British Open Championship, Senior Open Championship, Helsinki Golf Expo and the Danish Golf Show.