Golf tourism visitors who book 3 day/3 night golf package at participating hotels and courses receive a $100 award card to buy gulf seafood at coast restaurants
September 20 (Biloxi, Miss.) – BP has given the Coast Golf Tourism Partnership a $250,000 grant to promote golf tourism in Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties. The “Golf for the Gulf” promotion will provide a $100 Visa Rewards Card to buy local Gulf seafood for golfers who book a 3-day/3-night golf package. The “Golf for the Gulf” promotion will highlight in its marketing material and on the Visa® award card itself – “Play Great Golf & Eat Gulf Seafood.” The promotion features nearly 70 participating golf courses, hotels, casino resorts, condos and golf travel providers from across the three counties and is managed by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Golf Association.
“This funding from BP allows the Coast Golf Tourism Partnership to launch a new, immediate Coast-wide golf promotion,” says Kevin Drum, executive director. “This promotion will not only help our local golf courses, but also restaurants, hotels, attractions, casinos, shopping and even seafood suppliers all along the Gulf Coast. The golf industry wanted to help the most impacted industries – gulf seafood and restaurants – and we will distribute nearly one thousand $100 award cards to golf visitors to buy Gulf seafood and generate close to 3,000 room nights” says Drum.
“On behalf of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association, I want to applaud the Golf Association’s efforts to help our tourism industry. They have always been an important part of our industry on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and we are looking forward to working with them on this campaign,” says MHRA President, Scott Weinberg, “Our restaurants look forward to making sure that our out-of-town guests are treated to some of the best seafood in the world while they enjoy our world class selection of golf courses. The Mississippi Gulf Coast offers a wide variety of locally-owned and nationally-known restaurants for our guests to enjoy.”
“BP is pleased to support this ‘Golf for the Gulf’ campaign as part of our $3 million in tourism funding for the three Mississippi Coast counties,” said Heidi Grether, interim general manager for BP’s Gulf Coast Restoration Organization (GCRO). “Our intention with this funding is help encourage visitors to share in the beauty and recreational benefits of the Mississippi Gulf Coast and, in the process, help the people who work and live in communities that depend upon the tourism industry here. ‘Golf the Gulf’ is helping to highlight that the seafood on the gulf is safe and delicious.”
The “Golf for the Gulf” promotion will officially begin September 23 for bookings in October and November, and will be promoted through targeted email blasts to 4.4 million known golf travelers. The promotion will only be available to new “Golf Package Quote Requests” through www.GolfCoast.com, the official web site of MS Gulf Coast Golf. Golf travelers that book a 3 night/3 round golf package at participating hotels and courses will receive the $100 award card. The Coast Golf Tourism Partnership has added an additional $250,000 in benefits to participating hotels including FREE listing in the Official Golf Package Guide, FREE Golf Trail Guides, FREE mini-site on www.GolfCoast.com, FREE attendance at 16 regional golf shows, and FREE installation and training on the Tee-Time Network to further help hotels who participate. The added benefits – as well as administration, creative, e-marketing, and web development costs – will increase total golf tourism investment by the Coast Golf Tourism Partnership and BP to nearly a half million dollars. While this is a fall promotion, the Partnership expects the impact to increase golf room nights for the next year.
Any hotel that books golf packages in the three coastal counties is welcome to participate in the Coast Golf Tourism Partnership and the “Golf for the Gulf” promotion. Participating hotels will also get connected to the Gulf Coast Tee-Time Network, which allows hotels to book golf electronically online and which saves them a tremendous amount of time in the process, and turns a stand-alone hotel into a multi-golf course resort with live access to tee-times.
“Without this dynamic golf destination tee-time system, we couldn’t manage a large promotion like the ‘Golf for the Gulf’ promotion,” says Drum. “But since all hotels will be installed and trained on the tee-times system for FREE for signing up to participate, we can track new bookings, which makes managing this program possible and makes it easier for participating hotels,” says Drum. “This golf marketing effort will be the largest since Katrina, and its impact will reach far beyond the participants, reach across the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast.”
This Coast Golf Tourism Partnership has won nearly 40 awards including Tourism Promotion of the Year from the Mississippi Tourism Association and Governor Haley Barbour. The Partnership was one of the first regional tourism organizations when it started ten years ago and has pioneered the Coast-wide tourism concept popular today. For more information on the “Golf for Gulf” promotion or the Coast Golf Tourism Partnership, go to www.GolfCoast.com, email Info@GolfCoast.com or call 228-374-GOLF.
Contact:
Kevin Drum
(228) 374-GOLF ext 5
Kevin@GolfCoast.com
