To help the golf travel industry find ways to recover from this eventful and crisis-ridden year, the golf booking platform Greenfee365 conducted a large-scale survey during June and July and the results have now been presented to golf operators and industry partners all across the world. Now Greenfee365 share some key findings from the survey.
With the survey Greenfee365 collected more than 30,000 answers from golfers around Europe about their thoughts on the future of golf travel. The results showed many insights, and the clearest was that golf at home, and in the surrounding areas, is completely dominant for 2020. Through the survey, they have seen a great deal of commitment among golfers about future travel intentions, specifically when and where will they go.
“Our golf courses found the results really insightful, especially given the significant sample size and core customer markets the survey covered. During our webinar series with courses we all agreed that the future is really promising taking into account the increase in rounds played domestically. Once this crisis is over, golf tourism will inevitably see renewed demand and courses must be ready as well as focused on those key markets they wish to attract. Greenfee365 is the perfect sales channel to help courses remain visible to golfers across Europe until such time they can travel again, booking their rounds easily and securely.” – Alex McIver, Head of Business Development
Greenfee365 asked the European golfers three questions – “What country will you travel to play golf the next time?” “What area in that country will you travel to?” and “When do you think you will travel to play golf?”. The answers were mainly divided through German, UK and Swedish participants. The majority do not intend to travel to play golf until 2021 however only 4% state they won’t travel for golf until 2022 and beyond. The data confirmed that 2020 will be the year dominated by an increase in domestic golf.
Among the German participants 32% answered that they’ll stay in Germany for golf in 2020 and 22% state they may travel to Austria. Meanwhile only 13% says they’ll travel to Spain during 2020. Among UK participants nearly 50% said that they will stay in UK for golf during 2020 while nearby neighbor, Ireland, is second place on the list. Despite the focus on domestic golf among Europeans, 39% of the Swedish golfers state they will travel to Spain to play golf during 2020, and 33% will stay in Sweden until the year is out.
2021 seems to be the year golfers intend to travel again, and golf travel will be more exotic. By 2021, 19% of German golfers state they will travel to Spain and by then only 16% says they will continue to play golf in Germany. Despite this, UK golfers still focus on domestic golf and 33% state they will golf in UK, and the second place for golf travels in 2021 is Portugal with 22%. Spain is still completely dominant amongst Swedish golfers and 43% saying they’ll travel to Spain to play golf in 2021 and 12% signaling Portugal as their preferred destination.
The bottom-line from the survey is that golfers will continue to travel, maybe not today, tomorrow or 2020, but it is safe to say that golf tourism will eventually recover and come back even stronger.
