Andrew Shinie (left) and Hector Emslie, the men behind Scottish Golf Trails, will be hoping for better weather than they experienced for the launch of the enterprise at The Marcliffe Hotel and Spa near Aberdeen. 

Major New North-east Golf Tourism

Initiative Tees Off


NEWS RELEASE
Despite weather not normally associated with golf, a major new initiative to attract more golf tourists to north-east Scotland officially teed off at Aberdeen’s Marcliffe Hotel yesterday.
Working in partnership with some of the area’s top golf courses and accommodation providers to offer tailored stay and play golf holiday packages, Scottish Golf Trails aims to attract UK and overseas golfers to north-east Scotland. It is also hoped the initiative can increase the area’s share of the lucrative £220million Scottish golf tourism market.
Scottish Golf Trails has brought together 17 of north-east Scotland’s finest golf courses to establish two trails, the Carnoustie and Aberdeen Links Golf Trail and the Royal Deeside Golf Trail. These will be marketed in conjunction with 10 of the region’s select accommodation providers to offer integrated golfing holidays.
The scheme has received the backing of 1999 Open winner Paul Lawrie and includes the course where he famously lifted the Claret Jug, Carnoustie, and Banchory where he was assistant pro between 1986 and 1990.
Filling a gap in the golf tourism market, the initiative addresses one of the findings of a report into golf tourism published in 2009 by Scottish Enterprise which identified the lack of a marketing alliance to attract golf tourists to north-east Scotland.
Similar regional initiatives are already in place in other parts of Scotland, but this is the first to offer such a tailored and packaged product. The project has also received the support of VisitScotland and secured £12,000 of European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding.
Hector Emslie, Scottish Golf Trails’ director, said: “This is the first initiative of its kind in north-east Scotland to bring together golf courses and accommodation providers, and market them under one umbrella. The region has over 70 golf courses, some of which are among the finest in the world, but they are often overlooked in favour of their more famous cousins in central Scotland.
“Current estimates put the value of golf tourism to Aberdeen City and Shire at around £5million each year, but there is potential for this to be far greater. As it stands, the area is well placed to benefit from golfers travelling from Scandinavian and northern European countries, and also from the increasing "staycation" trend which is seeing more UK golfers taking golf holidays at home. The north-east has a huge amount to offer golf tourists and it is time for us to shout about it.”
Tourism is one of the industry sectors which has been identified as playing a key role in the future economic prosperity of Aberdeen City and Shire. The sector currently supports approximately 19,000 jobs in north-east Scotland, a figure set to increase as major new golf developments come on stream.
Mr Emslie adds: “Golf in North-east Scotland has received a large amount of international exposure over recent years, thanks to the British Seniors Open being staged at Royal Aberdeen in 2005 and all the golf developments planned for the area. We hope to capitalise on this interest and look forward to potentially working with these new developments as they are completed.
“Scottish courses will attract significant interest over the coming years as they host a number of major golfing events and we anticipate there will be a spin off from this as well.”
Future high-profile golf events to be staged in Scotland include, the Walker Cup at Royal Aberdeen in 2011, the Curtis Cup at Nairn in 2012, The Open at Muirfield in 2013, and in 2014 the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles.
Golf is considered to be one of Scotland’s key tourism product assets and golfers are amongst the highest spending tourists, on average spending twice as much as other visitors. Scotland’s 550 plus golf courses are estimated to support around 7,000 jobs.
Shona Anderson, VisitScotland’s regional director for Aberdeenshire, said: “Scotland is world famous as the Home of Golf, with the sport generating around £220 million for the Scottish economy every year. Partnerships are essential to the future of tourism in this country.
"Scottish Golf Trails, which received money from VisitScotland’s Growth Fund, is an excellent example of this and I am sure this latest initiative will help to encourage many more people to see what this part of the country has to offer.”
Scottish Golf Trails, based in Banchory, Aberdeenshire, is a new alliance partnership between existing businesses Golfers Scotland Limited, The Marcliffe Hotel and Spa, and Cruden Bay Golf Club, offering tailored stay-and- play golf packages.
The alliance partnership was established in April 2010 by Hector Emslie and Andrew Shinie and draws on their 30 years of golf and tourism experience. Based around two golf trails, the partnership includes 17 golf courses and 10 accommodation providers.
Courses included in the Links Golf Trail are: Carnoustie, Royal Aberdeen, Murcar Links, Newburgh-on-Ythan, Cruden Bay, and Fraserburgh. The Royal Deeside Trail includes: Peterculter, Banchory, Inchmarlo, Aboyne, Tarland, Ballater, and Braemar golf courses.
An editor’s choice of select must-play courses – Newmachar, Meldrum House, Edzell and Moray Old – are also part of the initiative. More information about Scottish Golf Trails can be found at www.scottishgolftrails.co.uk or telephone 01330 822226.