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My name is Helen Crowley and I'm with the US Commercial Service attached to the US embassy
in Madrid, Spain. I'm here at the international golf travel mart in PortAventura, which is
just south of Barcelona. The reason we're here, we're here to support the 10 US golf
companies that are present in this international affair. These companies represent dozens of
leading golf destinations across the entire breadth of the United States.
Good morning, I'm Alan Hale with Fairways Golf. I'm representing Troon Golf and Troon
Golf vacations from the west part of the United States and then Pinehurst Resort which is
in the Carolinas. The Department of Commerce assisted us last year towards coming to the
trip and the state of Alabama sponsored part of the trip. It's been a great show. The convention
is basically an opportunity for the US to showcase some of their great destinations.
My diary, the British term, my calendar, is 100% full with appointments. Every single
buyer I talked to was serious about bringing their customers to the United States. The
average spend of these people is between $1,500 and $2,000 a day. They stay at five-star resorts,
they play the most expensive golf courses, they eat, they drink, they are using rental
car facilities, some are even using guides so we've been the whole gamut on that. So
this year has been a really effective meeting. I attended as an exhibitor for the last three
years and I would say this is the strongest response I've had this year.
The advantage of being here at this fair for US companies is that they can meet with buyers
not only from Spain, but from all of Europe. From China, from Australia, from Latin America,
from Argentina. The companies have all coincided in that the volume and the quality of the
appointments they have had to date has been first class.
I'm Patrick Millard, Director of Leisure Sales for the Sawgrass Mariott Golf Resort and Spa
in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. This is actually my first year attending the show, but my colleague
has been coming for a number of years. We have approximately 45 to 50 appointments throughout
the week during our time here and different events with clients from all over the country.
The international market is quite large for us, obviously our domestic exposure is huge
and we don't have international airlift into Jacksonville Airport, but with that said,
we still have a very large presence in Argentina and the UK particularly, as well as Germany
and some other European countries as well. The meetings have been going very well. Each
day, we have about fifteen appointments that go on for about 20 minutes each. It's been
a great opportunity to interact with clients that I haven't met before or haven't been
able to make it to the resort.
Different services the US Commercial Service can offer companies here at the show can be
tailored to their individual needs, whether it be the program of tailored appointments
with targeted tour operators and travel agents, whether it be introductions to federations,
golf federations, associations in the country, in different countries. We can organize single company
promotions at the embassy, we can set up appointments, we can do market research, in fact, we can
tailor our services to meet their demands, whatever they want, we can do our best to
try and deliver a good cost effective product.
My name is David Reese, I'm the President of Florida's First Coast of Golf, a golf consortium
of golf tour sport in northeast Florida and this is our 15th year here at IGTM. Our meetings
this year have been, we had a fully booked appointment diary. Out of 50 appointments,
we had all 50 of them filled and 22 operators on the waiting list. So next year we are going
to have to expand into two stands and service those appointments. The demand and interest
has been great.
My name is Susan Eskridge and I'm from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We are here for the
IGTM golf show. We are trying to tap into the international market. Myrtle Beach is
very defined in the states, we're known as the golf capital of the US. The meetings have
been really good. A lot of them are very interested. We've already, some of them I've already been
in contact with them through email, so they're very excited and, like I said, you've just
got to get a few people there and get them to come back and talk to their friends about
it and it's all about a good experience and word of mouth. It would mean a ton to get
more international visitors to come to Myrtle Beach. We just had a big group from China
come over to Myrtle Beach for our big world amateur golf tournament. They had a great
time. But a lot of people just don't know about it so it's hard to get them there but
once we get them there, they come back so it'd be huge for us. So we've made tons of
good contacts while we've been here so it's definitely the place to be if you want to
work on bringing people into the US.
So we look forward to seeing you all next year at the IGTM 2015 in Como, Italy.