Golf still a major driver for tourism players

Golf remains one of Ireland’s major attractions as the tourism industry looks to 2013 with a greater degree of optimism after a number of challenging years.

Research from Fáilte Ireland estimates that the typical overseas golf tourist is worth almost three times the value of the average tourist to Ireland, with 155,000 visitors playing the sport and yielding a total spend of €204m annually.

This level of expenditure supports over 7,300 jobs, with the bonus that golfing visitors are much more likely to be repeat customers.

Dan Flinter, chairman of the Fáilte Ireland Golf Forum, said: “In order to build on this, the Irish golf sector will not only have to continue to offer memorable experiences but also good value for money. Most encouragingly, the research shows that we are hitting the mark on both scores — with visitor satisfaction rates at 94% and value for money at 85%.” Read more