North & West Coast golf goes global at long last
NORTH & West Coast Links has been battling to spread the gospel of golf in Ireland’s north-west for the past 29 years.
Now the innovative marketing group is going global thanks to the upsurge in interest in Ireland’s north-west because of the 2018 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Ballyliffin and 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
All 12 member clubs — Ballyliffin, Carne, Enniscrone, Donegal, Narin & Portnoo, Rosapenna, Castlerock, Portstewart, Ardglass, Galway Bay, Westport and Portsalon — were represented alongside other Irish tourism bodies at the PGA Show in Orlando this week.
“The PGA Show is quite simply one of the most important industry events in the global golf calendar,” said North & West Coast Links CEO, John McLaughlin.
“The PGA Show provides us with an extremely valuable platform to meet industry representatives from over 100 countries.
“The increasing world profile of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open in recent years at some of the links courses we represent, including this year’s event at Ballyliffin, provides us with a very attractive proposition from which to develop bespoke golf tour packages with some of Ireland’s outstanding links venues.
“Interest to date has been significant from the US and various European markets and with The Open being staged in Northern Ireland at Royal Portrush in 2019, links golf in this part of the world in really on the up.”
Over the course of 2018, North & West Coast Links plans to target the UK, the US, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand and selected Asian markets by taking part in over 30 International trade shows.