Golf tourism boom beckons for North Carolina  12:00, 05/07/2016

Source: IAGTO

Organised by global golf tourism organisation IAGTO (International Association of Golf Tour Operators), the 8th annual NAC saw the number of attending delegates surpass the 400 mark for the first time, reaching a total of 405. Of those, a record 158 were golf tour operators, who attended from 29 countries around the world, all selling golf vacations to the Americas.

Source: IAGTO

They met with golf resorts, golf courses, hotels, and regional and state tourist offices as well as other golf-related supplier companies and organisations from the USA, Canada, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean during two days of business sessions at the resort’s venerable Carolina Hotel. Delegates then took part in the annual NAC golf tournament on two of Pinehurst’s nine golf courses: the legendary Donald Ross-designed No 2, restored by Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore for its third US Open in 2014 and which will hold it again in 2024; and the Tom Fazio-designed No 8.

Source: IAGTO

NAC attendees were also treated to an indoor and outdoor Taste of North Carolina evening at the resort’s Pinehurst Country Club with food, wine, craft beers and spirits served up by artisans from across the state. Before and after the convention, many of the tour operators got the chance to experience golf in different regions of North Carolina, going on familiarisation tours to Greensboro, the Outer Banks, Fayetteville and around the Village of Pinehurst.

Source: IAGTO

Visit North Carolina Executive Director Wit Tuttell was delighted with the event and said he anticipated international golf visitor numbers to the state would surge as a result.  “This convention has given us the opportunity to showcase the state and show them that we have more than 500 golf courses. The tour operators are creating a lot of itineraries for North Carolina and the South and hopefully that will translate into room nights. I hope this will result in a lot more international visitation and people playing a lot of the other golf courses we have.”

IAGTO Chief Executive Peter Walton enthused: “This is the first time we have brought the North America Convention to North Carolina and we have been blown away, not only by the enthusiasm of the state tourist board, but also by the eagerness of many regional CVBs to get involved, to host familiarisation trips and to take this opportunity to position North Carolina as a truly international golf destination.”

The 9th North America Golf Tourism Convention will take place from 25-28 June 2017 and will see the event returning to Miami and to the resort which hosted the inaugural event back in 2009, Trump National Doral.