IAGTO, the world’s leading golf tourism organization named Mission Hills Haikou, Asia Pacific Golf Resort of the Year. The result of a vote by more than 600 international golf tour operators.
“We are proud to announce the addition of Jumeirah Golf Estates Clubhouse and Golf courses to the Dubai Golf management portfolio,” Christopher May, CEO of Dubai Golf.
In November 2007, Dubai Properties announced that Tiger Woods would be designing a golf course – Tiger Woods Dubai – through his design company, TGR Design. The plans were to include a boutique hotel, a clubhouse, and a 16,500 sq ft mansion overlooking the golf course located in Dubailand.
golfscape is delighted to announce the signing of professional golfer, Madeleen Grosskopf, as the new Brand Ambassador. Madeleen will be representing golfscape during her practice and tournaments in Europe, Middle East, and Asia.
You might have heard of Snapchat’s latest product – Snapchat Spectacles which they launched last week in limited quantities through vending machines. If you missed the story, essentially the spectacles are sunglasses with a built-in camera. A button on the side of the eyewear lets you trigger a camera. When you tap it a light will flash and spin around signalling a recording is in progress to let people around you know. You can send the recordings to your smartphone through Bluetooth to post the recordings on your Snapchat story or send directly to your friends through the app. The spectacles come with a chargeable case so you can record an entire day out on the golf course if you desire.
Today, we launched our first golfscape app on the Apple TV, bringing our exciting technology and service to the living room. Why are we super excited? The golfscape Apple TV app provides you with an incredibly immersive experience to discover golf in the world’s most sought-after destinations. Inspire your next trip with amazing courses in over 55 countries, and high-resolution features at top worldwide golf properties.
The golfscape app offers two unique experiences:
• Featured Destinations – explore a curated selection of the finest courses
• Worldwide Slideshow – sit back and enjoy views from around the globe
Stay tuned for more updates!
The ardent golfer would play Mount Everest if somebody put a flagstick on top of it. – Pete Dye, Golf Architect
But whatever lies next to conquer as your golf version of “Everest,” the most essential quality after adaptability is a high level of preparedness. That’s why we have curated a collection of the must-have travel accessories that will help you make the most of your next destination golf experience.
Make Sure Your Clubs Get There Safely Play Global and Track Every Shot
Playing a new course that you want to track shots on and save forever? The Arccos Golf Tracking System (R) will make the most of your experience using the swing you have. It does so with an army of 14 sensors that attach to each of your clubs and talk to the companion app while you play. Using GPS info from your phone, it knows how far you’re hitting each club, as well as how far you are from the green, and can use that to make in-round club recommendations (right on your wrist if you’re wearing an Apple Watch).
We all know how conservative and stuffy the golf industry can be at times, and many would argue that technology and the digital revolution has put golf on the back foot, struggling to play catch up.
Other industries have seen the transformation happening and quickly joined the movement as a way to grow their respective businesses and position themselves for the future. With a saturated market, higher competition, greater barriers to entry and new ways to be discovered, it makes a digital presence a must rather than an option for any business. However an unwillingness to embrace the future coupled with changing market forces, has put the golf industry in a tough spot. Rounds are down; club membership is less attractive of an option giving way to the “transient” golfer that is destination focused, mobile and on-the-go. Most golf course operators ask: where are these new customers online? How do they need to be engaged differently than a local audience? Do I have the tools and the budget in order to connect with them?
This is why companies like golfscape have arrived to solve these issues that the golf courses are plagued with. Creating a bridge between golf courses and online channels, using online advertising models to attract users in their searches, will ultimately drive incremental new business to golf courses.
Taking golf into a new dimension of mobility and online booking, golfscapehelps golf courses in a simple and effortless manner. By using a extranet system, golf course operators can create an editorial page in minutes where they can replicate all the content displayed on their own websites, and in seconds if they wish, opt-in to the xPro Sales Channel to load various rate cards and display bookable inventory to the user in real-time to confirm instantly.
The 5 reasons why technology is reshaping the golf industry:
Transforming Golf Travel with the Shared Economy and Crowdsourcing
I spoke with a golf journalist recently who shared a story with me. When he visited the International Golf Travel Market 2013, IAGTO’s flagship travel trade show in Marbella – Spain, he wanted to try an experiment. He booked his flight and transfers himself, but then tapped into a Peer-to-Peer community via Airbnb and other shared economy platforms to plan and book the remaining golf / accommodation components of his show visit.
He ended up locating and staying in a private residence he discovered through one of the platforms, played a handful of rounds at top courses in Marbella that the host arranged on his behalf and made a life long friend that shared other insight on the golf destination he never knew about (no easy feat for a know-it-all journalist that prides himself on being fully informed).
The transaction was secondary to the interaction. That’s community in my mind.
There’s no doubt that my friend’s previous knowledge of the region as a journalist from countless years covering the destination armed him with enough knowledge, and more importantly comfort, to go about planning and booking his trip in a self-directed manner. Some in golf might call him a vagabond, while others perhaps just calling him a normal 30-something using the shared economy to cultivate his own unique, personal and downright simple to organize golf travel experience that offered so much more.