Addendum to Press Release “4th Asia Golf Tourism Convention puts Jakarta firmly on the global golfing map” dated 6th May.
Peter Grinsted, Owner/CEO, green2green, Denmark: “Personally I have done two Asia conventions but my company has done four. I have been greatly surprised by Indonesia overall. It is not only my perception but the whole Danish population’s perception is wrong. It is not a closed community as we tend to think. It is a very open, smiling and welcoming community. I am very positively surprised. I have asked one of the inbound agents to organise a trip for 20 people for me to sell in January or February. It will be Jakarta and Bali and maybe a little more, depending on their advice. The standard is just as high here as it is in Thailand. The caddies are fabulous, the courses have a very high standard and I am surprised by the smiles I have met in this country.”
Sherwin Tan, Business Development Manager, Happy Travel & Tours, Philippines: "I have been to two AGTCs now. Last year I was a first-timer so I just got introduced to people but this year it is a little bit more like meeting friends. In terms of destinations I was looking for Indonesia. This is my first time to Indonesia and it has been an eye-opener for me. I really see Indonesia as having good potential to sell in the Philippines. I will definitely be able to sell golf holidays to Indonesia. I already have a group coming to Jakarta in July since I have been at AGTC. We have Boracay in our country, which is more or less on a par with Bali. So it is not a market for us. But Jakarta is a place for golfers because they would enjoy the great courses, caddies, nightlife, great hotels, good food and the price is right.”
Rusty Koys, Manager, PRO GOLF Slovakia: “This is my third AGTC. It is paying off and hopefully in the future we will get more and more clients taking long-haul trips. Right now a lot of clients are travelling just within Europe but more clients are asking for long-haul destinations. I am really pleasantly surprised by the quality of the golf courses, especially in Jakarta. I really didn’t expect the golf courses to be at such a high level. The caddies are friendly, helpful and wonderful. We were made to feel very welcome. I think AGTC is getting bigger and bigger and more countries are participating, which is great. I hope to be here again next year. It’s a new market for us. Asia is a niche market I want to offer my clients.”
Brian Chappel, Golf Director, Pacific International Travel Services, Australia: “I have been very surprised by the friendship and the warmth of the people. I haven’t been back here for 40 years so it’s very different. I think there’s potential here for my clients.”
Ludovic Hoytema van Konijnenburg, Owner, The Golf Traveller, Netherlands: “This was my third AGTC. It was nice to come to Indonesia. I came to the conclusion that for coming out from Europe just as a golfing destination, it’s too far away. So it’s definitely a destination where you combine local things – sightseeing, culture, beach, relaxing, yoga or whatever with golf. It’s a good thing.
Peter Pan, Golf Travel Manager, Shenzhen Comfort Travel Service, China: “This is my second time to come to AGTC. It means a lot to me. In the golf tourism business, IAGTO makes my golf business very easy. Now I can come here and the whole world is here – tour operators, golf clubs and DMCs.”
Janet Leach, Golf Marketing Manager, Mississippi Division of Tourism Development, USA: “The show was very good for us. We were able to meet a lot of buyers from Asia and we hope to introduce Mississippi, New Orleans and Memphis to all of the tour operators. We ended up with a lot of appointments with a lot of potential business so we hope to convert that into more of the Asian market coming to our region. The biggest interest is from the Chinese market, also from Australia, New Zealand and Thailand – most of the Asian market seems to be interested in our area. This is our second AGTC and we plan to do at least one more, in Chiang Mai next year. We have received a lot of good feedback. We haven’t converted that into a lot of business yet but we know that it takes at least three years to develop a market. And now we have Memphis and New Orleans working with us we hope that will be more attractive to this market.”
Lisa Catron, National Sales Manager, Memphis CVB, USA: “It’s my first time at AGTC. I have been impressed with the hotels, the event, the venue but not only that the people I have met have been so welcoming. Along with that I actually got some emails from some clients so I feel real good about that. It has been worthwhile coming, definitely. I was very impressed. I have been to the North America Convention but this was totally different, and that’s what I am concentrating on – the Asia market. We will definitely be sponsors and we will be coming next year.”
Laurence Gan, CEO, Eurasia Travel & Tours, Australia: “Coming to a convention like this is terrific because you have access to lots of destinations. The Australian public is starting to travel for golf and they have been to Asia for the last 10 years. And I think they are starting to look for extra destinations. There are a lot of Asian Australians who are from Malaysia or Singapore and know Jakarta but the average Australian wouldn’t think of Jakarta as a golf destination. There is a lot more work to be done in publicising Jakarta.”
Tony Everitt, Contractor, Tourism New Zealand: “For us, this convention has been awesome. We had a full appointment schedule but we have done twice the number of appointments we originally had because there are two of us here and we have been running two appointment streams. We have got three of our New Zealand organisations with us and we have been using teamwork while we have been here. We have had fantastic quality appointments – very wide-ranging in terms of destinations and a lot of people new to us, so it has been great.”
Calle Carlsson, General Manager, Lumine Golf & Beach Club, Spain: “This is my first AGTC. I am very impressed with the feedback and interest from the Asian tour operators. For us it has been a bit of a test to see if there was any interest in coming to Barcelona and playing golf, and there is. People are excited about it. It has been better than I thought it would be; it has exceeded my expectations. The most interest has come from China and Japan. It will probably be 2016 before we see any results. If we see groups materialising I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be here next year.”
Alain Lenoir, General Manager, Tamarina Golf & Boutique Hotel, Mauritius: “AGTC is very good for us in Mauritius because it is a good opportunity to be close to the Chinese market, especially with Mauritius being so far away for them. We will ask the Mauritius Tourism Promotion Authority to join us next year. I will definitely recommend that they attend it and we need to have a few DMCs who specialise in golf attending as well. We need Mauritius to be represented as a golf destination. Not being present won’t be good for Mauritius. Our traditional market is Europeans but we need to adapt ourselves. In general I was happy with AGTC because I made some new contacts.”
Angus Watson, Account Manager, Trump Turnberry Resort, Scotland – which is due to close its Ailsa course in September for renovations and reopen on 1 June, 2016 – said: “It has been good for us. It has been eye-opening to see how much interest there is out here. This was our first time at AGTC and I think we need to be here, to increase the awareness of the Trump brand and what is happening in Scotland. Although the volumes from Asia aren’t going to be huge now, it is something for the future. It will probably be mainly golfers from China and Japan. We have sponsored all the IAGTO events this year together with Trump International Golf Links Scotland. Tour operators are one of the biggest markets and are very important to us. It’s a good way to access the world through our partners.”
Peter Wood, Managing Director, The Travelling Golfer, Australia: “This is our second AGTC. We came last year to Hainan Island. Both have been extremely useful. We came with a purpose. We needed to learn about Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, and that’s what we have done. We were full with appointments all the way through and they were all focused on these countries we haven’t had much to do with. I think the courses in Jakarta were very good. Australians know Bali very well, but some of them don’t know the golf. The golf on Bali is better than I expected it to be. Our first clients are coming in June. Bali is a great golf destination and for us in Australia it’s only three and a half hours from Perth and six hours from Melbourne. Bali is very good for us in Melbourne. Our winter is when people escape and the weather here is good at that time.”
Information for the Editor
Further information on the AGTC and IAGTO can be found at www.iagto.com/AGTC
Further information on Enjoy Jakarta Golf can be found at www.enjoyjakartagolf.com
About IAGTO
Established in 1997, IAGTO is the global trade organisation of the golf tourism industry, and has over 2370 members in 100 countries including 580 golf tour operator members in 62 countries, which control more than 85% of golf holiday packages sold worldwide and which collectively have annual sales of over US$2 billion. IAGTO runs annual Asia and North America Golf Tourism Conventions, along with regular Destination Conventions. IAGTO established the International Golf Travel Market, now owned and operated by Reed Travel Exhibitions, in 1997 and the International Golf Travel Writers Association in 2000. IAGTO also runs the prestigious annual IAGTO Awards and the IAGTO Excellence Awards.
