James Fynes, Director of Sales at Jumeirah Golf Estates, said about the Asia Golf Tourism Convention in Manilla:
“Jumeirah Golf Estates has always performed well in attracting international visitors from traditional markets such as the U.K. and Europe, however we were keen on expanding this and growing our opportunities in the Asian market. So we decided to attend the convention this year in Manilla to connect with Asian golf businesses and understand the key buy decisions of the Asian golfer so that we can build our offerings around what is important to them.
“The UAE is still a relatively new destination to present to the Asian clientele. However, with multiple leisure elements, various hotel offerings, and phenomenal golf courses, we were certain we could position Jumeirah Golf Estates as the region’s must-visit destination and raise awareness of our world-class venue.
“We had several interesting discussions with international operators about opportunities to drive Frequent Individual Travelers (FIT) and Group business to the Earth and Fire courses, which I believe will grow into fruitful partnerships in the future.”
Mònica Martínez, Director of Sales at PGA Catalunya Resort, shared her thoughts about attending AGTC for a second consecutive year:
“Having attended the 2017 AGTC with European Tour Properties, we were keen to reconnect with golf tour operators from Japan, China, Korea, Singapore and Australia, as well as European agents who worked in the Far East.
“Expanding and attracting markets beyond Europe to PGA Catalunya Resort is a key objective for us – and Asia is a very interesting prospect with high net-worth consumers. With direct flights from Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore to Barcelona, we are also an attractive option for them – so much so that we came away from Manilla having booked a group from Japan and another from Korea, as well as a third from Manchester in the UK for 2018 visits. We were also able to confirm a large group from Singapore for 2019.
“We will definitely be attending the AGTC again next year in Oman with European Tour Properties.”
The Asia Golf Tourism Convention 2019 is scheduled to take place from 31 March to 3 April in Oman.
