At the high end, some luxury hotel brands are now offering guests remarkable and unusual experiences, from picnic outings by helicopter, one-to-one cookery sessions with Michelin-starred chefs or road trips in vintage sports cars.
Mid price hotel brands are also starting to partner with local providers to offer a variety of local, curated experiences.
Even Airbnb is testing brand experiences in a bid to add value and enhance customer loyalty. It has created offers such as ‘Embrace Parisian life’, a package that includes meeting local personalities and being invited to dinner with the neighbours.
In golf, being a European Tour Destination offers a stamp of tournament quality to the golf experience, guaranteeing customers the finest courses and playing conditions.
A number of venues also offer a European Tour Performance Institute where customers can experience the highly personalised coaching and advice typically only available to tournament professionals.
Our growing network of 25 golf venues give customers special opportunities to visit and experience world class resorts and courses in 19 countries. For many of our venues, taking parties of customers to fellow European Tour Destinations on reciprocal trips, where they know they will receive a tournament quality experience on and off the course, is increasingly important in terms of loyalty.
Ultimately, what brings these successful network events and experiences together is the European Tour brand.
European Tour Properties is looking to develop new opportunities for our venues. In June we hosted the inaugural European Tour Properties Senior Classic at Linna Golf, Finland.
In effect, this is a live branded experience that works on a variety of levels.
Firstly, it offers venues the opportunity to host a European Tour Senior Tour professional event, with all the associated awareness, positioning and reputational benefits. In the case of Linna Golf, the tournament generated more than €1 million of media coverage.
Secondly, with European Tour Properties as the main sponsor, there is less reliance on the promoter and venue to find a primary financial supporter to enable the event to happen. The sponsorship model is more flexible and feasible.
Finally, a Senior Tour tournament is an outstanding branded experience opportunity for customers. Played over three rounds, up to 54 amateurs are paired with the professionals for the first two rounds.
At Linna Golf 10 former Ryder Cup players were among the professional participants. What could be more exciting for an amateur than to play in a European Tour tournament with a top player?
Ultimately, courses in the European Tour Properties network offer much more than just a round of golf to their customers; it is a European Tour experience.
Director of Operations
