Friday, September 30, 2011

Framework for Golf... Where is it?

Been doing some research this morning for a golf client of ours which included looking through a whole host of word documents dating all the way back to 2001 and came across around two dozen golf tourism related reports in a research folder.

What I did find specifically was a document entitled "The Future of Scottish Golf" published by the Scottish Golf Union as part of their planned Scottish golf takeover. The document referred to a Framework and referenced heavily the idea of "One Plan for Golf in Scotland."

I remember at the time being involved with Golf Tourism Scotland at the time in producing a report on developing a structure for the delivery of Golf Tourism Scotland at the time and all the positive work done on the way forward for the key golfing regions was simply folded up and put away to be replaced by Hamish Gray's big idea as stated in the closing paragraphs of the Framework Proposal.

"We do feel, however, that there is a strong argument for the need for a strong leader within a lead organisation. The role is to lead, drive and motivate the team to ensure the vision is delivered. There is consensus that the Scottish Golf Union Ltd (SGU) is the body best placed to adopt this role. Reporting to this leader (as far as the Framework project is concerned) will be lead individuals for each key performance area. We envisage these individuals coming from bodies which have the relevant capabilities to deliver the results in each area. So, we see the structure as shown in the diagram below.
The core team is thus six people plus administrative support. They are likely to meet monthly, at least in the first year of activity. The bigger group – which has contributed so much in starting this initiative – would meet twice a year. The SGU has indicated its appetite to further investigate taking the lead role within such a structure. However, the additional resources required to do so have yet to be identified. "
As far as I can see from a tourism perspective there remains fragmentation, duplicate activity and no sign of a joined up delivery mechanism or even communications structure for Scottish golf tourism marketing and development.

Just curious if anyone out there knows what happened to One Plan for Golf and The Proposed Framework for delivery for which the SGU made themselves clearly champions. This project was being purported by VisitScotland, EventScotland and SGU as being the best way to bring together the public and private sectors and was the key reason as I recall it for the proposals by GTS for a Regional Golf Tourism structure not getting off the ground. It was torpedoed as unnecessary under the new Framework.

Couldn't be another example of vested interests again surely? What it is for sure is something that just never seems to be learned when it comes to tourism projects or destination planning at local, area or national levels - you cannot develop a strategy however well put together without having solid structures in place to build around.

Anyway, if you're completely bored you could have a read at the documents just to see what our esteemed golf industry leaders had cosy chats over.

"The Future of Scottish Golf" SGU 2008
"Regional Golf Review" Golf Tourism Scotland 2007




3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Facinating reading and thanks for posting this. Target 5 was to increse the value of golf tourism by 50% by 2012. Has this been achieved - I think not. I also think that this was a classic case of self interest in teh the SGU should never have been allowed to take control of this. Nor should they have any input in golf tourism in the future. They are about members and memberships and no doubt they used their influence at that time to try and reverse the trend of golf clubs losing member numbers.

Things like Ryder Cup legacy and "leverage" are soundbites that have no substance in any work that has been carried out since these two reports were issued in 2007/08.

Call these people to account to explain what they have achieved over the past 4 years. An absolute farce.

Anonymous said...

What ever happened to the "drive it home" promotion. There must have been 000's of contacts who signed up for this....or did they?? How about some stats showing the effectiveness of this. How many of the free rounds of golf given away by courses were actually taken up? How much did the project cost. Let the industry work out the ROI of this.

Anonymous said...

Tend to forget about all the reports that have been commissioned over the years to do with golf. Can TM produce a listing so the industry can go back and review some of these. Prob with the public agencies is that staff turnover is quite high so each new graduate that comes in think they have had a eureka moment when they think up something else to work on. Fact is that it was more than likely thought up 20 years ago and nothing was ever followed through.