VisitScotland’s Drive it Home golf promotion showcases Argyll

The Machrihanish Dunes Golf Course is part of a VisitScotland promotion it describes improbably as ‘the biggest ever global golf promotion’ – Drive it Home.

The first phase of of the Drive it Home campaign is said to ‘run throughout February targeting golf fans around the world offering them opportunity to win a two day luxury golfing break including accommodation at The Village at Machrihanish Dunes’.

The unique course, the location and the prize are fabulous.

But. out of respect for them, we have to  note, wearily,  that the Press Release, advertising the promotion it declares to ‘run  throughout February’ arrived today – 16th February, more than half way through the month.

The promotion comes during the year of Active Scotland. This is ‘a drive to grow tourism spend in every corner of the country in the run-up to staging two of the world’s greatest sporting events in 2014 – the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup’.

Last year’s Drive it Home promotion ‘generated nearly £2.5 million for the Scottish economy, reaching global audiences of 70 million’. We have asked what specific evidence attributed the £2.5 million to the 2010 Drive it Home campaign – not out of negativity but from a need to be sure that such self-promotional statements are demonstrably secure.

Run in partnership with Golf Tourism Scotland, this year’s campaign offers other prizes including the opportunity to compete in the Johnnie Walker Championship ProAM at Gleneagles and the chance to play with Ryder Cup legend Sam Torrance (pictured) at the new home of the Scottish Open at Castle Stuart, near Inverness.

This competition, gallingly, was played at the Loch Lomond course in Argyll until its sale out of administration to members  took it to the status of a private mmebers’ club, who decided not to host the Scottish Open again, But we wish Castle Stuart all good fortune with the event.

Sam Torrance says: ‘I’ve played golf all over the world, but nothing can match the experience of playing the game in Scotland – the undisputed Home of Golf. VisitScotland’s Drive it Home campaign gives people everywhere the chance to enjoy some of this country’s finest courses and, of course, pit their wits against yours truly – I can’t imagine a much better prize than that’.

David Adams McGilp, Regional Director of VisitScotland and responsible for Argyll, said: ‘Golf is a vital part of the tourism economy in Argyll and we boast some of the most spectacular courses in the country.  This campaign encourages local golf courses and the wider tourism industry to work together and cross-sell, an approach which will help the industry achieve its full potential, particularly in the current climate.

‘Tourism is the sustainable bedrock of the Argyll economy and with courses and hotels from across the region involved VisitScotland’s 2011 Drive it Home campaign is a perfect example of a partnership working together for the good of Scottish tourism’.

Golf has a great deal to offer visitors to Argyll and to Argyll itself but the persistently unimaginative VisitScotland promotions never drive home Argyll’s resources for the sport that are so collectively  challenging and so unusual.