Richard Arkless MP has recognised the value of golf to Dumfries & Galloway in a Parliamentary debate on ‘The Value of Golf to our Economy’ in the House of Commons on April 13th.
Dumfries and Galloway has an impressive 24 golf courses which attract many visitors to the region every year. In 2014 Visit Scotland sold 680 individual ‘Gateway to Golf’ Passes with many more golfing parties arranging their own visits.
Mr Arkless spoke in the debate to highlight the amount of revenue golf brings to D&G every year saying that a ‘£10,000 investment by Visit Scotland and the local council has led to almost £400,000 of indirect and direct revenues’ across Dumfries and Galloway.
He went on to urge tourist boards and local authorities to put more money into attracting golf visitors to the UK as the numbers indicate a very high return on any money spent promoting the sport.
Commenting on the debate, Mr Arkless said:
“Our golf courses attract many visitors to Dumfries and Galloway but I am sure we could attract more. Investing more in golf tourism, with the right strategy, would really produce results – which I believe would be felt in our communities right across Dumfries and Galloway.
“With only 16% of golf tourism coming from overseas, we have a massively under exploited resource on our doorstep and I would urge our local authority and Visit Scotland to spend a little more money on promoting our many golf courses to the overseas market.”
“Golf tourism generates over £120million in revenues for the Scottish economy every year and employs approximately 1,480 people – I’d like to see D&G get a healthier share of that.”
Mr Arkless added:
“We are very fortunate in this part of Scotland, to be able to offer visitors such wide range of golfing related experiences with a welcome that is unmatched – we have it all to offer in D&G.”
