Golf in mass tourism destinations facing seasonality: a longitudinal study

Golf in mass tourism destinations facing

seasonality: a longitudinal study

Joan B. Garau-Vadell and Lluis de Borja-Sole´

Abstract

Purpose – Mallorca is a traditional mass tourism destination that promotes golf tourism development in

order to fight tourism seasonality and increase the tourist’s average expenditure. Through a longitudinal

study, the paper aims to analyze golf demand and its evolution; to evaluate the seasonal and economic

impact of this type of tourism and to elaborate a prospective estimation of future trends.

Design/methodology/approach – The research was based on 1,271 personal interviews with golfers,

470 in 2005, 401 in 2001 and 400 in 1997, all conducted between March and September. 45 interviews

with golf course managers were also conducted in order to obtain information related to future trends.

Findings – Golf tourism demand remains stable with minor changes with respect to profile of the

players and seasonality. However, some changes have been identified: demand has stopped its growth

rates; the use of tourism packages as a way of traveling and in the hotel use as accommodation has

declined; the importance of the internet as a marketing channel and of the availability of low cost flights

to choose a tourism destination has increased; and finally, a stagnation of the economic impact of golf

tourism has been revealed.

Research limitations/implications – This work advances the knowledge of golf tourism evolution.

However, it probably suffers from the fact that it has been conducted in a specific destination. Therefore

it would be convenient to compare the results with other destinations to generalize patterns.

Practical implications – The results emphasize the need for a multi-product destination development

approach in order to fight seasonality and the limitations to rely exclusively in a single segment.

Originality/value – This paper helps tourism destination managers review their destination marketing

diversification strategies by taking into account the results obtained in Mallorca, one of the most

important tourism resorts of the Mediterranean.

Keywords Golf, Seasonality, Diversification, Internet marketing, Tourism management, Spain

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

The economy of Mallorca, one of the most important and mature tourism resorts of the

Mediterranean, is widely based on the tourism industry and suffers from certain structural

deficits that make its long-term sustainability difficult. One of the most important challenges

that it faces is that of the seasonality of tourism flows. The fact that more than 70 percent of

the island visitors come in the period between May and September causes serious structural

imbalances such as transportation network congestion, unemployment increases during the

low season, under use of certain infrastructures and in other periods of the year over sizing of

them since they have been scaled to fit the high season demand etc. In order to respond to

these challenges, Mallorca decided in the mid 1990s – as stated in its Tourism Marketing

Plan (Conselleria de Turisme, 1996) – to promote new types of tourism products and

markets with different seasonal patterns from the traditional sun and beach tourism. It was

hoped that this would help lengthen the season and improve the average tourist

expenditure. In this respect, golf tourism was singled out as very appropriate to compensate

PAGE 16 j TOURISM REVIEW j VOL. 63 NO. 2 2008, pp. 16-24, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1660-5373 DOI 10.1108/16605370810883914

Joan B. Garau-Vadell is

based in the Department of

Business at the Universitat

de les Illes Balears, Palma,

Spain. Lluis de Borja-Sole´ is

based in the Department of

Marketing, Universitat de

Barcelona, Barcelona,

Spain.