How the Myrtle Beach golf market is looking to lure travelers as COVID pandemic wages on
“The beach gets golfers. Golfers get the beach.”
That is the marketing slogan for the Myrtle Beach golf market this spring as golf and tourism leaders on the Grand Strand try to entice golfers to travel to the beach in pre-pandemic numbers for the normally lucrative spring season, which essentially runs through May.
The slogan is included in much of the advertising done by the Golf Tourism Solutions marketing and technology agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach market, and it is in conjunction with a Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce advertising campaign.
A regional approach to marketing
Because of the coronavirus’ impact on travel, particularly the drop in airline travel, GTS has been focusing its advertising campaign early this year on regional drive markets.
But a combination of the vaccine rollout that has given people more confidence to travel, and the addition over the past two months of 16 new nonstop flights to Myrtle Beach on United, Southwest and Frontier airlines has allowed GTS to expand its campaign.
As it often does, GTS has plans to market Myrtle Beach golf specifically in the new nonstop flight markets, though the earliest the new routes will start is late May.
“We are poised and ready to go when the timing is right,” GTS president Bill Golden said. “Typically we would be heavily focused on the Midwest and Northeast, all the direct fly markets.”
A lot of the messaging reminds golfers their sport is relatively safe to play as it pertains to COVID.
“We’re positioning Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Beach golf as something to look forward to when COVID becomes less of an issue than it is today and people are comfortable traveling,” Golden said. “Since golf has had such a great year in 2020 in terms or rounds played nationally and equipment and so forth, it tells us there is a tremendous amount of pent up demand to travel.”
The market was able to remain aggressive with marketing in part because the Myrtle Beach Area Convention & Visitors Bureau and GTS received COVID stimulus dollars earmarked for tourism from the state government.
That’s in addition to funds from GTS’ membership that includes 72 public courses (or 75.5 18-hole equivalent courses) in Georgetown, Horry and Brunswick counties.
“We could be more aggressive at a time when other destinations were waiting,” Golden said. “We’ve expanded the tools in our toolbox with things like the podcast, additional videos, high-level video production, and a greater quantity of written content.”
GTS is creating its own content in both ads and entertainment and is utilizing its many avenues of communication to get that content in front of potential golfers.
The content includes three primary projects by former Golf Channel personality Charlie Rymer, who is a Myrtle Beach golf brand ambassador through GTS. He has a podcast called “Balls In the Air,” online interview show and the Charlie Rymer Golf Show that debuts Monday on the CBS Sports Network.
GTS has produced nine episodes of the podcast. They drew more than 4,000 listeners through March and are gaining in popularity, according to GTS director of digital marketing Kyle Oland.
Golf instructor and former Mrs. South Carolina Meredith Kirk was a recent guest, and the most recent episode was taped in Augusta during the Masters.
“We’re kind in the early stages here but we’re encouraged by the [podcast] plays and hours listened. This will continue to grow and evolve as we go,” Golden said. “It’s just a way for us to get into another channel. It’s amazing how the podcast category has grown, and in golf we feel we can make a name for ourselves in the golf podcast universe. Charlie is the perfect person for it and there’s no shortage of content here to cover in Myrtle Beach.”
The content also includes daily social media posts, instruction videos and Myrtle Beach golf news.
“We have grown the amount of content that we develop, the blogs, the video,” Golden said. “The idea is how do we engage golfers throughout the year, and engage them with interesting content that is either about a Myrtle Beach golf vacation or it’s about golf with Myrtle Beach in the background. It’s about staying top of mind.”
GTS is marketing and advertising in various ways.
It is utilizing this spring a digital campaign through social media including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube; the Google Display Network featuring targeted display ads; other digital platforms such as Over the Top (OTT) ads through iHeartMedia; email buys with a number of companies including Golfweek and Golf Digest; numerous radio ads including on SiriusXM’s PGA Tour Radio; regional TV ads; and ads in Golf Magazine, Golfweek and Golf Digest.
GTS used the MMGY Global marketing company in Florida that the Myrtle Beach area chamber uses to create some high-quality visuals and creative ads for the spring marketing campaign, and The Workshop Content Studios in Philadelphia for video projects.
With OTT ads, GTS delivers its message directly to consumers and targets them based on their demographics and digital history, so golfers from specific markets can be engaged.
The marketing’s impact
GTS’ website traffic is up 174 percent through the first quarter of the year compared to the first quarter in 2020, according to Oland. Traffic that isn’t generated by a paid campaign is up nearly 100 percent.
“That’s an indicator that people are interested, they have cabin fever and they want to travel,” Oland said.
Oland said social media engagement has increased across all platforms this year, with Instagram leading the way with almost 900,000 impressions in the first quarter of 2021.
“How can we operate as a media company, targeting golfers and engaging them with things we think are interesting with guests we know are interesting?” Golden said.
Consumer confidence appears to be rising in the golf and travel industries as it pertains to Myrtle Beach golf.
As of Tuesday, rounds are up 30,000 in the market compared to 2020, which is a 5 percent increase, according to Tracy Conner, executive director of the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association.
That increase is based on March and April thus far, as rounds were down nearly 50,000, or about 27 percent, in January and February, which was largely attributable to poor weather.
The market is still playing more local rounds and fewer tourist rounds than it was prior to 2020 because of the pandemic, but things appear to be improving as the year continues.
“Summer bookings look very good, very solid, so we are expecting a very solid summer golf season,” Conner said. “The phones are ringing and inquiries are at a greater level.”
