Hotels play up golf angle for meetings

Hotels are playing up the golf angle to attract business clients.

ByABC News
February 26, 2009, 6:12 PM

— -- The golf course may trail only the boardroom and the corner office as a place where business gets done.

Recognizing that, hotel marketing executives are pushing as perhaps never before the convenience of nearby golf courses to impress the planners who book meetings and conventions.

Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts next month, for example, will film pro golfer Phil Mickelson in television commercials promoting meetings at its 293 hotels.

Gina LaBarre, a Crowne Plaza vice president, says upscale business travelers' affinity for golf makes it a natural hook for promoting meeting facilities.

"As marketers, we are thinking of golf more than ever before when targeting meeting planners," LaBarre says.

LaBarre says 40% of Crowne Plaza's revenue is from business meetings, and Mickelson "generates a level of awareness of the brand." Last year, Crowne Plaza promoted its meetings facilities with a marketing campaign featuring TV golf reporter David Feherty, former golf great Lee Trevino and pro golfer Natalie Gulbis.

'A lucrative profit generator'

Last October, construction began on a new JW Marriott in San Antonio, which plans to attract meetings and conventions with two PGA Tour golf courses. Meetings and group business are expected to generate more than half of the revenue when the 1,002-room resort opens in 2010, says Mike Kass, director of sales and marketing.

Golf course designer Pete Dye and former British Open champion Greg Norman are designing the two adjacent golf courses. They're the newest ones being built by the PGA Tour, which will also manage them.

Group golf business is "a lucrative profit generator" for the Hyatt Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop, Texas, says Jim Moss, director of sales and marketing. Golf attracts about 65% of business meetings at the resort, located near Austin.

"We're making golf more prominent in our marketing," Moss says. "For the first time, we're traveling to golf trade shows, and we've developed specific golf ads that will run in meetings publications and sports and leisure magazines."