Tourism chiefs in NI confident of another swift return of the Open

South Wales Argus

4 days ago

Almost 280,000 spectators attended Royal Portrush Golf Club across a week that culminated with world No 1 golfer Scottie Scheffler lifting the prized Claret Jug in front of thousands of cheering fans around the sun-drenched 18th green on Sunday evening.
The 153rd Open at Portrush was the second-best attended event in the championship's long history.
Aine Kearney at Royal Portrush Golf Club during the Open (Tourism NI/PA)
When the Open came to Northern Ireland in 2019 after an almost 70-year absence, tournament organisers, the R&A, committed to staging it at Royal Portrush at least two more times.
There was surprise at how soon the sporting showpiece then returned, especially as the event skipped a year because of the pandemic in 2020.
Tourism NI is now hopeful that there will be a similar timeline for the next staging of the major championship on the region's scenic north coast.
The tourism promotion body's director of events Aine Kearney said the R&A's feedback on last week's event had been overwhelmingly positive.
'We've had really positive engagement with senior people in the R&A and they just told us how well it's gone,' she said.
'And we hope that puts us in a really good place in terms of them coming back as quickly as they did after 2019.'
She added: 'It's been an outstanding success. And I think that's something that's been echoed by the R&A, we've heard the same from the golfers, we've heard the same from all the visitors that have come to experience not only the golf but also the destination.
'The feedback has been absolutely fabulous in terms of how successful it's been, and how much we've been able to shine a light on Northern Ireland as a fabulous destination.'
After the 2019 Open in Portrush, revenue generated by golf tourism in Northern Ireland has jumped by 66% to £86 million per annum. Ms Kearney said there was hope the trade would see a similar 'bounce' on the back of this year's event.
'What we do know is that there were a lot of people playing golf while they were here (for the Open),' she said.
'The reports we have from all of our golf clubs is that their tee time sales this week were absolutely unbelievable and that puts them in a really good position, not only from the income they got from that to be able to continue to invest in their product, but also the advocacy that will come from the people that played.'
She added: 'Hopefully, from that advocacy and the 100 million viewers across 190 countries that saw not only the world's best golfers playing, but also the magic of the landscape and the destination … we hopefully will look to see a similar increase to what we saw on the back of 2019, that was a 66% increase to £86 million.
'If we get that similar bounce again, we'll be very, very happy.'
Ms Kearney said her overriding emotion following the tournament was 'pride'.
'It's absolute pride in terms of how we turned up as a destination, how we showed the world just what an amazing place this is to live, to visit and invest,' she said.