The Pellucid Perspective - December 2011 - (Page 9)

MARKETING If you promote it, they may come Mesquite gamble on golf pays off By Jim Dunlap uickly, golf gurus, what are the two most heavily promoted golf destinations in America? OK, you got Myrtle Beach, with Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday’s 70-plus course menu at number one. But did you come up with little Mesquite, Nevada at number two? Do you even know where Mesquite is? If not, you’ve fast-forwarded past a lot of ads on The Golf Channel and skimmed a lot of issues of your association and major golf consumer publications. “Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday is number one, but we’re number two in terms of [marketing] budget,” said Golf Mesquite Nevada Executive Director Cody Law during the Mesquite Media Classic golf event held earlier this month. “We do around $600,000 in co-op marketing a year, and that generates just over $6 million in rooms and golf for our members.” Those numbers probably wouldn’t cut the mustard in Myrtle Beach, with its hundreds and hundreds of hotels and vacation rentals, 100-plus golf courses in the immediate area and the populous Eastern Seaboard to draw from, but for a town of just over 15,000 people in what could fairly aptly be called the middle of nowhere, nine golf course partners and four resort casinos, that’s a pretty good return on investment. Other area courses, including acclaimed Wolf Creek, undoubtedly get some traffic boosts as well. For the geographically challenged, Mesquite is located 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, tucked into the corner of the Nevada-Utah-Arizona intersection. And that’s 80 miles of nothing but miles and miles of desolate desert, straight up I-15, with the only flashing lights you’ll see provided by the Nevada Highway Patrol for those travelers who aren’t satisfied with the 70 mph speed limit. The 1 million-plus visitors a year come primarily for two things – the gambling and the golf, because frankly there’s not a lot else to do, unless you’re the hiking-biking type. And the price, at least for the golf and the accommodations, is right. Law said the Golf Mesquite member courses offer prime rack rate prices of approximately $110 during the February-May peak season, and $60-$70 the rest of the year, while hotels run around $79 a night during peak season. If the Mesquite glitz, neon wattage and entertainer star power pale in comparison with the Vegas Strip, the golf does not. The nine Golf Mesquite courses, six of which are right in Mesquite, with the others a short drive away, have top designer names attached to them including Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Gary Panks, John Fought and Cal Olson, and most are carved out of spectacular canyon and bluff-laced terrain. In Mesquite, “elevation change” refers to the occasional flat tee and level fairway, with spectacular views in every direction and www.PellucidcorP.com Q course conditioning to match. Golf Mesquite also partners with the Colorado and Utah state golf associations, which partially accounts for those two states being Mesquite’s top two golfer markets. Law said the typical customer is a member of a group of four to eight players. One casualty of the current economy has been advance bookings – Law said that while golfers used to book two to four months out, it has shrunk to two to four weeks most commonly recently. On the plus side, Law said that Mesquite registered its first quarterly rounds increase since 2009 in this year’s third quarter. While the meat and potatoes of the Mesquite marketing menu is multi-media advertising, the flaming desserts are events like the televised annual RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship, the annual week-long Mesquite Amateur event which is the second largest amateur event in the country (again behind Myrtle Beach) with fields ranging from just under 600 to up to 750, and Mesquite’s selection as the host site for The Golf Channel’s Big Break show in 2007. The business generated from that publicity and the regular marketing budget also helps the Mesquite community take care of its own – a Golf Fore Kids event on December 8 at four local courses drew 460 players for a fee of only a toy valued at $50, raising over $90,000 worth of Christmas gifts for needy local children. All in all, being number two is not half bad. n P E L LU C I D I S M You cannot have an intelligent discussion about golf facility performance without factoring in weather impact. We’re not talking about general, anecdotal observations and input (i.e. April seemed to have more rain this year than last), we’re talking about hourly facts and consistent tracking year-toyear. While this is achievable by having the same person at the golf facility record hourly weather readings over an extended period of time, as an owner or manager of a golf facility, it would seem more prudent to have an automated, rules-based approach applied consistently over history vs. having those accountable for performance writing their own report card. Finally, annual planning should incorporate a weather component, specifically it should be based on a long-term “norm” (5 or 10 year period) vs. applying “Kentucky windage” to last year’s anecdotal observations up or down. The Pellucid PersPecTive 9 http://WWW.PELLUCIDCORP.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - December 2011

The Pellucid Perspective - December 2011
Municipal owners beware! Landmark ruling due in Ohio
Are no-shows the hidden assassin?
Dismissing weather impact: A cunningly clueless concept
Living in the past
If you promote it, they may come
November weather impact: Good month for the Sunbelt
Philadelphia, PA Core Business Statistical Area (CBSA)
Surprise, resort developer favors new resort!
We could use your help

The Pellucid Perspective - December 2011