DDF Irish Open. Are You Ready?

With the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open coming to Portstewart in July I ask you this: “Are you ready?”

Earlier this year, an information evening was held at Portstewart Golf Club for local businesses. Apart from highlighting what an amazing place Portstewart is, information was shared on Sponsorships, tourism, safety and parking & accessibility for the event. I Personally went along to hear Dr Peter Bolan’s presentation.

Dr Peter Bolan is a Senior Lecturer and Course Director for the international travel and tourism management programmes at Ulster University. He raised some very good points, learned from previous events and I wanted to share them with you.

Produce Ambassadors

Invest time in training and developing your team. Whether you have any interest in golf should be irrelevant. Ensure your communication process within your business is fool proof to enable customer-facing staff to converse with the public and answer their questions fluently. Have a timetable of tee times and find out information about the leader board. This will be available online.

Evening Economics

Accept the fact that there will not be a rush of customers during the day! People will have paid money to see the golf, not to have a dander along Portstewart promenade or to shop in Coleraine. However, these people will be around AFTER the golf has finished for the day. (Saying that visitors will be allowed in and out of the event.) I know some eateries and ice cream parlours already trade later in the summer, but any retail outlet in Portstewart could avail of the later trade. It will be a great opportunity to introduce visitors to the lovely seaside town.

Understand Your Market

This is, of course, relevant to any time of the year, but understanding your customers for this one week in July will make a difference to whether the visitors just ‘Pop in’ for a browse or actually make a purchase. Converting footfall into paying customers is crucial to any retail business and having the product on sale is one way to do this. Another way is through customer interaction and this takes me back to producing ambassadors within your business.

Social Media Content

Visitors planning to attend the DDF Irish Open will be planning their stay and social media is fast becoming the most popular search engine. Ensure every status update on Facebook and Twitter contains the hash tags #DDFirishopen and #Portstewart. This will put your business at the heart of online conversations and will raise your profile.

Don’t Be Greedy

This might sound like a strange thing to say, but many eateries, bars and taxi firms have been known to increase their prices when there is a major event in town and quite frankly this is an unacceptable practice! I understand that for some businesses, big events produce the revenue needed to support a seasonal location, but this will produce short-lived results as those punters will not come back. Instead, the focus should be on providing value for money, excellent service and a memorable experience.

Think Of The Longer Term Impact – Seize The Opportunity

Value for money, excellent service and a memorable experience will always bring customers back. Perhaps the DDF Irish Open will not generate the sales uplift you want or the publicity you hoped for, but it will, without a doubt, create an opportunity for you to build a rapport with your visitors and give them a reason to come back. The Causeway Coast already has so much to offer visitors and with the number of hotels in the pipeline, they will be ‘hanging around’ the area for longer periods of time. Great news for local businesses!

Update Your Website

Now is the time to revisit your website! Ensure that your SEO’s are driving traffic to your site and get your business registered on Google. This will place you on the map and create the perfect synergy between your online presence and your bricks and mortar business. Don't forget, around 70% of users access data from their smartphones, so ensure your website is mobile friendly!

Tourism Northern Ireland

Tourism Northern Ireland has produced a fold-out guide that is now available through various distributors on the Causeway Coast. Grab yourself a copy and use it as a planning tool. It contains all the local events, including dates and times, so this will help with your manpower planning. They also have a business toolkit available to you that contains branded signage and logos. This is available by visiting tourismni.com/medialibrary

You need to register to access the toolkit, but it is a simple process and well worth it.

Have Fun

I know this sounds crazy, but soak up the atmosphere. More and more event organisers are realising the beauty and the potential of Northern Ireland, so enjoy being a part of something big.