As gamers tee off on the fifty fifth RBC Heritage on Hilton Head Island this week, the PGA Tour has sealed a brand new promotional partnership with the Palmetto State.
Uncover South Carolina agreed to a five-year advertising deal totaling $12.5 million that designates it an “official tourism sponsor” of the boys’s skilled circuit. Hawaii is the one different state that shares the title.
The $2.5 million annual settlement runs by 2027. The funding for the primary 12 months is an accredited line merchandise on the state funds that particularly set cash apart to take a position into golf tourism advertising in an effort to draw extra guests and occasions, stated Duane Parrish, director of the S.C. Division of Parks, Recreation and Tourism.
Digital content material highlighting the golf-tourism trade can be marketed throughout PGA and DP World Tour tournaments, placing the state in entrance of a nationwide and worldwide viewers.
South Carolina can be talked about out and in of economic breaks and featured on the PGA Tour’s webpage. Commercials can even be televised through nationwide broadcast in a dozen spot markets.
Parrish stated that the advertising deal is a chance to solidify the state’s picture as a “world-class vacation spot for golf and recreation.”
Brian Oliver, government vice chairman of company partnerships for the PGA Tour, stated in an announcement that South Carolina has been an “ardent supporter of golf and the PGA Tour.”
Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course (above) was host of the 2012 and 2021 PGA championships. File/Offered/
Oliver stated the boys’s professional tour and the state have labored carefully collectively over the past a number of years, when South Carolina was picked to host further tournaments throughout the pandemic.
“We look ahead to persevering with and constructing upon that partnership throughout these subsequent 5 years,” he stated.
South Carolina has been the positioning for a number of high-profile skilled competitions lately, along with the recurring RBC Heritage. They embody the PGA Championship at Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s Ocean Course in 2021, the Palmetto Championship and the CJ Cup close to Ridgeland, and the BMW Charity Professional-Am in Greenville.
One other could possibly be on the best way, this time to the golf-crazed Grand Strand, which boasts greater than 90 programs. Myrtle Seaside tourism officers are negotiating to land the world’s first-ever PGA match underneath a four-year dedication that is anticipated to start out in Might 2024.
South Carolina is dwelling to greater than 350 programs.
The sport had an estimated $3.3 billion influence on the state financial system in 2021, supporting 38,000 jobs and offering $18.3 million in admissions tax collections for that 12 months, in accordance with knowledge from the tourism division.
State officers estimate that golf generates extra income than every other single leisure or recreation exercise in South Carolina. Visiting gamers spend an extra $1.1 billion off the course, in accordance with state knowledge.
Parrish’s company invests roughly 20 p.c of its complete state promoting funds to advertise South Carolina as a {golfing} getaway. He stated that he sees this as a long-term funding, the most important anticipated return being the financial influence of the inflow of golfers that go to from across the nation and world.
“The typical golf customer spends 25-30 p.c greater than a mean customer,” Parrish stated. “We all know this can be a particular place to play, and we’ve got among the most well-known programs in our state. We wish the world to see that too.”
The state tourism division spends 20 p.c of its funds slated for state advertising on golf tourism advertising. That is an instance of a golf characteristic within the 2023 Uncover South Carolina Trip Information. Offered/ SCPRT
The pandemic offered a lift for the game. Parrish stated that’s the reason now is a perfect time to spend money on golf and the guests it attracts.
Parrish stated the cope with the PGA Tour features a clause permitting the state to get out of the contract if lawmakers do not present funding in future years due to tough financial circumstances.
As for the RBC Heritage, it will get underneath method April 12 at Harbour City Golf Hyperlinks and is offered out. It is now labeled amongst 17 “designated occasions” that supply massive purses and are structured to draw the highest gamers on the planet. The winner at Hilton Head will take dwelling $3.6 million of the whole $20 million pot.
In earlier years the match generated roughly $105 million in financial exercise and is historically the biggest annual sporting occasion within the state, Parrish stated. The influence is anticipated to be larger this 12 months due to the high-profile discipline, which incorporates final weekend’s Masters winner Jon Rahm and defending champion Jordan Spieth.
Parrish stated that the RBC Heritage, which incorporates Boeing Co. as a sponsor, is and can proceed to be a “premier occasion” for South Carolina’s golf tourism trade.