The news filtering out last week appears to be that overwhelming success of the 3 Irish Open will see the Irish Open return to Killarney in 2011, or at least, this was what was reported from Keith Waters, director of international policy with the European Tour, last week.
When Maurice O’Meara, General Manager of the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club was named manager of the year at the Irish Golf Tour Operators Association (IGTOA) annual awards at the Slieve Donard this week he too was confident enough to suggest that the ‘3’ Irish Open will return to Killarney next year.
O’Meara, who has been at the Killarney Golf and Fishing Club for the past three years, was clear in his praise as well of the team work involved in making the ‘3’ Irish Open one of the most successful on the European Tour in 2010 – with attendances in excess of 81,000.
"People doubted we could do it but we delivered a great tournament. I am delighted with the award if only because I’ve only been in the business for a short time. Killarney Golf and Fishing club was here before me and will be here a long time after me. And we look to the future with great confidence. We will keep our heads down and look after our visitors and our 1,800 members as best we can.” O’Meara told The Examiner
"The Irish Open was a real team effort and I think everybody acknowledged that it was a great week in every respect. Discussions about next year are still on-going and we are keen to host the event again. If anything, it should be even easier the second time round. It had been 20 years since we had the Irish Open so to some extent it was all new to us. Now we have the experience and while a few little things may need to be tweaked, everything is already in place."
Undoubtedly the Irish Open will be challenged this year given the mitigating circumstances of the Irish economy - which may not be affecting the mobile operator “3” as they launched a four year sponsorship deal with the Football Association of Ireland worth €7.5m the week after the Irish Open – but will affect Failte Ireland, the other major backer of the event.
Given the Government announcements this week of €15 billion cuts over the next four years the fear is that such draconian measures may deprive Irish tourism of funds originally set aside for an Irish Open in 2011 and other key initiatives in the tourism sector. If so, that would be not only a pity from a sporting perspective - but perhaps a strategic error given the falling number of visitors to Ireland noted in the 2009 reports.
More importantly, the event itself is now in a better place than it was a year ago with Killarney, Failte Ireland and The European Tour all carrying the commercial effort to retain the glisten on the historic event – which over the years had lost its glory - to other events such as the Smurfit European Open at the K Club. In addition, the erosion of commercial support was also traceable to the departure of the key sponsors immediately after the 2006 Ryder Cup was concluded – leaving a huge void for the sport ever since.
In TV terms the values of $63.6 million were recorded in 2010 for “3 Irish Open”, with $34.1 million for “3” and $32million for “Golf Ireland” according to the Repucom Report. Even allowing for discounted values using the Repucom RBA method, the numbers are still significant.
For “3” the marketing plan objectives are being met it seems and by year three they may have reaped the rewards sufficiently to ensure the brand recognition envisaged at the outset of the deal. Clearly at the time the fastest growing mobile network in the country was happy to secure one of golf’s most enduring national titles for three years even offering a total prize fund of €3 million each year as part of the deal.
At the time of the launch Robert Finnegan, the Chief Executive of the 3, explained his delight “to be supporting such a prestigious event” as the “Irish Open is a real sleeping giant and we’re looking forward to bringing it back to its rightful place as one of the strongest tournaments in Europe.” In essence that association has delivered value to all concerned over the past two years and the name recognition will undoubtedly last beyond 2011 for “3” - should the mobile operator decide not to extend their deal agreement.
Ironically the company has just replaced another phone operator, Eircom, at the Football Association of Ireland so the challenge might be cumbersome and costly in the short term in order to break the link between Irish fans and Eircom built up over the last ten years - that also included the last time the Republic of Ireland made it to the World Cup in Korea and Japan in 2002.
In terms of text book theory replacing a sponsor supplying a similar service is not normally considered an option – unless there are extensive budgets available to overcome latent perceptions by consumers.
But then again Vodafone became sponsors of the Formula 1 team McLaren in 2007 having previously sponsored Ferrari from 2002 to 2006 – but have shown no reverse impact so far to their branding switch. But then again their annual spend is $75m and that may make it more possible.
Unfortunately the commitment of 3 is not supported in other areas as there is no promoter currently interested in taking on the risk being assumed by the European Tour – who are still “running the event ” - albeit ably supported by the Irish Government – also owners of Killarney Golf and Fishing Club. That absence of a "local owner" may prove a shortcoming in the medium term as with no owner it differs to all the other golf tournaments around the world.
The reality though is that European Tour are always under pressure for events and calendar dates – in an already cluttered season – so no event is irreplaceable as was seen with the demise of the British Masters for example, which in recent years had been supported by Quinn Insurance. With that as background the need for more sponsor longer term remains vital and with "3" having just one year to run the success of the event in 2011 will prove pivotal for the future of the Irish Open.
Clearly Failte Ireland are amongst the most interested parties in seeing the Irish Open continue following the success this year in Killarney – which places them in the unenviable position of having the real "ownership" - at a time when one assumes budgets are being slashed in the non-vital areas and places that are less politically sensitive.
The backdrop though does not make for good reading for Failte Ireland when the 2009 figures are analysed as total overseas visitor numbers fell by 12% in 2009 and foreign exchange earnings declined by 19% to €3.9 billion.
Overall tourism revenue in 2009 was €5.2 billion, of which more than €1.2 billion benefited the Exchequer through taxation and the continuing adverse economic conditions in key source markets, coupled with the on-going weakness of sterling particularly and of dollar against the euro, contributed to a drop in both numbers of visitors and revenue from Britain and North America.
British arrivals declined by 16% and spending in Ireland dropped by 24% as British travellers generally avoided euro zone destinations and expenditure by those who did visit Ireland fell significantly due to the weakness in sterling.
Visitors from North America were down almost 8% with related expenditure falling by 7% with tourism from other long-haul markets falling by almost 12% due to significant declines from Australasia and Japan in particular.
Despite the relative strength evident in the numbers of arrivals from traditional European tourism markets, overall revenue from Mainland Europe suffered badly also in 2009, falling by 21%, due to shorter stays and a decline in daily spending from some of the key European markets.
With Failte Ireland having launched a new campaign “Golf in Ireland - A time to Play” this year it would not be the right time to ease up on the sponsorship or marketing spend in the golf sector given the data from last year. In fact it may be the just the time to boost the tourism efforts.
Hopefully the words from Keith Waters and Maurice O'Meara indicate that good news is afoot.
