An important dot was left unconnected in a survey published this week in wake of the International Golf Travel Market (IGTM), held Nov. 11-14, in Belek, Turkey. The study reports that 70% of UK golfers are most influenced by friends’ recommendations and “word-of-mouth” when researching golf holidays.

The next most important factors were golf magazines (43%), golf professional recommendations (42%) and online blogs and course reviews (35%).

This makes sense to me, as a golfer, journalist and media executive. “What’s worth playing?” is the question I’m always keen to answer for myself, to answer when searching for story subject matter, and to answer when searching out prospective clients. Mandarin Media counts several of the world’s top resort courses and hotels among its clientele. When serving those clients, we emphasize, “Why is this track worth playing?”

However, a key bit of information — a plea for amplification, if you will — cried out at me from this data. The research — commissioned by Reed Travel Exhibitions, organizers of IGTM, in conjunction with Sports Marketing Surveys Inc. and Golf Monthly magazine — also revealed that more than a third (36.1%) of UK golfers used a social media web site when researching their last golf holiday, while almost half of under-30-year-olds used social media sites for research. TripAdvisor was the most referenced source (26.3%), and among those who consulted social media, a quarter changed the hotel they were due to stay in based on reviews.

Well, TripAdvisor is the only web entity cited in the study where opinions are actually based on primary sources, i.e. people who had actually played the courses and stayed at the hotels.

A story in a golf magazine is no guarantee the writer or editor actually experienced the course. Staff can’t see everything in person… Golf pros are similarly prone to offer opinions/info on courses they’ve not played, especially if someone puts them on the spot. “What do you hear about the new course at Cabot Links, in Cape Breton?” you may well ask your local pro. “Well,” he’s likely to intone, “I’ve read that 11 holes are open and the pictures I’ve seen look fabulous.”

I’m not picking on golf professionals. They’re like everyone else — they rely on the preponderance of what they’ve read and heard to form opinions, in the absence of first-hand knowledge. I daresay that friends offering word-of-mouth recommendations are basing their opinions on the same thing, if they’ve not actually played the course (something one friend can discern from another quite easily).

Further, TripAdvisor reviews of golf courses are few and far between, and we know of several course managers who make a habit of planting those reviews themselves. Not our clients, mind you — it’s MM’s view that these fake testimonials are routinely transparent and, in our view, counterproductive.

So what’s the take-away?

Peter Grimster, IGTM Exhibition Manager, gets part of it: “The implication for destinations and resorts is clear – every visitor can be an ambassador or influencer for your business, so you must ensure that your product, service and customer experience is outstanding and memorable for all the right reasons.”

True enough. But it seems clear to me that most word-of-mouth influencers are not speaking from first-hand experience — they’re gathering their information and forming their opinions based on what they’ve read in magazines, on web sites and within social media portals.

Taking care of and ultimately impressing the golfers you’ve managed to attract to your golf property remains a vital and no-brainer approach to marketing. But marketing a course through the provision of content, the stuff that populates media products and stimulates discussion in social media communities (press releases, course imagery, provision of ready-made features, blogging and active, forthright participation in social media contexts) remains the most practical way to influence both traveling golfers and travel-golf influencers.