Lobby View

A (w)hole new business opportunity

P S Sundar

In June, something unusual happened at the Taj group of hotels in the Nilgiris. Some 60 golfers from different parts of the country assembled on the lawns of Taj Garden Retreat, Coonoor, and Taj Savoy, Ooty, to tee off among themselves in the picturesque golf courses in the district. This was part of the first-ever initiative of the Taj group to promote golf tourism.

Golf tourism? Yes, that is the new concept to balance tourism interest for golf lovers. "We have hotels strategically located in the golf areas of Chickmagalur, Ooty and Coonoor. So we are promoting golf with tourism in these places with an all-inclusive package. In the Nilgiris, we took the visitors by the Nilgiri Mountain Railway which is World Heritage Site. We are using the occasion to spread information about the picnic spots. This has kindled interest among them to come back again with families and friends which will certainly promote high-end tourism in the golf belts," A Prashant, leisure sales manager of Taj Group, Bangalore, told me.

The event was co-sponsored by Kingfisher. "We support fun sports that hold business interests. Corporate executives, professionals and businesspersons including a Japanese lady are in the group. We have paired the participants into two categories of zero to 16 and 17 and above handicaps. There were a lot of prizes for spot skills. We used the opportunity to familiarise the coffee hinterland of Chickmagalur and tea plantations of the Nilgiris which added flavour to golf, explained Sai Papineni, national institutional sales manager of United Breweries, known for its Kingfisher mark.

Golfing ambience

Such sponsorships are essential; the tariff was mentionably lower. Sanjeev Sharma, GM of Taj group in the Nilgiris, explains, "We offered the tour for Rs 7,000 per person under triple-sharing and Rs 8,500 under twin-sharing for four nights and five days. This included stay, all meals, liquor during lunch and dinner, gala dinners, green fees, caddie fees, transfers by AC luxury coaches, lots of prizes and golf goodies."

Admittedly, he had taken pains to make the visitors enjoy the best of golf, food, travel, stay and time. "Some in the group had visited the Nilgiris earlier but had not experienced a guided golf tour. We had made extensive arrangements for trouble-free play at the Ootacamund Golf Course, which is more than 100 years old and the Wellington Golf Course, hailed to be one of the highest altitude golf courses in the world. We have made exclusive arrangements for their stay beginning with 'An Ode to a Golfer' welcome note. In short, we made the Taj style of presentation for the tour, but not in tariff. So, sponsorships do help us in balancing our commercial requirements with guests' interests," Sharma adds.

It was golf all the way. Take the food, for instance. It has named the dishes in golfing parlance. So the menu has Ace's Choice (long croissant with chicken and pineapple), Golfer's Dunk (mullugtuwany soup), Flip Shot (Black Forest gateaux), Marshall's Grill (grilled fish with Djon mustard in lemon butter) and Double Eagle (chicken broth soup).

This is an instance of how the available infrastructure could be capitalised for the commercial benefit of the hotels concerned. Sharma adds, "We are overwhelmed with the response. Already, we have 40 participants in the waiting list for the next tour. Also, we have received booking for our Sri Lanka and Mauritius tours. The Golf Tour, therefore, spins off newer business avenues for all in the hospitality sector."