Kudos to the provincial Tourism Minister Valerie Docherty for putting an end to the tremendous waste of money invested in the Legends of Golf event. I'm a golfer....love the game and love the fact that Prince Edward Island has some of the finest golf courses in North America but I'm not convinced we were getting value for our money in terms of exposure.
There's a tendency to think that when we get something on television, "it's exposure you just can't buy." When in fact, we did have to buy it....at almost a million dollars over the past 2 years between what they had to pay to mount it...and what they lost on it. There's was little information on who saw the TSN television coverage....It certainly wasn't seen in the US. And no way of knowing whether it motivated anyone to come here to play golf.
Besides the fact we have beautiful golf courses....what we should be promoting is how inexpensive it is to play golf here. Our green fees for our top courses....Crowbush, Dundarave, Brudenell and Mill River are far less than golfers pay to play mediocre courses in Ontario and the US.....Golfers from those places tell me they can't believe it's so cheap to play here.
I acknowledge that golf is an important part of our overal tourism product but it doesn't warrant that kind of investment. And since the provincial government is trying to sell off the golf courses it owns, no one should be surprised they have made this move. That money can be better spent in other ways that will generate a higher profile and attract more visitors to the Island
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