Virgin sets up sports forum
Virgin Atlantic has set up a forum as part of its strategy to engage at all levels of sports activity.
At the Royal Westmoreland Golf resort on the west coast of Barbados, Adam Tarrant from the LMA, Liam Greasley from the PGA, Colin Hill of the PFA, John Grave from PCA together with representatives from Destination Golf, Brand Counsel, TravelMole and Virgin all joined together to discuss greater cooperation (see picture).
Paul Wait, Virgin general manager sales, said: “We are trying to get to a position when our clients think automatically of Virgin when they think of a holiday. One way we think of helping this is not by major sponsorships but by significant and important alliances.
“One of the major strands of this alliance is with sport at all levels. We hope this will be a significant step not just for us but for all the major professional sport membership associations in being able to work more closely together and our new forum will be the vehicle for making this happen.”
Virgin already has an agreement with the Professional Golfers Association and has launched the seven strong Order of Merit PGA South Region series. The winner of this series wins a trip to South Africa’s world famous Legend Golf and Safari Resort.
Liam Greasley, director of regions at the PGA, said: “We see the establishment of this forum as a great move as it allows much greater integration between the sports and allows us to exchange ideas, tips and contacts.”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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