New mobile app offers golf-course deals
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Golfdigg allows golf lovers to easily book tee times at an attractive price provided they book a day in advance
A new Thai mobile app offering last-minute deals at golf courses under the concept “book today, play tomorrow” has been released.
Golfdigg, which was developed over a year, allows golf lovers to easily book tee times at an attractive price provided they book one day in advance.
Its awards include the online category at AIS the Startup 2014 and the tourism category at the Thailand ICT Awards 2014.
Nine golf courses are currently involved in the concept and the Glofgidd Company expects the number to swell to up to 20 by the end of the year.
It said there had been over 5,000 downloads of the app and the aim was to reach 20,000 by the end of this year.
Bhurich Aksorntub, chief executive officer of the Golfdigg Company, said that the golf segment was a large market, with about 250 golf courses and some 500,000 golfers.
He said that Golfdigg allowed players to book a round at mid- to high-end course with a discount of up to 50 per cent.
That meant players did not have to ask the course for a discount, with the app available on iOS and the Android smartphone platform. There were daily deals at courses.
Bhurich said that the company’s revenue came from commissions – between 10-20 per cent for every booking.
“The beauty of Golfdigg is that it addresses the golf course problem of empty [time] slots,” he said.
“We help the course to utilise their exiting assets to create more revenue. Golf courses have fixed costs, while they always have the empty time slots.
“We help them to turn these empty time slots into revenue. Golf courses are happy, we also have revenue, while golf players are happy too.”
He said that Golfdigg generated additional revenue of about Bt100,000 per month for Green Valley Country Club.
“It is not cannibalising. We found that this additional revenue comes from new customers who have never played at Green Valley,” he said.
The company plans to expand its scope to cover golf tourism, which according to the International Association of Golf Tour Operators brings about one million players to Thailand every year.
“Thailand is ranked a top-seven destination for the worldwide golf players,” Bhurich said. “It is the only Asian country on the top 10 list.
“We can play golf in every season, while in China, Korea, and Japan we can’t play golf in the winter.”
Next year the company plans to deploy the concept in other countries.
Bhurich said there were no similar apps available in Asia, while worldwide similar concepts were available only through a web-based service.
To scale up Golfdigg the company needed partners.
He said its immediate strategy was to have up to 80 mid- to high-end golf courses on board within three years and then expand overseas.
“Now we are focused on building Golfdigg to be strong, while we are also looking for funding in order to help us accelerate the service abroad,” he said.
