A TOUR operator specialising in golfing breaks has grown significantly in recent years partly because two sons have come on board to help their ‘golf-mad’ father out on the digital side of the business.

York-based Glencor Golf Holidays is in its 15th year and focuses on breaks in countries such as Spain and Portugal.

Started by Peter Renton, his sons Corrie and Glen are now helping “from a digital perspective which is where the majority of the growth has come from due to the changing role technology has played in travel”.

Small wonder then that this venture has entered the Family Business category of The Press Business Awards.

“Despite competing with tour operators that have greater resources than ourselves, time and again we see clients returning to book with us due to the personal service we can provide.

“Although there is an increased reliance on technology today, we feel we’ve managed to retain an element of personal service which golfers still want when booking their holiday, especially with the pressure of organising for their friends. This is due to the passion we have for golf and the experience we have of playing golf abroad.”

Despite ‘outside influences’ such as Brexit and terror threats in some countries, activity over the last 12 months “has seen a huge amount of growth yet again” following significant increases the year before.

The company says this is due to a number of process improvements, including ones to the website and a new booking system, “both of which completely improve the customer experience and reduce the amount of work.

“Our approach to digital marketing has also been instrumental in this rapid growth, implementing only tactics that can be measured so we can ensure we can track exactly what works and where our exactly our budget is being spent and what revenue it generates.

“This has helped us to build a client database of over 30,000 golfers which we actively communicate with on a weekly basis. We also work hard on our pay-per-click strategy, ensuring we generate the appropriate amount of inquiries from a controlled budget. Additional features such as live chat and the ability to download discount vouchers depending on the origin of the marketing campaign help maximise value.”

It says: “If we were to pass advice to other family businesses, it is to continue to stay agile for as long as you can – as a family that is co-located in the same working area we are able to have a brief discussion about an idea and if we agree, rapidly test the idea because there is no overly bureaucratic process to work through.

“Another key positive of being a family business is the ability to keep our costs down, which has really helped in this recent growth period.”

The company says its medium-term future is centred around the clear objective to be number three in the UK golf tour operator market within three years.