PGA event will bring huge attention to S.C. this summer
The (Charleston) Post and Courier In August, much of the sporting world’s
attention will focus on a little round ball being knocked around on the
toughest golf course in America at Kiawah Island.
The 2012 PGA Championship on the Ocean Course is expected to be viewed
during 154 hours of live television coverage by 673 million households in
207 countries.
The Aug. 6-12 event is projected to draw 210,000 spectators during its
seven-day run. More than 50,000 of those will come from out-of-town, filling
up hotels and restaurants across metro Charleston and stimulating the local
economy at a time of year when the sultry temperatures tend to keep visitors
off the streets and at the beach in the nation’s No. 1 tourist destination.
The tournament will bring in about $10.6 million from hospitality suite
sales. It also is expected to generate about $92 million in direct spending
within the local economy, $26 million in labor income, supporting 832 jobs,
and another $75 million in media exposure, according to the PGA and an
analysis by the College of Charleston.
Many of the tickets to the main events sold out last summer. Only a few
remain for the opening round Thursday of that week and the practice rounds
on the three days before.
But the biggest sporting event to ever descend on South Carolina is already
having an impact.
All of those visitors have to eat and sleep somewhere, and reservations are
being booked throughout the region.
Greater Charleston boasts just under 17,000 hotel rooms, with 15,000 of
those in Charleston County alone, according to the Charleston Area
Convention and Visitors Bureau.
A chunk of those already are booked or blocked off, and the reservations are
starting to bite into restaurant space as well.
Rooms at Kiawah Island were committed two years ago to the 156 golfers,
caddies and PGA officials, said Jeanne Jamme, 2012 PGA Championship
hospitality manager.
Hundreds of others who own homes on the island are listing them online at
www.vrbo.com.
The initials stand for “vacation rentals by owner.”
Many ticketholders are seeking accommodations well beyond the resort island,
namely out of necessity.
“Having a room on Kiawah was never an option for all of our corporate
clients,” Jamme said. “And most of them are from out of town. Most of the
downtown hotels are booking our corporate groups.”
Hotelier Hank Holliday, who owns the 62-room Planters Inn and the 212-room
Doubletree, both near the City Market, said bookings for PGA week are well
above average and some people are coming in before the tournament and
staying after it’s over.
“Our advance corporate bookings are excellent, and we are picking up quite a
bit of business on both ends of that week,” he said.
Holliday added: “It appears at this point it will be a real economic bonanza
for Charleston.”
As for the restaurants he also owns — Peninsula Grill, Hanks and Mercato —
he said visitors get their accommodations first and worry about where to eat
later. “But if the rooms are full, we will invariably be full at the
restaurants, too,” he said.
Helen Hill, executive director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said
people are looking for every kind of accommodation, “from the diehard golfer
who just wants a place to rest his head at night to the person who is using
this as an excuse for a vacation to enjoy the beach for themselves.”
“We recently booked a group from the U.K. They are only going to the
tournament for one day, and then they will be enjoying Charleston the rest
of the time,” she said.
Jamme added that people should not wait to make reservations.
Tickets have sold in 44 states and up to 10 countries, said Brett Sterba,
PGA Championship director.
“The last time there was anything of this magnitude in Charleston was the
Ryder Cup in 1991,” Sterba said, referring to a famous golf event that
helped put the then-new Ocean Course and even Kiawah on the map. “There is
no comparison between the two. This is so much bigger.”
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