The New FAM Tour: Integrated Golf Travel Marketing
Industry
Services
The Challenge
South Walton needed a way of communicating how golf can serve as a centerpiece for a getaway, complemented by all the great dining, nightlife and activities. And vice versa – how travelers can plan a refined beach vacation with extensive golfing options as part of the agenda.
Whether or not golf is the primary reason for booking, we wanted potential travelers to understand that it is certainly an attractive feature of the destination.
To help expand awareness, we partnered with carefully selected golf content creators – leveraging traditional media sources in addition to digital media. Some of our key strategic objectives for this integrated approach included:
- Generating authentic, creator-led content
- Inspiring genuine storytelling
- Creating long-tail amplification vs. one-time coverage
The Insight
Based on destination and industry research, golf drives visitation and extends existing trips. The intended audience aligned with the blend of affluent families, multigenerational guests and retirees that Walton County Tourism normally targets. These travelers seek dynamic destinations that offer world-class dining, entertainment, culture and activities in addition to incredible beaches. The golf focus was also very attractive to meeting planners and groups for business travel.
Families and groups can book a South Walton golf vacation with all of the area’s activities and attractions to fill any time in between. Visitors can also enjoy golf as a secondary aspect here in a destination that truly has something for everyone.
When it comes to hitting the links, this area is home to a wide variety of options, making it ideally suited to all levels of experience:
- Championship courses
- Full-service golf and beach resorts
- Classic courses part of Florida’s Historic Golf Trail
- Courses with instructional availability
South Walton golf courses incorporate unique elements of the diverse terrain, allowing you to fully interact with these stunning natural landscapes.
The Strategy
To share the incredible golf culture of South Walton, we pursued content immersion that would generate genuine, third-party validation at scale.
Traditional FAM tours typically focus on hosted media visits and generalized tourism influencer marketing campaigns based on rigid, tightly controlled guest itineraries. To create a more effective, long-lasting impact, we invited a variety of golf-centric influencers and content producers, and afforded them the maximum flexibility for exploration.
Formidable Foursome
The Tee’d Up event was conceived as a partnership with highly regarded golf specialists, including a writer for Golf Digest. When it came to selecting the right ambassadors, our team identified a specific combination of experiential tourism marketing specialists that would maximize both the exposure and the quality of content:
- Large media partners
- Influencers with a more content/media focus
- Traditional influencers
- Local experts
Playing Through
Rather than establishing rigid itineraries for visiting partners, we kept things a bit loose. Each guest spent three nights in South Walton and played two of the area’s golf courses. They were otherwise given freedom to explore plenty of fun beyond the fairways.
While golf was the main event, a wide range of offerings combined to demonstrate this was a dynamic getaway destination:
- 26 miles of beaches
- Chef-driven restaurants
- Incredible shopping
- Vibrant art galleries
- Pristine natural landscapes for exploration
Combining great golf and flexibility of schedule distinguished the event from a more typical destination marketing campaign. Our partners’ personalized explorations would ultimately result in genuine, immersive content creation that set South Walton apart from competing golf destinations.
Results
Through calculated selection of partners, Zehnder was able to help shape the narrative. The South Walton: Tee’d Up event helped solidify the area’s reputation as a premier global golf destination. Potential visitors discovered that they can experience a complete Florida golf and beach vacation here – playing incredible courses while choosing from an impressive array of activities for their downtime.
The partnerships we cultivated drove significant, measurable increases in social engagement. And resulting visitor data revealed strong actionable areas to help refine the guest experience.
The partnerships we cultivated drove significant, measurable increases in social engagement. This even included a high-profile feature in Golf Digest.
Some notable results included (as of July 2026):
Dive in with Z
Zehnder is always on the lookout for great collaborators. From clients aspiring to drive sustainable growth to fresh talent hoping to join the team, we welcome you to drop us a line. We’ll be in touch!
