MANILA, Philippines \u2014 A first for Philippine golf and a boost to sports tourism.<\/p>\n
That, in a nutshell, is Golaman, the official online booking platform that covers 79 golf courses spread over the country, including Manila, Tagaytay, Clark and Subic, Batangas, Cebu and Davao.<\/p>\n
After almost a year of development by the Korean-led company PGRR (Philippine Golf Resort Reservations) the breakthrough app is downloadable on the Android Play Store.<\/p>\n
It is expected to be fully online by Sept. 15, according to PGRR CEO Aaron Kim, who graced the app\u2019s well-attended media launch Friday at the swanky Philippine Sports Commission House.<\/p>\n
Kim filled the air with optimism that the online booking app will help install the Philippines as another major golfing destination in Asia and in the ranks of Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.<\/p>\n
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By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n The launch gathered major stakeholders led by PSC chairman Patrick Gregorio, National Golf Association of the Philippines president Al Panlilio and sec-gen Bones Floro, Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Arrey Perez and Tourism Promotions Board COO Marga Nograles.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this program will click. We\u2019ve been talking about this for the last 12 months and now it\u2019s here. It\u2019s a perfect collaboration,\u201d said Gregorio, confident that more golf courses, among the 120-plus in the country, will step forward.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sure they will,\u201d added the PSC chief, who is leading the way as chairman of the Philippine Sports Tourism-Inter Agency Committee.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we push sports tourism we push sports development,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Also in attendance were representatives of golf courses Lakewood, Pradera, Subic International, Mimosa Plus, South Pacific, Philippine Navy, Villamor and Mt, Malarayat; and Philippine Airlines, Cebu Pacific, Sunlight Air, Jeju Air, Singapore Airlines, Korean Air and Hana Tour.<\/p>\n \u201cGolaman is not simply a booking platform but a launch of the national golf tourism initiative,\u201d said Panlilio.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd this will reposition our country as a premiere golf destination. This is a national effort that is designed to showcase the Philippines to the rest of the world. Golf tourism creates jobs and creates business. This will attract more tourists to our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Panlilio added that the project will also boost Philippine golf and the development of local players.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a lot of (tennis superstar) Alex Ealas in golf,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On the tourism aspect, Nograles said \u201cgolf is more than just a sport but a gateway for people to discover our culture and our world-class golf courses.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a milestone initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n The Philippine Golf Regional Reach (PGRR) has pledged to share a portion of its revenue with the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) and the National Golf Association of the Philippines (NGAP) to help support and strengthen grassroots golf development.\u00a0<\/p>\n The initiative aims to provide greater opportunities for young and aspiring Filipino golfers by helping fund programs, training, and other developmental activities designed to widen the sport\u2019s reach across the country. TMT \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANILA, Philippines \u2014 A first for Philippine golf and a boost to sports tourism. That, in a nutshell,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[18572,18570,18573,18569,44,770,18571,777,478,4089],"class_list":["post-47796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-attract","tag-drive","tag-foreign","tag-golaman","tag-golf","tag-more","tag-ph","tag-players","tag-to","tag-tourism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}