Business Profile: Paradise Island Adventure Golf

OM Magazine, Issue 130, November 2019

29th October 2019

Business Profile: H.Watts Florist

29th October 2019

Published by on 29th October 2019

Plymouth is full of exciting and entertaining leisure outlets for all the family to enjoy, but adventure golf has yet to be one of them until now. On Thursday 24th October, Paradise Island Adventure Golf opened its doors to the public in Plymouth’s brand new leisure and entertainment destination – Drake Circus, The Barcode. This new leisure outlet is providing a new host of entertainment facilities and eateries to the city for the people of Plymouth to get stuck into and enjoy some quality time with family and friends. Swing into a world of adventure this November with Paradise Island Adventure Golf, bringing you an adventure like no other right on your doorstep.

Experience a tropical paradise filled with fun for all of the family with Plymouth’s brand new adventure golf facility – Paradise Island Adventure Golf, the UK’s leading indoor adventure golf facility. You’ll find two 18 hole indoor adventure golf courses spanning across 16,000 sq/ft of tropical utopia where you and your family can explore the deadly jungle together! OM had to the chance to catch up with the Marketing Manager for Paradise Island Adventure Golf, Craig Nichol who spills all about this brand new golfing adventure for Plymouth.

Paradise Island Adventure Golf was founded in 2005 by father-son team Eddie and Joshua Dantzic who successfully grew the business from its first site set within Soar at intu Braehead to 6 sites across the UK.

In December 2017, the business was sold to The Brighton Pier Group who have continued to develop and expand the business, opening more sites throughout the UK.
The Plymouth site, set in Drake Circus – The Barcode is PIAG’s 8th site. Other sites across the UK include Glasgow, Livingston, Manchester, Sheffield, Derby, Rushden Lakes and Cheshire Oaks. Each site has a new adventure in store with their own unique mix of holes and tropical paradise theming and two 18 hole courses of a similar size.

Marketing Manager of Paradise Island Adventure Golf, Craig Nichol has worked for the business since 2007 seeing it develop and grow extensively over the years.

Craig is responsible for creating, developing and implementing their annual marketing campaign as well as building brand awareness, designing and developing the website and app, and focusing on the digital and social media marketing presence of PIAG.

Craig’s varied role across the business sees him travel the country to oversee the opening of new sites. Since starting at the company in 2007, Craig has had the pleasure of overseeing the launch of new 7 new sites including their newest site in Plymouth.

The opportunity for PIAG to set up in Drake Circus – The Barcode came about in early 2018 when they became aware of the leisure development.

“We are always on the lookout for new sites at suitable locations across the UK. The Barcode development ticked all the boxes; it’s a fantastic new leisure development right in the heart of Plymouth.”

The Plymouth site which opened on Thursday 24th October and has faced its own challenges like any large development, but with an experienced team of contractors on board, Craig tells us the process has all gone to plan and they’re very excited about launching the new site in The Barcode.

Adventure golf will bring a whole new level of fun for the people of Plymouth with much-anticipated amusement for all of the family.

As the UK’s leading indoor adventure golf company, Paradise Island Adventure Golf, will bring to Plymouth their indoor adventure golf complex with the capacity to hold up to 300 players at a time.

Anyone is welcome to join the fun and adventure from under 5’s to grandparents – no matter your age or ability anyone can play and enjoy adventure golf.

“We cater to everyone; our courses are also wheelchair friendly and accessible for disabled users.”

This is crazy golf as you’ve never seen it before and offers an exciting and affordable day or night out for families, friends, couples and groups. It’s also a great place to host birthday parties for all ages and original corporate events. Adventure golf is for absolutely everyone.

“‘Forget CRAZY golf . . . this is ADVENTURE GOLF’ is one of our main tag lines.”

Everyone can relate to “crazy” or “mini” golf and although there are similarities adventure golf is not just about putting a ball into a hole, it is the whole customer experience including the sites and sounds you are taken on as you play around. Each site has two unique indoor adventure courses designed to take your ball on a rollercoaster adventure full with twists, turns, humps and bumps for everyone to enjoy. All whilst being surrounded by state of the art theming throughout the golf courses.

The adventure golf venue offers a great day out for families, friends, couples and groups. Arriving at what appears to be a plane wreckage, turned pay booth, players can choose from one of two 18-hole adventure courses, each full of exciting features and special effects, designed for mini-golfers of all levels.

The Temple Ruins takes players through treacherous swamps and deadly jungles designed to test the golfer’s skills, while the Tiki Trail offers adventurous terrain which passes menacing inhabitants and a bat-infested cave. Both courses culminate in the finale 19th hole, challenging players to putt a hole-in-one for a chance to win a free game pass.

With so many leisure facilities available throughout Plymouth it can be hard to understand why we need another. But with a growing population of students, the expansion of homes throughout the city and the ever-increasing levels of tourism each year PIAG situated in The Barcode will provide a leisure outlet right in the heart of the city providing an experience unlike no other Plymouth has had before.

Adventure golf is fast becoming one of the most popular attractions on the UK leisure scene and there is currently nothing like this available in the area, so this unique concept is sure to add more adventure to Plymouth.

“We have designed our new leisure destination with the experience of the adventure golfer at the very centre and we are introducing some new holes and challenges never before seen at our venues.”

Every detail has been thoroughly considered by Craig and his team when creating PIAG Plymouth, from the design of the courses, the sound effects throughout, to the animated adventure golf experience in the app where you can keep track of scores, interact with the courses and view your loyalty card.

As part of their marketing strategy, PIAG has a loyalty card scheme “the Maggie McCaw” card which can be collected in store and stamped on each visit, it’s simple and the more you play the more you save. The loyalty card feature is also available on their amazing Augmented App, available to download free on both apple and android.

Plymouth Paradise Island Adventure Golf has 10 new team members including General Manager, Tom Sutherland who comes to the team with over 10 years experience in the leisure and family entertainment industry.

The team have been focusing on spreading the word of Plymouth’s newest leisure facility and have benefited greatly from the huge coverage Drake Circus – The Barcode has been receiving across all platforms.

“Being a new tenant in such a large new development does help spread the word. The people of Plymouth can’t help but notice The Barcode building and naturally, it has attracted interest and attention throughout the build process.”

Having such a wide customer demographic is great for Paradise Island Adventure Golf, but also a challenge for them to get the PIAG brand in front of kids, families, teenagers, students, adults, couples, groups, corporates/team building and birthday parties. Craig has been pushing online marketing and the use of social media to create interest and tell the story of the brand in the lead up to the launch.

Future plans and new sites are always on Craig’s mind as he explains “We will look to grow more adventure golf sites throughout the UK. 2019 has been a fantastic year for Paradise Island Adventure Golf, with two new sites in Rushden Lakes, April 2019 and Plymouth, October 2019.

This exciting new attraction is going to be a huge hit with the people of Plymouth as it’s something the city hasn’t seen before. Set in the heart of Plymouth within Drake Circus -The Barcode, this new experience will see thousands of locals flock to the city centre in search of a thrilling adventure with their family, friends and work colleagues. Here at OM, we cannot wait to see the success brought to Paradise Island Adventure Golf.

Swing by and delve into a golfing adventure.

For more information about Paradise Island Adventure Golf Plymouth, opening times and prices head to www.paradiseislandgolf.com/Plymouth