Pam Shaheen

by Alan Hopkins – Kansas City Tee Time, Feature writer. Published previously in KC Tee Time Meet Pam Shaheen, Golf Travel Promoter Extraordinaire

escorting tours, publishing golf guides, attending golf shows and more for 25 years

If it’s Tuesday, you might find

Pam Shaheen on a golf course in New Orleans. Or Calabash, N.C. Or any course on Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Shaheen promotes golf. Gregarious, energetic, passionate and fun-loving, she’s extremely good at what she does. So good, in fact, she’s arguably impacted golf tourism more than anyone – male or female – over the last 25 years. Shaheen spreads the word by escorting golf writers from all over the U.S. and foreign countries on 5 and 6-day media junkets to golf destinations in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina and Michigan. Writers have come from as far away as Asia and Europe to play a different course each day and get a taste of what each destination offers. “I’m primarily in the tourism business; golf happens to be the

Pam Shaheen Photo by Tim Corser

draw to the destinations that we have specialized in,” says Shaheen (pronounced SHA-heen), the coowner of Atlanta-based Crossroads Marketing, Inc. “We host Golf Media Tours to further assist our existing clients in getting the word out.” But that’s just one aspect of the business. Marketing and advertising are at the top of the list; golf travel guides are published for multiple states; and Crossroads’ own program, Let’s Golf, is tied to consumer golf show representation and its nifty publication, “Let’s Golf Destinations.” ”Pam is a wealth of golf marketing knowledge coupled with always being a ‘Bucket of Sunshine,’ “ says Mary Williams of Louisiana’s Audubon Golf Trail. “You just cannot miss when doing projects with Pam.” An extrovert who has been known to climb atop a golf cart or race wheelchairs, Shaheen’s affinity for bright, multi-colored Loudmouth pants is exceeded only by her love of the New Orleans Saints football team. Shaheen shares ownership of Crossroads Marketing with Mary Beth Gabriel in a partnership that merged their diverse talents into 25 years of success. “I graduated from Tulane University with a degree in Mass Communications and proceeded to work in marketing and advertising in New Orleans,” says Shaheen. “Mary Beth has a degree in Visual Communications from Loyola University New Orleans and spent time working in her family’s jewelry business. “I knew sales, marketing and advertising but I lacked the organizational and creative side which she had. While we were combining our talents to work on freelance projects in the early 1990s, we got the opportunity to work for Fairways Golf Company in Mobile, Ala., the first company to package golf trips along the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Ultimately, we determined that side of the travel business was not for us so we started Crossroads Marketing in June of 1997 to handle marketing and publishing for golf destinations.” Shaheen handles the sales, marketing and public relations;

Gabriel the creative and graphic design for publications plus all the accounting. “I‘m the mouthpiece; Mary Beth the heart and soul,” says Shaheen. The new company quickly grabbed a hold of the publishing of golf guides and other publications starting with Alabama and Mississippi and later on added Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee. “I write the copy and sell, Mary Beth does the layout,” says Shaheen, Golf shows were also incorporated through the Let’s Golf program which provides representation of approximately 12 different destinations at eight shows each winter ranging as far away as Illinois, Ohio, New Jersey and Virginia. The Golf Media Tours are legend among golf writers. In addition to giving writers the opportunity to play some of the best courses in five states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina and Michigan), they are also introduced to the off-the-course attractions and activities that are paramount to popular golf destinations. In many cases, the off-the-course ventures are more memorable than the courses. Louisiana included stops at the site of the Duck Dynasty TV show; Mardi Gras and WWII museums; and salt and freshwater fishing. Alabama offered visits to the unbelievable Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, museums and the college campuses of the University’s of Alabama and Auburn; Mississippi the History and Civil Rights Museum in Jackson and the new Aquarium in Gulfport. “People make decisions about golf destinations by word of mouth, proximity, price and what else there is to do,” says Shaheen. “The new generation wants to experience as much as possible. Yes, the hard core groups still want to play 36 holes a day but many want to check out what’s happening off the course, whether it be fishing or a museum or whatever happens to be big in that area.” Shaheen organizes the media tours with client input– the booking of hotels, meals, a bus and the golf courses –three to six months in advance. “I’d like to do one per month in the spring and fall but it doesn’t always work out that way,” she says. “With trips to be scheduled, golf tour guides to be published and the advertising and marketing, there are no lulls.” Media tours started with a couple a year but quickly escalated to six or seven a year. Shaheen now estimates she’s organized and escorted about 80 such tours over the years. Usually eight to 10 media members are invited from a data base of 200 (including 100 regulars) and have come from as far away as Korea, Germany, Switzerland, England and Canada. While she’s guide, caretaker and drill sergeant on the media trips, she probably enjoys them more than anyone, always laughing, joking, having fun. “One of the reasons I’m good at it is because I really enjoy it and the people. So many writers and my clients have become really good friends to me.” Wheels up on the bus usually starts around 7 a.m. with 18 holes by noon and sometimes another 18 in the afternoon or a special attraction or off to the next hotel and dinner. On the course, Shaheen swings a pretty mean club. “Adequate, I don’t embarrass myself,” says Shaheen, who started taking lessons at age 10 in her hometown of Macon, GA. “But I play only on trips. Mary Beth says when I get back to the office I’m so tired I can’t even speak.” And then she gets ready for the next one.

Pam & Mary Beth