Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort makes profit in rough conditions

Profits at Donald Trump’s luxury Scottish golf resort swung higher last year despite an “uncertain” operating environment.
Golf Recreation Scotland, a UK-based holding company that covers the activities of SLC Turnberry, which operates Trump Turnberry, generated a pre-tax profit of £3.8 million in the 12 months to the end of December last year, up from £186,271 in 2022.
According to accounts filed to Companies House the resort, which comprises two championship courses, hotel rooms, conference and meeting rooms, restaurants, retail and a spa facility, “continues to be recognised as Scotland’s premier destination for luxury travel”. One of the courses is the Ailsa course, which has hosted the Open championship on four occasions.
It marks the second consecutive year that the resort, on the Ayrshire coast, has reported a profit since being acquired by the Trump Organisation for a reported £42 million in 2014. The former president, 78, resigned as a director in early 2017 just before he was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States.
His son Eric, 40, who is named as the holding company’s director, said that the “continued investment from the owners of the resort, and in particular the championship golf courses, will ensure our continued growth into 2024 onwards in the luxury market”.
High-rolling golfers willing to pay as much as £545 for a round at Turnberry and couples having weddings at the site’s five-star hotel brought in revenues of £21.1 million, against £21.8 million the previous year. The accounts revealed that golf revenues grew 35 per cent and that demand was higher for the resort’s spa and leisure activities.
The company, which employs 446 people, cautioned that “overall profitability was impacted by rising regional utility costs, supplier expenses and minimum wage increases”.
“The operating environment and global economic trading conditions remain uncertain in the short and medium terms with inflation, generally, and energy costs, specifically, impacting on the leisure sector,” it said.
From June next year, the group plans to introduce a green fee at peak times that will charge golfers who are non-residents and who want to play before 1pm up to £1,000 for a round, making it the most expensive golf course in the UK.
Trump has another golf course in Balmedie, north of Aberdeen, the accounts of which are yet to be filed.
A second golf course in Aberdeenshire is expected to open next year. The 18-hole course will be named MacLeod after Trump’s mother Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born in the Western Isles in Scotland and emigrated to the United States in 1930, where she married Fred Trump, a property developer.
According to his website Trumpgolf.com, the former president owns 17 golf courses including in Ireland, Indonesia, Dubai and the United States.
The Trump Organisation has been approached for comment.