With twelve spread over eight clubs, Mijas is the second municipality with the second largest number of golf courses in Spain, only preceded by neighboring Marbella. A precious tourist treasure that generates important economic resources to local businesses and the local treasury and that is why the municipal government wants to promote it in a decisive way.
The councilman in charge of the municipal delegation of Sports, Andrés Ruiz León, a law graduate from the town of Ronda in Malaga, talks in this interview about what golf represents for Mijas and the promotional plans that the City Council plans to undertake in this regard.
-What does Mijas offer to the golf tourist?
-Mijas is fortunate to have twelve golf courses of very high level, some of them the work of prestigious designers of world renown, such as Robert Trent Jones or Cabell Robinson. We have in a small geographical radius a great variety of courses suitable for all types of golfers. And then there is the great leisure offer of the municipality, which has 148 square kilometers and goes from the coast to the mountains, with spectacular pine forests and fantastic beaches, an excellent gastronomy and a human capital, the people of Mijas, very hospitable, very cosmopolitan -we live together 125 nationalities-, with which the golfer who comes to practice this sport will feel at home.
-The municipality also has one of the largest golf resorts in Spain, La Cala, and a club, Mijas Golf, with two courses designed by the legendary Robert Trent Jones….
-That’s right. La Cala has three 18-hole courses designed by Cabell Robinson, plus hotel, spa and other sports facilities, and Mijas Golf has two magnificent 18-hole courses, Los Lagos and Los Olivos. They are the most extensive golf clubs in the municipality and are of high quality, as are all the others in the municipality.
-What does golf mean for Mijas in terms of tourism?
-For the municipality, golf tourism is an important source of income and is one of the main industries we have in Mijas, apart from being a fundamental element for the tourist deseasonalization, since the high golf season in the Costa del Sol begins when the high season of sun and beach ends.
-Besides golf, what other tourist attractions does Mijas offer to the visitor?
-There are many. For example, Mijas Pueblo, which is an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), and is a beautiful Mediterranean village located in the mountains. We also have a very varied gastronomy, hiking trails in beautiful natural landscapes, the coastal path, which will soon become the first in the province to cover the entire coastline of the municipality (14 kilometers), to the borders with Marbella and Fuengirola, beaches for the practice of all kinds of water sports and activities, such as diving, kite surfing, fishing, etc., and some like Alhamar, with an environment of dunes and an impressive pine forest.
-How are you promoting the municipality’s golf offer?
-Many years ago we commissioned a strategic tourism plan from the University of Malaga, and within that strategic plan the golf segment emerged. So we made a specific golf marketing plan, which is based on five core points. One is the public-private collaboration, essential, that both the public administration and the golf courses have to join forces and work together to promote golf tourism in our municipality. Second: the creation of a single golf brand from which all golf courses in Mijas and the public administration can benefit. Third: to promote the sport of golf through a sports school open to all citizens of the municipality who want to start and practice this sport, ultimately enhance the basis of golf. Fourth: to advertise our golf offer in different international tourism fairs, both general and specialized, where Mijas will be present. And fifth: to rely on a unique destination, on the hotel rooms we already have and those we will have in the near future, such as the Byblos hotel, which is scheduled to open next summer and that will mark a before and after in the hotel offer of the municipality.
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