“In Valle Romano the client always repeats”.
Ildefonso Esquivel took over the management of Valle Romano just two years ago. In the middle of the “special period”, which would be the term Cubans would use to avoid the term “acute crisis”.
In these difficult times, he has been able to keep his field afloat, give it prestige and guide it along the path of constant growth. Now he is frankly optimistic about the future. With caution, of course. It’s not yet time to take the plunge.
-We are about to enter the last quarter of 2011, could you give me an assessment of what this season has been like so far?
-In general terms, at least for us, the year has been very good, we have had a very high number of outings, and in terms of economic results we are above expectations. There is one fact that we like the most, which is that the customer who comes here repeats again and again, because he leaves satisfied and likes the course.
-Is summer low season or not so low anymore?
-The seasons are quite diluted. In our case, and because we are in Estepona, the summer season (July-August) is not low season because we have many players coming from Sotogrande, where there is a large number of residents and a lot of occupation in summer. What we all have to look for is a good balance of prices and tend to unify the seasons more, so that there are not so many differences, because they are becoming smaller in terms of players.
-What prospects do you see for the immediate future, for the new season starting in September/October?
-As for Valle Romano, the expectations we have until December are good. The bookings for October and November are high, and, as has been usual in recent years, we are confident that many last minute bookings will come in. It is becoming more and more common for people to arrive directly at the caddy masters to go out and play.
On a general level I have discussed this with other colleagues and we have come to the conclusion that most of the courses are this year (2011) in data and results of 2008. Which are very favorable figures because the worst year for the golf industry on the Costa del Sol was 2010.
-There seem to be signs of recovery in the UK market, do you believe this too?
-It is a little early to say this, although there are obviously external factors that are helping us very well, such as the conflicts in North Africa, the fact that Turkey is beginning to have a significant saturation in terms of tee times, availability of courses (we must not forget that there are barely twenty), not in accommodation, etc.
The results throughout Spain have improved a lot compared to other years: the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, although they are more of a German market, and other golf tourism areas have experienced a small revival this season.
On the other hand, I think that the British player is starting to leave other destinations and is returning to trust in the Costa del Sol and other areas of Spain.
-Do you think that the public administrations, Turismo Andaluz, provincial boards and city councils do enough to promote golf in Andalusia?
-In this segment of tourism, as in any other, the public sector must support private initiative.
I think we should be more ambitious in promotion and in supporting the companies that provide us with clients: tour operators, airlines, etc. These investments are profitable in the short term: I still remember that when we suffered the loss of the largest golf tour operator, which had a good market share, nobody helped it. Other communities have this type of aid and achieve good results.
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