“WE ARE GOING TO PROMOTE GOLF MORE FROM THE TOWN HALL OF MARBELLA”.
It boasts of being the Spanish municipality with the most golf courses, fifteen between 9, 18 and 27-hole facilities, and also of having hosted prestigious international tournaments, such as the World Cup and a bunch of tournaments of the European Tour. The most famous players have competed on its courses, including the legendary Jack Nicklaus, who won a World Cup at Las Brisas, and Gary Player.
Marbella, one of the most prestigious tourist destinations in Europe, rightly boasts of its golf, which attracts tens of thousands of golfers every year from Spain and many European countries, especially those where the winter weather makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to practice this sport.
The mayor of the cosmopolitan town of Malaga, José Bernal, is aware of the importance of golf for the municipality as a generator of economic activity.
-What does golf mean for Marbella from a tourism point of view?
-First of all, it is an essential asset for the tourist promotion of Marbella, and it is also a main asset for something that we are constantly pursuing and that here we can find the magic formula, which is the deseasonalization of tourism. Golf has the advantage that its high season coincides with the low season of sun and beach tourism, and the fact that we have so many golf courses is not only linked to the projection of a tourism of medium and high purchasing power and an offer differentiated from other destinations that could compete with us, but it is also a formula to complete within our offer those months that are hosted by Deal Top”>
of the typical sun and beach offer.
-What promotion is being done and what could be done to increase golf tourism in Marbella?
-We should promote it much more from the Marbella Town Hall itself, and we are going to do it. Golf has been promoted in terms of Marbella courses within the so-called Costa del Golf, with its seventy courses, but I think we should promote our offer, a quality golf and respectful with the environment, with ecology, not in vain much of our fields are being irrigated with recycled water, a golf that can also be combined with an extraordinary complementary offer for those who come to enjoy golf and also for the companions who do not practice this sport. Therefore, we would have to make, and we are going to do it, an offer of golf and complementary leisure. We have one of the best infrastructures in Europe.
-You recently met with the mayor of Miami. Did you talk about golf tourism?
-We are talking about tourism in general and also about golf. We have started a bilateral promotion agreement that will culminate in a twinning of both destinations, something logical considering the great tourist power of Miami in the United States and Marbella in Europe. We have talked about the need to work on something that is very well established both there and here, which is golf. We are considering the possibility of holding a joint open between Miami and Marbella, for which we also need the participation of other institutions and private capital.
The mayor approached me about the possibility of making an official open in both the United States and Europe, to be held alternately one year in Miami and the other in Marbella. He told me that it could cost between one and two million. So the twinning between the two cities could be through golf, and that is what we are working on.
I also believe that private entities, golf courses, the whole economic sector surrounding golf has to bet on promotion. A Marbella Open means promotion, and promotion means many golf-loving spectators traveling to Marbella, and that of course results in a greater influx of tourists. Therefore, I believe that it should not be something exclusive to the City Council but that the entire golf sector should support an initiative that will benefit the city.
The mayor of Miami told me that we could not compete with them in beaches and natural landscapes, but we could compete with them in one thing, golf, because he knew the quality of our courses and the advantage that with our climate you can play perfectly all year round. Here there is no hurricane season like there, and we also have splendid weather in winter.
Right now, in mid-November, it’s twenty-something degrees and the sun is shining brightly, when the streets are already lit up for Christmas. And people are playing golf in short sleeves, and you’re not getting eaten by mosquitoes or having to dodge alligators like over there!
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