“MIJAS IS A GREAT GOLF DESTINATION”.
Mijas is much more than a beautiful white village perched on the side of a mountain in the heart of the Costa del Sol. Its tourist offer is wide and varied, but above all it has golf, lots of golf. Recently the University of Malaga (UMA) has developed a Strategic Marketing Plan to revive and enhance golf tourism in the municipality.
The Department of Tourism, coordinated by José Carlos Martín Torres, wants to turn this Plan into a working tool that involves the entire sector. With a degree in Law and a degree in Civil Engineering, born in Ceuta and a resident of Mijas since he was 4 years old, Martín Torres speaks of the importance that golf has in and for Mijas.
-Mijas is the second municipality in Spain with the second largest number of golf courses…
-Yes, we have twelve in total and we are only surpassed by Marbella, which has sixteen, if I am not mistaken. However, we are the ones that have more space dedicated to golf courses, we have more surface area dedicated to the game.
-Why more surface area?
Because our courses are larger in general: the three at La Cala Resort, the two at Mijas Golf, Santana and some others exceed the usual standard surface of an 18-hole golf course.
These are data provided by the UMA, reflected in its marketing plan, which really surprised us because we did not know them, or at least we did not have them internalized. This is really something anecdotal but it is still significant.
-Do you consider golf a key segment in the tourist offer of Mijas?
-Golf has always been an important part of tourism in Mijas, one of the three basic pillars of our offer along with “sun and beach” and the distinguishing feature of “white Andalusian village”.
I also believe that golf has a great advantage over other tourist segments because, although it can be played all year round, its high season coincides with the low season of “sun and beach”. We always We have sought to break the seasonality and this is allowed by golf tourism. This is what makes Mijas “open” all year round.
-Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have the feeling that until now the local administration has not paid enough attention to golf tourism?
-Not exactly, but it is true that until now we considered that the golf segment was practically sold by itself. The Mijas Town Hall has always collaborated as far as possible but without intervening in depth. Since we have the Strategic Tourism Plan that identifies golf as a segment to be promoted, we are getting much more involved.
We want to become a reference in the world of golf, and when people talk about Mijas, they also talk about our twelve golf courses and the great and varied offer they represent.
-What does the plan you have made with the UMA consist of?
-The Marketing Plan is fundamentally about establishing a road map. The Strategic Tourism Plan was a success because it also established some objectives, a road map, let’s say, protected
The new councilor or a different corporation does not change its criteria every now and then. This greatly harms the continuity of a tool that we all have to respect, whether a politician of the left, center or right.
The Marketing Plan reproduces this same premise: it aims to be an instrument that points out a goal and a path that all the sectors involved in golf are going to follow, because the plan aims to enhance and position even more this key segment for our tourism.
-In short, they intend to create and promote a ‘new’ brand that will be “Mijas golf destination”….
-Among our objectives is that Mijas is clearly identified as a specific golf destination within a larger offer such as the Costa del Sol or Andalusia. This does not mean that we do not we go hand in hand with them, on the contrary? But we intend to be a destination recognized and differentiated from the rest.
-Do you already have concrete actions planned to promote golf tourism in Mijas?
-Once we have the Marketing Plan, which we have sent to the whole sector for their knowledge, although with the current handicap of the pandemic, we are going to start meetings with the different actors to begin to develop the roadmap I mentioned before.
In the short term we want to develop public-private collaboration, which is essential to promote this activity. Another important point within the plan is to make our golf offer known within the municipality itself, because sometimes people have an idea that is not the real one.
We have to let everyone in Mijas know that we have a first class golf product. This is important because we have a very large population of foreign residents who are a great niche of golf clients and who can be our ‘prescribers’ in their countries and surroundings. We also want to create a marketing platform and, of course, study formulas to break the seasonality of golf.
-Does Mijas still have the capacity for more golf courses?
-Yes, of course, there is room for more fields. In fact, we would like to have three or four more…
-Are there any projects in progress?
-There are some at different stages. I know of one in particular that is being processed, but with this Covid thing everything is behind schedule. Now the environmental and other requirements to build a golf course are more rigorous than before.
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