“OUR COMMITMENT TO GOLF IS FIRM AND TOTAL”.
For the Ministry of Tourism of the Andalusian Regional Government, golf is a key segment of the tourist offer of this community, and that is why they support it decisively, without complexes or reservations, and will continue to sponsor the major professional tournaments played in the region. For the Deputy Minister of Tourism of Andalusia, Manuel Alejandro Cardenete, the autonomous community still has room to continue growing in the number of courses and to consolidate itself as the great golf destination in Europe.
-Golf may be -at least that is what the sector expects- one of the tourism segments that will regain full activity as soon as flights start and there is a sense of ‘normality’. How much importance do you attach to golf tourism in your Department”?
-Golf is for us fundamental, one of the strongest segments of our great and varied global tourism offer. Fortunately, we have already left behind sun and beach tourism as the ‘only’ paradigm of our tourism, although it is still essential and we should not undervalue it.
According to data that we handle in the Regional Ministry, there are more than 3,350 direct employees in the sector, and in Andalusia about three million green fees are consumed per year. There is a great tourist movement around golf and, in addition to Andalusians and residents in Andalusia, tens of thousands of people come solely and expressly to play golf.
With the number of golf courses we have, which is approximately a quarter of the total in Spain, and our climate, which allows us to play all year round, golf tourism is essential for our global offer. Of course, we are going to continue betting on it and supporting it without any kind of complexes.
-Golf is, as you point out, a strategic tourism segment for Andalusia, but do you think that Andalusian society understands its importance for our economy?
-Despite the fact that we have about 45,000 members -I am one of them, although lately I have my clubs literally in the storage room- and that it could be said that golf is one of the most popular sports in Andalusia, I still believe that there is a concept of golf, and not only here, which is somewhat negative, with a certain amount of prejudice.
This is something that does not occur in other European countries, such as Great Britain, Ireland or Sweden, for example, where playing golf on public or private courses is a common pastime for gangs of young people, as is the case here with soccer or other mass sports.
This negative charge of golf could be due to different factors, even at times it has been seen as linked to real estate speculation, to a culture of highly speculative economic growth, etc.
Golf has generated a halo of elitist sport, although practicing this sport is not necessarily more expensive than practicing other sports. Not everything has to be private golf courses; in Andalusia there are beginning to be some public golf courses, few yet, but there are even some private ones where access and prices are affordable.
In any case, it must be recognized that there is still a certain level of elitism in golf in Spain, but as in so many other sports.
-Andalusia has a quarter of the golf courses in Spain. Is it possible to say that the number of facilities has reached its peak?
To say this in the middle of a pandemic is complicated, but if, despite the situation, new golf-related investment projects continue to come in for processing, I would say that the ceiling has not yet been reached.
That there may be areas where the concentration of camps has reached a ceiling right now? It is possible, but I don’t think so. If we look at the map, we see that in the eastern area there are many courses while in the west there are not yet. There is room to continue growing throughout Andalusia and consolidate our position as Europe’s golf destination.
-Do you know of any new golf projects in the pipeline?
-A few months ago the Valle del Golf Resort project in Mijas began to be managed, which was declared of tourist interest and now we have redefined it as a project of strategic interest. Why? Because it is linked to an action that not only contemplates a golf course but a great parallel investment that in the end will bring wealth and employment to the area.
Last year, just before the declaration of the state of alarm in March, the Junta issued a decree law of “administrative simplification” in which almost a hundred regulations were revised, one of them proposed by our Regional Ministry which eliminated the declaration of golf courses of tourist interest, because it was a cumbersome regulation which tried to do something that in principle could seem positive, centralize everything related to a license to build a golf course, but when all the permits and licenses were obtained, it was necessary to return to the City Council and start all the procedures again. No golf course was built with that decree.
We have therefore decided to simplify and favor investment. We have already taken to the Board of the Governing Council that an investment linked to a golf course is a project of strategic interest, which means a fast track of procedures, in other words, a streamlining of the processes in all aspects. To all of them we ascribe What we call a “project manager”, that is, we designate a person who will take care of the project and provide the promoter with everything related to it. We are not going to hinder but to promote. And this is not only for golf courses, but also for other tourist investments.
-There are some 60 million golfers in the world, more than 7 million in Europe, where our main source markets are located. How do you think we could make Andalusia’s golf offer reach them?
-The data indicate that seven out of every ten golf tourists who visit us are foreigners, 30% of them British, followed by Nordic, German, etc. What do we do, broadly speaking, to reach them? First of all, we work closely with tour operators and maintain agreements with them so that golfers come with a complete package; we organize fam-trips with agents, prescribers, etc., to promote and show them our offer; we participate in major international events, whether general fairs such as the WTM in London or the ITB in Berlin, or more sectorial fairs such as the IGTM or others. In short, we try to make the golf segment one of the most prominent and promoted abroad of Andalusia’s tourism offer.
-Will the Regional Ministry continue to support the major professional golf tournaments held in Andalusia, such as Valderrama or the Open de España Femenino?
-Our commitment, as I have pointed out, to golf tourism is total and this also implies making Andalusia the international reference area for the organization of major events.
What we did last year, in collaboration with Valderrama, to go ahead with the Estrella Damm Andalucía Masters tournament in those circumstances, without public, etc., is a proof that we will always be there. Because every time a golf tournament of this kind is held, the image and the Andalusia brand reach tens of millions of golf fans and potential visitors through television.
Also, of course, the direct impact of the tournament itself is important. Valderrama had in 2019 more than 40,000 spectators (2020 was an atypical year because there could not be public), and this implies an important support to the economy of the local environment.
We continue, and will continue, betting on the Valderrama tournament and our good relationship with them. We have also made a firm commitment to the Spanish Women’s Open, which is linked to Andalusia hosting the Solheim Cup in 2023, a tournament that will undoubtedly mark a before and after in the global positioning of our golf offer, as happened in 1997 with the Ryder Cup. ■
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