Lesser-known golf destinations aim to make the cut

MARRAKECH, Morocco -- This land of mostly desert in the northwest corner of Africa is in the midst of a golf boom. Already, some 45 courses dot the landscape, and several more are in the works.

Even as new course openings in most of the world's golfing countries are being outpaced by closures, the Moroccan National Tourist Office reports that approximately 120,000 incoming tourists take to the links each year as part of visits to the country. 

But Morocco's boom is mostly unknown in the U.S., where avid golfers overwhelmingly play in Great Britain or Ireland when they venture outside the U.S., Mexico and the Caribbean. Last year, 371,000 Americans visited Morocco, said Chakib Ghadouani, the tourist office's director for the U.S. Of those, only between 5,000 and 10,000 golfed. 

Beginning in 2015, the tourism ministry began pushing to drive those numbers higher, primarily through outreach to U.S. golf tour operators and to country clubs. It's a pitch, Ghadouani said, that requires emphasizing Morocco not just as a golfer's paradise but also as a multidimensional destination in which golf is one part of a broadly enriching trip.

"As an American, why would I go to Morocco to play 36 holes per day? They can go to the Caribbean or Florida," Ghadouani said in an interview this month at the International Golf Travel Marketplace conference, which Morocco hosted for the first time. "Our strengths are also our culture, our history, the food, the Moroccan way of life. This is what we mainly sell, but for golf."

The Moroccan tourism board was just one of many destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and golf resorts in attendance that are searching for a way to unlock the destination golf market for U.S. travelers. Of the estimated 60 million golfers in the world, some 24 million live in the U.S., according to the National Golf Foundation.

But while the International Association of Golf Tour Operators works to promote the golf destinations of members from 106 countries, a survey unveiled by the tourism board at the event revealed that among North Americans who traveled abroad for golf in the previous year, 41% went to Great Britain or Ireland. 

Another 21% ventured to Mexico or the Caribbean. Sixteen percent went to Hawaii, which the researchers included as an abroad destination. The rest of the world was left to fight over just 22% of the market. 

Association CEO Peter Walton said that the potential to expand that market share presents a "massive opportunity" for golf destinations throughout Europe and Asia, including Asian golf tourism leader Thailand as well as Spain and Portugal. The two Mediterranean countries are already destination golf locations of choice among northern European clientele.

"The reality is that Americans do travel to these places, but they don’t go to play golf," Walton said. 

Echoing Ghadouani's comments about Morocco, Walton said the key for destinations around the world is to persuade U.S. travelers that they can combine great golf with all of the cultural attractions that are already drawing them to those countries. 

"You explore the country by their fairways," he said. 

Bill White, a golf tour operator based in southern Spain who focuses exclusively on the inbound U.S. market, agreed. 

"It's all about finding the Americans who want to travel," he said. "Once you have Americans who have an interest in travel, you go to a place that is popular for golf to begin with, and then they come back for more."

In interviews at the conference, several resorts and DMOs said they were making new pushes or planned to develop more cohesive strategies to lure U.S. golfers. 

Japan, for example, drew more than 1.5 million visitors from the U.S. in 2018, according to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). But according to JNTO consultant Kieron Cashell, few Americans outside of expats and members of the military play on any of Japan’s more than 2,000 golf courses.  

Cashell, though, sees an opening to change that, in part because Japanese golf, which was once notoriously pricey, has gotten much cheaper over the last decade or so, and also because only in 2018 did the JNTO begin marketing sports tourism.

He said he hopes to use incoming traffic from the Tokyo Olympics next summer to showcase what he says are Japan's "shockingly nice" golf courses.  

"My mission is to break that stereotype that it is expensive, that it’s a difficult thing to do, that it’s unfriendly, that you have to speak Japanese," Cashell said. "You don’t. It's all a myth."

Cashell also emphasized Japan's unique golfing culture, which is marked by extraordinarily high levels of service as well as rituals such as after-round hot baths and a sit-down meal between the front and back nines that make it an all-day ritual.

Thailand, home to some 300 courses, also has a unique golf culture, including its predominantly female caddie corps. But of the approximately 1 million Americans who visit there each year, only about 50,000 take to the links, said Peeraya Tangdamrongtham, a marketing director for the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

"We believe that American tourists have potential," she said. "Compared to people from other countries, Americans tend to stay in very good hotels."

The Dunes Course at the Costa Navarino resort in Greece. Source: Costa Navarino

The tourism authority, Tangdamrongtham said, is working to increase its U.S. market share through golf tour operator fams and through outreach to U.S. country clubs. It always does so with a broader message about Thailand's cultural and entertainment attractions, including Buddhist temples, luxury hotels and great food and nightlife. 

Elsewhere, strategies for reaching U.S. golfers are still taking shape. 

Ana Bastida, sport tourism brand manager for the tourism board of Spain's Catalonia region, said that just a few weeks ago, a newly formed organization of local resort hotels came to them requesting a targeted campaign in the U.S. marketing Catalonia's 40 courses.

"We have next year to put together a strategy, maybe for 2021," Bastida said. 

Meanwhile, at Costa Navarino, a luxury resort on Greece's Peloponnese peninsula, the marketing team recently began a North American campaign ahead of the planned opening of 36 new holes in 2021. To be located on a bluff above the Ionian Sea, the two courses will augment Costa Navarino's two acclaimed seafront courses.

"Greece is not traditionally viewed as a golf destination," said Maria Sverka, Costa Navarino’s sports marketing manager. "So that is what we're trying to change. When people are actually in the destination and they experience it, it's the aha! moment."