BAHRAIN this month becomes the latest Gulf state to recognise the potential of golf tourism with the inaugural Volvo Golf Champions, which enjoys the seven-figure support of Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB).
Taking place at the Royal Golf Club from January 27 to 30, the $2.2-million European Tour event has attracted a star-studded line-up including world number 10 Ian Poulter.
The Englishman is one of four players from the successful European Ryder Cup team that defeated the US under the captaincy of Colin Montgomerie, who not only designed the eponymous Montgomerie Course at the Royal Golf Club but was also the first man to put his name in the frame for Bahrain’s maiden European Tour event.
Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Dubai have for some years been in the business of utilising professional golf as a destination marketing device and Shaikh Mohammed Bin Essa Al Khalifa, CEO of the Bahrain EDB says: “I have no doubt that the Volvo Golf Champions will become a key date on the regional sporting calendar and one of our key international events. We anticipate it bringing a number of benefits to Bahrain.
“We hope to once again showcase the kingdom’s attractive business environment for companies looking to access the Gulf region’s trillion-dollar market.
“We are positive that the event will attract a high attendance of international and regional visitors as well as interest from regional and international media, which will highlight Bahrain as an ideal location for leisure, business and investment opportunities.”
Iain Barnett, managing director of Comperio Research, a specialist consultancy in the sports tourism sector says: “Golf tourism is an important segment of the overall tourist market, both in terms of volume and average spend per visitor.
“Golf is unrivalled within the sports tourism market in that there are so many ways in which tourists can participate including attendance at tournaments, golf holidays as well as offering high-value opportunities for corporate visitors.
“Tourism investment is largely driven by the return on investment, such as the success of golf tourism development in Spain and more recently in Portugal [and] can only serve to inspire other countries to follow suit,” but, warns Barnett, “it is important to recognise that later entrants into the golf tourism market will face different challenges than the first-movers, such as building credibility, cachet and brand equity within a competitive market – placing disproportionate emphasis on enticing established hotel and golf resort chains to anchor proposed developments in their initial phases.
“When emerging golf tourism destinations have built up a national brand awareness, trust and consideration, they become able to develop and draw tourists to a wider range of golf resorts – providing competition [is] of a different type and scale,” he concludes.
Meanwhile, with the European Tour TV reach delivering world-class golf set against a five-star backdrop such as Bahrain, promoting and positioning the kingdom to almost half-a-billion homes around the world, including strategically-important territories such as China, India, Europe and the US, the gross media value of a flagship Tour championship has been audited at in excess of $50 million.