The Costa Brava region is celebrating its ‘Year of Golf 2016’, which commemorates 50 years of golf in the region, is to welcome more than 70 tour operators and travel agents from 25 countries when it hosts the IAGTO Costa Brava Trophy, May 23-25.
By chance, at the same time will be held the Costa Brava’s ‘Year of Wine & Gastronomy 2016’. The event will combine networking opportunities, destination briefings and workshops with a tournament at Spain’s no.1 course (As ranked by Top100golfcourses.co.uk) and 3-time Spanish Open venue, The Stadium Course at PGA Catalunya Resort, near Girona.
Attendees will have the opportunity to discover more of the region’s golfing gems, including European Top 100 ranked Empordà Golf, with its 36-hole layout and hotel complex, and Golf de Pals (see picture below), also celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
If you will be able to attend the event, you will also get a 3-day tour where you will be taken to:
- Club de Golf Peralada, the region’s northern-most course
- Torremirona Golf Club, with views of the Pyrenees
- Club de Golf Costa Brava, one of the region’s oldest courses
- Club Golf d’Aro Mas Nou, offering spectacular vistas 300m above sea-level
- Golf Girona, the only course of Spain sown entirely with Penncross grass
- Par 3 Gualta, perfect for those looking to perfect their short game.
- the regions of Costa Daurada and Barcelona, which complete the province of Catalonia.
11 golf courses can be found near to each other in the Costa Brava region. It also good that you can do other outdoor activities besides playing golf. It is also good that there are more and more golf resorts with residential estates. It would be healthier if a golf resort would have both a hotel and residential property.
This was the positive part. Now, let’s see how the Costa Brava region tourism is performing. Costa Brava was the 7th most popular international tourist destination in Spain in 2014. In 2015, only the nature tourism was able to grow versus 2014. Local tourism grew in 2015, but there were fewer tourists from the UK and Germany. The only non-Spanish country that grew was France. Hotels are still the most popular type of accommodation for overnights, but holiday apartments and second home are coming up (probably due to the popularity of shared economy services like Airbnb).
Overnight stays in non-hotel tourist accommodation (holiday dwellings, tourist campsites, rural tourism accommodation and youth hostels) exceeded 18.5 million in July 2015, that is, 7.1% more than in the same month of 2014.
A big challenge to these hotels and golf clubs is finding a solution to tackle with seasonality (e.g. gastronomy) and become a multifunctional property/estate.