There are many high quality golf courses that are rated by experts in Da Nang and Central Viet Nam. In recent years, Da Nang has hosted a number of international golf tournaments, showing the city’s great efforts in making the most of the potential golf customer market, and at the same time improving its capacity to organise regional tourism and sports events.

Golf tourism in Da Nang is attracting the attention of international visitors. IN PHOTO: Golfers at the BRG Open Golf Championship Da Nang 2022. Photo: THU HA

Great opportunities to attract customers

Deputy Director of the Da Nang Department of Tourism Nguyen Xuan Binh said that, over the past time, the city has been determined to host a number of major events, including the forthcoming Da Nang Golf Tourism Festival 2023 with the focus being the BRG Open Golf Championship Da Nang 2023.

This is the second year in a row that the BRG Open Golf Championship Da Nang 2023 - a professional golf tournament under the Asia Tour tournament system - will be held in the city.

It can be seen that the 2022 event not only created effective communication, contributing to spreading the image of Da Nang destination to domestic and foreign tourists, but also brought direct benefits to the locality and the host.

According to data from the Central Viet Nam Golf Alliance, the total number of golf rounds in Central Viet Nam in the fourth quarter of 2022 increased by 29% over the same period in 2019 and accounted for more than 44% of the total number of golf rounds in 2022. As of May, the total number of golf rounds in Central Viet Nam was estimated at 171,112 rounds, up 167% over the same period in 2022. In which, BRG golf course led the market with a share of 27.32% and it was followed by Hoiana Shores golf course (17.69%). Meanwhile, the Ba Na Hills Golf Club made up 14.14% of the total number of golf rounds served in the first 5 months of 2023.

The total number of golf rounds served by golf courses in Central Viet Nam in the first 5 months of 2023 rose by 167% compared to the same period in 2022, partly thanks to Viet Nam's opening to international tourism from March 2022, facilitating the recovery and development of inbound golf visitors (especially from the markets of Korea, Taiwan (China) and Southeast Asia) as well as the positive effects from the BRG Open Golf Championship Da Nang 2022.

From the abovementioned figures, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Binh said that golf tourism is being interested by many domestic and international tourist markets. Golf is becoming a highlight in many MICE tourism programmes, especially large-scale ones with high requirements for professionalism and distinction.

Besides, with many golf service providers can play a key role in the decision of choosing a destination for the MICE event as the majority of business leaders are golf lovers and golfers. Therefore, promoting the golf tourism development and the successful organisation of golf-related events contribute to creating an attraction for MICE tourism, as well as helping Da Nang affirm its position as Asia's leading event and festival destination.

Da Nang has a system of beautiful, high-standard golf courses. IN THE PHOTO: A corner of the BRG Da Nang Golf Resort. Photo: T.H

Make more difference

According to people who work in hospitality industry, the golf tourist market often has quite high requirements for destinations related to this kind of sports.

Da Nang has the advantage of having beautiful, international-standard golf courses, favourable geographic position of being located next to the world's great cultural heritages, and improved traffic and infrastructure systems.

Mr. Nguyen Nhu Nam, General Director of the Viet Nam TravelMart JSC, expressed his impression on the good development of golf tourism in Da Nang. This is a product that attracts a great number of international tourists, especially one from South Korea.

However, the number of golf courses is a bit small compared to actual needs, so it is very difficult to book a golf course for guests, so many guests have not chosen Da Nang. This is a pity!. The main reason seems to be that in addition to golf, guests also spend time going sightseeing and shopping, and experiencing high-class restaurants and other services. These activities will contribute to increasing visitor spending and destination revenue.

To develop golf tourism and attract more golf tourists to Da Nang, on July 14, 2023, the municipal People's Committee issued a plan to organise the Da Nang Golf Tourism Festival 2023 and the BRG Open Golf Championship Da Nang 2023 slated to take place from August 25 - September 2.

This year’s golf tournament is expected to be held at the Nicklaus Course belonging to BRG Da Nang Golf Resort - a golf course voted by the Golf Digest Magazine as among Top 100 best golf courses in the world in 2022.

Mr. Mark Reeves, the Business Unit Director of BRG Group, shared that both his group and the golf course have made great effort to provide the best preparation for golfers and visitors.

He added the new point of this year’s tournament is that the prize for the winner will be increased from US$75,000 in 2022 to US$100,000. With this large amount of prize money, the tournament hopes to help attract many talented professional golfers worldwide to participate in the competition.

Besides, competition facilities have been improved, meeting the needs of this year's tournament. The venue for the tournament is set up slightly different from the previous year, but still retains the natural and favourable factors for players. Hopefully, with the world-standard golf course and the professionalism of foreign experts, this year’s tournament will continue to be successful and contribute to the further development of Da Nang’s golf tourism brand.

Reporting by THU HA - Translating by M.DUNG