Turkey gets ‘on the green’ with spain

Turkey is set to challenge Spain for golf tourism supremacy…

The Turkish Golf Federation has plans to build 100 new golf courses to add to Turkey’s current tally of less than 20. Golf tourism is already experiencing strong growth in Turkey and revenues should hit 500 million euros by 2010, but now Turkey really means business and intends to take golf giant Spain on head-to-head with the Aegean province of Mugla as its secret weapon.

There were 359 federated golf courses in Spain at last count, around 60 of these concentrated along the Costa del Sol generating 900 million euros for the Málaga province in 2006.

It’s clear that Turkey has some catching up to do but with one and a half times the area (770,760km² versus 499,542km²), a similar climate thanks to sharing the same latitude, one of the fastest growing tourist industries on the planet (18.5 million foreign tourist arrivals in 2006 leapt to 23.8 million in 2007, a 29% increase) and true determination and focus right from the top, you wouldn’t bet against Turkey becoming a leading golf destination of the future.

Lower costs than the Costas

Adam Godwin, Marketing Director for Dream Homes WorldWide,  comments, “With the number of golf courses rising exponentially, the Bodrum area will become on a par with the Costa del Sol as a serious destination for UK and Ireland-based golfers who will pay considerably less than the average £65 for a round on the Costas.

“Those who get in early in prime projects will enjoy significant price rises over the next five to ten years; we’re already experiencing capital appreciation around 15% per annum largely thanks to recent infrastructural improvements.

"The Bodrum area is what we describe as a ‘classic lifestyle investors destination’, personal use is the key driver but with the added bonus of possible rentals and increased value of the property.”