China, with an estimated 500 golf courses, has yet to fully exploit its potential. Although limited by a snowy winter climate in the north, the southern provinces of Guangdong, Hainan, and Yunnan, which have several hundred courses among them, may well represent Asian golf tourism’s sleeping giant.
Nowhere is this more apparent than at Mission Hills Haikou, a swanky golf resort complex on the island of Hainan. Here, where there are already 10 courses (Mission Hills’ other facility near Shenzhen has a dozen), a massive entertainment, retail, and lifestyle development is being built to complement Asia’s largest mineral springs and spa center. When completed in late 2014, the redeveloped resort will boast Renaissance, Ritz-Carlton, and Hard Rock hotels, a movie-themed town developed in conjunction with China’s movie maestro Feng XiaoGang, a huge entertainment and shopping complex being built by Allan Zeman’s Hong Kong–based Lan Kwai Fong group, and even a full-scale fantasy golf course that will take the game to a new level. According to Mission Hills chairman Ken Chu, the resort will attract 15 million “spenders” a year, most of whom will come to “China’s Hawaii” from increasingly affluent and golf-mad mainland China.
Is this the new face of golf tourism in China, with golf as a bit-player to other attractions? The founders of the game would cringe, but it’s entirely possible. Time will tell. For now, Thailand’s golf tourism supremacy in Asia seems safe. From December through March, tens of thousands of snowbird golfers, escaping the cold of Scandinavia, Germany, the UK, and Eastern Europe, will flock—as always—to the tourism magnets of Hua Hin, Pattaya, and Chiang Mai to relax, enjoy and, increasingly, play golf. Indeed, during the next few months you’re more likely to hear Swedish and German being spoken than Thai in Hua Hin’s narrow village streets.
Thailand’s top course, Black Mountain, just outside Hua Hin, has geared up for the annual influx, adding a par-3 course to its champion-ship layout, as well as a water park and upmarket family-size villas that can be rented for a week or a whole season. It’s just one of many reminders that not only has golf tourism come in a big way to Asia, but also that golf itself is changing Asian tourism.
Originally appeared in the December 2012/January 2013 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Green Days”)
