South Korea – the leading market for golfers in Vietnam
Vietnam Golf Tourism Association plans to hold a congress to be established on March 29th in Hanoi. This is the 6th branch of Vietnam Tourism Association, with the goal of developing specific tourism products related to golf, building Vietnam golf tourism brand.
According to Mr. Vu The Binh – The Vice President of Vietnam Tourism Association, “Both Korea and Japan are two leading markets for golfers in Vietnam. The establishment of Golf Tourism Association is not only to attract tourists but also support localities with golf tourism potential but not yet developed”.
Delegates participated in APEC event are playing on the Montgomerie Links golf course between Hoi An and Da Nang in 2017.
Mr. Bac Dung – The representative of Yen Dung golf course said that there are 70-80% of the visitors here are Koreans, half of them are tourists, the rest are experts working in Vietnam.
At major tourism companies (Vietravel, Golftrip.asia, ..), most visitors play golf come from Korea and Japan.
In particular, visitors prefer the yard in Danang city or Thu Duc county (Ho Chi Minh City). In 2019, some companies plan to operate charter flights to Nha Trang, Phu Quoc so that they will bring visitors love playing golf to Nha Trang and Phu Quoc.
Having surveyed many stadiums in the region, Ms. Vu Van Yen – Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Golf magazine, a member of the World Golf Tourism Organization, judged that the playing places in Vietnam were behind those of Thailand and Malaysia. But, those golf courses still have more advantages such as beautiful, new, diverse terrain, designed by many world famous golfers. Meanwhile, the golf course in Japan cannot operate in the winter although it is more beautiful. That is one of the reasons why international visitors choose Vietnam to play this subject.
However, Vietnam’s limitations are pointed out by the units as the shortage of direct flights from Japan and South Korea to the matches. “Dalat currently has 3 beautiful golf courses but international visitors who want to come here must transfer via Hanoi, Da Nang or Ho Chi Minh City”, one unit shared.
In addition, Vietnam has yet to build an international brand of golf tourism, despite being awarded the Best Golf Destination in Asia for two consecutive years.
Therefore, after the establishment, the Golf Tourism Association plans to cooperate with the Vietnam Golf Association to promote and organize tourism events in combination with the golf competition, initially towards Japan, South Korea, USA … . Greg Norman – the World Tourism Ambassador – a legendary golfer is also proposed to be a senior advisor to the Vietnam Golf Tourism Association.
Currently, Vietnam has more than 30 golf courses of regional and international standards. 60 golf courses in the construction plan from now to 2020 have been approved by the Prime Minister.
source: vnexpress.net
