PROVINCE/Costa de la Luz (Agencies) Two business groups are in open competition to attract golfers to the courses on the Costa de la Luz. One of them is Thomas Cook, the German tour operator conglomerate that also owns two hotels managed by Iberostar, and the province's biggest course at Golf Novo Sancti Petri (photo), which offers a total of 54 holes. The other group was created last year to balance out the German giant. Working under the Al Ándalus Golf Unión brand, this group includes Lomas de Sancti y La Estancia (Chiclana), Montenmedio (Vejer) and Villanueva (Puerto Real), as well as the Hipotels and Vincci hotel chains, with the backing of tour operator TUI.>
The banding together of the latter, and the marketing efforts of the former, are the result of having to come to grips with the present crisis in the golf resort business. But it is also evidence of the lack of cooperation among courses on the Western coast of the province. The hotels and clubs that worked together for a decade under the banner of Atlantee as a way of promoting their businesses jointly, are now on their own.
Atlantee still exists, though, but only seven of the original eleven members (Sherry Golf, Montecastillo, Montenmedio, Novo Sancti Petri, Golf El Puerto, Sanlúcar and Benalup) are active in the association, though with minimal activity. There are two principal reasons: there are those who demand a commercial emphasis over a promotional one (as one member's representative put it: "more benefits and less politics"); and there are those who refuse to sit at the same table as Thomas Cook, whose aggressive sales policies have raised the hackles of controversy since 2008.
The tour operator has its own wholesale agency, its own fleet of airplanes, its own reception agency in Cádiz (which takes care of customers at destination), its own hotels and its own golf courses. This, say the rest, gives the German company much more manouverability in terms of prices and destinations, allowing it to offer complete golfing packages at very compettitive prices.
Nevertheless, Thomas Cook have defended their intentions of attracting off-season tourism so as to avoid the decline of the destination and the closure of more hotels. Their reasoning is that it is preferable to bring tourists at low prices rather than have none at all.
There are those who reply that low-cost, or even free golfing devalues the destination, concentrates the clientele at a single course and causes the retreat of smaller, specialized operators that are unable to compete with the Germans' prices. "The coup de grace for the sector," says another.
The banding together of the latter, and the marketing efforts of the former, are the result of having to come to grips with the present crisis in the golf resort business. But it is also evidence of the lack of cooperation among courses on the Western coast of the province. The hotels and clubs that worked together for a decade under the banner of Atlantee as a way of promoting their businesses jointly, are now on their own.
Atlantee still exists, though, but only seven of the original eleven members (Sherry Golf, Montecastillo, Montenmedio, Novo Sancti Petri, Golf El Puerto, Sanlúcar and Benalup) are active in the association, though with minimal activity. There are two principal reasons: there are those who demand a commercial emphasis over a promotional one (as one member's representative put it: "more benefits and less politics"); and there are those who refuse to sit at the same table as Thomas Cook, whose aggressive sales policies have raised the hackles of controversy since 2008.
The tour operator has its own wholesale agency, its own fleet of airplanes, its own reception agency in Cádiz (which takes care of customers at destination), its own hotels and its own golf courses. This, say the rest, gives the German company much more manouverability in terms of prices and destinations, allowing it to offer complete golfing packages at very compettitive prices.
Nevertheless, Thomas Cook have defended their intentions of attracting off-season tourism so as to avoid the decline of the destination and the closure of more hotels. Their reasoning is that it is preferable to bring tourists at low prices rather than have none at all.
There are those who reply that low-cost, or even free golfing devalues the destination, concentrates the clientele at a single course and causes the retreat of smaller, specialized operators that are unable to compete with the Germans' prices. "The coup de grace for the sector," says another.
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