Golfin' Greece

Philip Pangalos attended the first international convention on golf in Athens and tells us how this country's ambitious golf plans first have to overcome some bureaucratic hurdles.

Greece's tourism industry sees golf as the perfect sport for the country's sunny climate even though few Greeks play it and many mistakenly dismiss it as an elitist or rich man's hobby. A push is now on to attract investors into Greece's fledging golf industry. The goal is to create new golf resorts and extend tourism into a more lucrative all-year-round sector. But miles of red tape and the lack of political will remain stubborn obstacles.

"Golf real estate and resorts have become major factors driving property development in the United States, Spain and Portugal," Dr. Stratos Papadimitriou, chairman of the Hellenic Centre for Investment (ELKE), told a European Golf Investment and Real Estate conference and exhibition in Athens in late November.

"Greece can be the destination for teeing off and not just coming for summer activities such as swimming and sailing," Dr. Papadimitriou said. "Greece has all the prerequisites for the great game of golf to be played all year round."

With only six courses, Greece is seen as an untapped market for golf course development. By contrast, Spain has more than 270 golf courses and it is estimated that golf generates more than USD 3 billion annually in total revenues in that country. Golfers also tend to be higher-end tourists, spending more, while a range of complementary services and businesses, in addition to golf courses, prosper from millions of golfers, their spouses and families, who take golf-related holidays.

The harsh reality for Greece, however, is that most existing golf courses lack positive features and are unattractive to potential overseas visitors when compared to top notch European courses; and Greeks -- without a Tiger Woods or Steve Ballesteros -- have little interest in one of the world's most popular sports. Greece currently has five full 18-hole golf courses -- one in the Glyfada suburb of Athens, one on Corfu, one on Crete, one at the Porto Carras luxury hotel complex in Halkidiki in northern Greece and one on Rhodes, said to be in a state of disrepair.

A number of new golf courses are in the planning stage, with the most ambitious proposed development by the United Kingdom's Loyalward Group involving a EUR 750 million investment -- one of Greece's biggest -- on a 26-square-kilometres integrated resort destination in north eastern Crete.

The Cavo Sidero year-round development, which will create 3,000 new jobs on Crete, will encompass two 18-hole golf courses and one nine-hole course, along with watersports, shooting, tennis and arts and entertainment facilities. "Golf represents an opportunity for Greece, but unless there is the political will, we won't see a better future," said George Drakopoulos, general manager of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE).

Apart from the large investments required to acquire land and develop state-of-the-art golf resorts, extensive bureaucratic hurdles discourage many potential investors, making ambitious hopes outlined by SETE for 46 Greek golf courses by 2010 unrealistic.

For development of a golf course to proceed, separate approval is needed from Greece's development ministry and national tourist board, before screening by archaeological authorities, forestry department and environmental authorities; and even after this, a host of other bureaucratic hurdles have to be overcome.

Local authorities and planning officials are often poorly informed about the variety of constantly-changing laws and procedures concerning development, while land ownership can also be complicated in Greece, making it difficult to find large sites suitable for golf developments. It is not uncommon for a 200-acre site of land to have 300 owners, some of whom may be involved in complicated family legal tussles over ownership, while others simply don't want to sell or demand extortionate prices once they discover a development is planned. Environmental concerns -- as unsuitable golf courses can cause havoc to local eco-systems -- and the issue of sufficient water, often a scarce commodity in Greece, must also be faced. However, as seen in successful golf resort developments in the Middle East, lucrative all-year resorts can result when the latest technology is combined with well-managed, intelligently-designed golf developments that also respect the environment.

Source: Insider Athens, February 2004.

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