INVgolf Industry Intelligence Report / 2003 European GOLF Investment and Real Estate Conference

INVgolf Industry Intelligence Report

Aiming for the year 2010:
A 7-year road map and vision to improve Europe's golf, hospitality, leisure, residential real estate and tourism infrastructure

Launched right after the 2003 European GOLF Investment and Real Estate Conference & Exhibition, the INVgolf Industry Intelligence Report aims at addressing crucial questions and issues such as:

How should golf be further developed in Europe over the next 7 years?
How should residential tourism including golf be developed throughout Europe in a sustainable and profitable way until 2010?
Where should golf and resort development in Europe ideally be in 2010?
What is required to develop the virtually untapped emerging markets in Europe, such as Central & Eastern Europe and the East Mediterranean in a sustainable, profitable and intelligent way, between now and the year 2010?
What are the challenges ahead for the industry, especially in view of the fact that Europe is ageing?
What barriers should be removed in order for investors and developers to invest in and develop integrated leisure resorts and other tourism infrastructure projects in Europe?

Titled "Aiming for the year 2010: A 7-year road map and vision to improve Europe's golf, hospitality, leisure, residential real estate and tourism infrastructure," the INVgolf Industry Intelligence Report is open to those key executives, leading consultants, designers, planners, industry leaders, operators and developers who wish to share their views, opinion, vision and ideas.

A united strategy and vision is badly needed -- especially in view of an enlarged European Union -- and INVgolf, organisers of the 2003 European GOLF Investment and Real Estate Conference & Exhibition, call upon all the industry leaders and experts of the golf, leisure, hospitality, entertainment, consulting, real-estate, residential tourism, holiday ownership and financial sectors, including the INVgolf conference speakers and participants, to contribute to the INVgolf Industry Intelligence Report.

The views, opinion and ideas of a few visionary golf and hospitality industry leaders and specialists who have written the first few pages of the "INVgolf Industry Intelligence Report" have been included in the INVgolf CD Rom (to order this unique CD, please contact INVgolf). It is our goal to gather more intelligence reports from industry leaders, specialists and professionals throughout Europe and the world and to eventually hand over the entire document to the European Commission, government leaders and other key decision-makers and leading opinion formers in Europe.

Please find below a few examples of contributors who have already shared their expert views, opinion and vision by writing an article for the INVgolf Industry Intelligence Report:

'Golf industry set to "tee up" in Central and Eastern Europe'
"Golf has seen a dramatic development in the last two decades world-wide. Although still regarded as a sport for the elite, it is becoming more and more popular in Central and Eastern Europe too. As the economic landscape of CEE continues to develop and households have more discretionary income for leisure activities, the number of golfers is expected to increase. This will also occur through television coverage and a greater proliferation of courses." (1,707 words)
By Dr. Andrea Sartori, Partner, Business Advisory Services, Head of Travel, Leisure and Tourism Group CEE, Hungary
'Golf In Ukraine - A golden opportunity or a wasted effort'
"If one were to create a business microcosm to illustrate the overall economic climate of Ukraine, one would need to go no further than to look at golf development in this country of over 48 million people." (2,124 words)
By Walter Prochorenko, General Director, Golden Gate Golf Club, Ukraine
'Selecting a golf course architect'
"'The laying out of a golf course is by no means a simple task' - Willie Park, Jnr. (1896). It is just over 100 years since Willie Park, Jnr. revealed his design for the first golf course at Sunningdale, near London. Today it is accepted that this event represented the beginning of golf course architecture as a recognised profession. The industry may have come a long way since Willie Park wrote those words but they still remain as true as ever today." (960 words)
By Peter Harradine, former President, European Institute of Golf Course Architects
'How Should Golf be further developed in Europe until 2010?'
"The philosophy of golf development in Europe over the coming 7 years ideally should follow the principles of the 'golf demand & supply pyramid' which was originally publicised by the National Golf Foundation (USA) long time ago." (1,063 words)
Dr. Falk Billion, independent golf course appraiser, Germany; co-founder and Managing Director, German Golf Course Owners Association
'ÁÅÄ2'
"There is a tremendous opportunity to introduce the game of golf through tourism and real estate development. By recognizing this opportunity, the attendees of the 2003 European GOLF Investment and Real Estate Conference & Exhibition are taking the first steps in the right direction. A united strategy to include golf in real estate, leisure, and resort development is exactly what is needed to ensure smart tourism growth in the European Union and other international markets. The key word here is 'smart.' Before creating a strategy to introduce golf as a key tourist amenity, you must look at the successes and failures that golf developments around the world have encountered through the years." (2,034 words)
By Brian Weaver, President, DeWitt Weaver Golf Solutions, LLC ("DWGS"), USA
'Greece: A ready market of almost 200,000 golfers'
By Dr. Aris Ikkos, General Manager, JBR Hellas Ltd., Greece
'Golf: The Year 2010
An opinion on how golf will progress in the next seven years in Europe'
"The US model is a top down strategy. Golf started in the States as an elite sport and thanks in part to the arrival of Arnold Palmer in the middle 1960's gradually evolved into the Volksport it is today. There are presently 27 million golfers in the USA (interestingly enough Canada has the world's highest participation rate at 17%). Most members of the European Union excluding Great Britain and Ireland have unknowingly implemented a top down strategy. Sweden has been the most successful in utilizing the top down concept by, in part, developing the finest youth programs in the world. Today six percent of Swedes are golfers. To take another example golf in Germany remained elite until the middle 1990s when some of the barriers started to fall. Semi-public golf courses as well as executive courses were built (membership prices fell correspondingly). Youth programmes started to develop. An improved Professional Golfers Association was established. The cost of a golfing license dropped. A potential charismatic role model in Alex Cejka recently emerged. Still only 0.6% of Germans play golf. The requirement of a golfing license and the lack of true 'Pay and Play' regulation golf courses remain barriers to golf becoming everyman's sport in Germany." (1,044 words)
By Douglas Perry, Director of European Business Development, Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest and Associates, Golf Course Architects, Germany / USA
'Where people play... they soon want to live'
"It is truly an honor to be given this opportunity to write on the subject of leisure development from a global perspective. I will share my views with you today but, I would also want you to keep in mind that, what we think as the best case scenario today, may very well have to be revised tomorrow. In this conference, the premise is made that the countries of Southern Europe -Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Croatia, etc.- are Europe's Florida. In fact, a recent research by Delloitte & Touche, states that more than 14 million Europeans from North, are about to move to Southern Europe by 2015. It is expected that this trend of economic and population movement from North to South in the United States from the 1950s through the 90s will continue to be mirrored here in Europe over the next 20 years. In this respect, this experience with the movement of economic development and population from North to South may have precedent analogies for Europe today." (2,794 words)
By Yiannis D. Papadomarkakis, Publisher, RE+D (Real Estate and Development), Greece

Further information

For further information, please contact Peter Michel Heilmann,
Founder & Director, INVgolf.