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| A view of Sea Links hotel and golf course. Sea Links Golf & Country Club and Ocean Dunes Golf Club, both in Binh Thuan Province, have partnered to attract more golfers - Photo: Mong Binh |
HCMC - Ocean Dunes Golf Club and Sea Links Golf & Country Club have entered a partnership to attract more guests and offer more options for the game, accommodation and services at their two golf courses in the central province of Binh Thuan.
Glenn Cassells, general manager at Ocean Dunes Golf Club, said both properties were interested in attracting Vietnamese and expatriate golfers in HCMC and elsewhere in the country to stay in Phan Thiet and Mui Ne for more than just a weekend.
“Two golf courses, working together, make it easy to stay a bit longer, play both courses, and truly get away from it all,” Cassells told the Daily via email.
Stephen Banks, general manager at Sea Links Golf & Country Club, said Sea Links and Ocean Dunes were close to each other but were very different as each golf course offered a distinct challenge, varied terrain and environment.
“We complement each other and this offers the golfer variety over the course of an extended golf tour,” Banks said. “Golf tourists are a bit different from non-golfing tourists, as when golfers travel for three, four or five days, they may play three, four or five different golf courses.”
Ocean Dunes and Sea Links are full-service golf resorts as they feature on-site accommodations that are among golf properties in Vietnam, in addition to 18 holes at each of the golf courses.
Banks said opportunities were opening as the number of golfers had doubled in the past two years. “There are 10,000 registered Vietnamese golfers, a majority of whom live in and around HCMC, but there are surely many, many more who are just taking up the game.”
Cassells said the Vietnamese market was important, but the two golf courses also targeted thousands of expatriate golfers living in and around HCMC. “They are living here on business, or they are visiting Vietnam on holiday.”
The partnership and efforts of Ocean Dunes and Sea Links are supported by Binh Thuan Province’s tourism authority that has ticked golf as one of the major products the province is developing and promoting among local and international tourist communities.
Le Thi Thanh Lien, deputy director of the Binh Thuan Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the number of visitors who play golf and other sports was growing rapidly in tandem with growth in local and international tourist arrivals in the province.
Lien told the Daily on the phone on Tuesday that Binh Thuan Province welcomed more than 700,000 visitors in the year to date, up 14.3% from the same period last year. The number of foreign tourist arrivals in the period surged 11% year-on-year to exceed 120,000.
Binh Thuan targets 2.8 million visitors this year, a year-on-year increase of 15%. Lien said international arrivals accounted for more than 11% of the total number.
On its part, Golf the Beach plans to admit new members, including those golf courses in various stages of development in Binh Thuan. “The more golf courses we have here at the Beach, the more attractive we become as a golf destination,” Cassells of Ocean Dunes Golf Club said.
