Facing an imposing 19th-century colonial mansion, hole six of the Golf du Château awaits the participants in the first Pro Am organised by the Heritage Hotel, set between lush green hills and the ocean. In the south of Mauritius, the course, inaugurated just over a year ago on the Domaine de Bel Ombre, hosted a new promotional campaign for the little white ball at the beginning of December, in an island that is making its mark on the international golfing map. This will continue to keep the sector in the news, alongside the two resorts that have historically focused on golf and are very active in this area: Belle Mare Plage, owned by the Constance hotel group, on the east coast, and the complex formed by Paradis and Dinarobin, owned by Beachcomber Hotels, to the south-west.
An operation every week
For French customers, Mauritius is by far the most popular golf destination in the Indian Ocean. With the exception of the magnificent Lemuria course in the Seychelles, also owned by Constance, the other islands in the region are still in their infancy when it comes to attracting French golfers; either they don't have the right offer to attract enthusiasts, or they haven't yet made the most of their assets, like Sri Lanka.
To promote golf in Mauritius, everyone has been organising their own tournaments for several years now, both locally and in France, to remind golfers who want to come to the seaside resort, whether they are regular customers or prospective clients. Spearheading these initiatives, Belle Mare Plage, with its two courses, the Links and the Legend, offers the most comprehensive range of courses on the island. With participants from the European, Senior and Ladies Tours, its Mauritius Golf Open is undoubtedly the biggest golfing event in the Indian Ocean, and its thirteenth edition took place in mid-December. "Not a week goes by without an operation being organised, whether by a private company or a competition initiated by us," says Patrice Binet-Descamps, General Manager of Constance Hotels.
Other groups are not to be outdone. Like Veranda Resorts, owner of the Heritage Hotel, Beachcomber launched its first Pro Am last month in partnership with Air Mauritius and Clarins, the brand that manages its spas. Over the course of a week, the hotelier welcomed professionals and amateurs to a competition spread over three courses: its own Paradis Golf Club; Golf du Château, owned by the Indigo group, which has developed the Telfair resort nearby; and Tamarina Golf Estate and Beach Club, an eighteen-hole course nearing completion in the rolling hills of Tamarin, on the island's west coast. These three golf courses have recently joined forces to create a golfing hub in the south-west of Mauritius, a relatively common practice in the area. "We have a clientele of good golfers on the island. During a holiday, they may play two or three times at Golf du Château, and then want to discover other courses. This partnership is also a way of raising our profile," says Vincent Desvaux de Marigny, director of Veranda Resorts on the French market.
With the development of golf courses, the island now has six major courses, offering a wide range of panoramas, terrain and difficulties. Hotel groups, the main initiators of new greens along with property developers, seem to have no end of challenges in Mauritius. After the impressive Touessrok course, with its fairways stretching between the turquoise waters and filaos on Ile aux Cerfs, the Golf du Château, with its colonial heritage and the luxuriant nature of the wild south, and the very recent Tamarina, which overlooks the immense lagoon to the east, the Anahita project should offer the next golfing novelty to fans of the destination from 2007.
Sugar plantations, like the Bel Ombre estate that has stretched over 10,000 hectares on the southern tip of Mauritius since 1765, are gradually converting the sugar cane fields into impeccable spring-green greens, usually backed by a resort or luxury residence. Situated six kilometres along the south-east coast, Anahita is part of Mauritius's new drive to develop luxury tourism, with so-called 'integrated resort schemes' (IRS) combining property development with the marketing of top-of-the-range villas to individual buyers, available for rental, all kinds of activities including golf, and hotel services. The resort will be managed by the Four Seasons group: 210 villas, a residence with 70 flats and an establishment comprising 90 suites and 30 villas are planned, as well as an eighteen-hole golf course designed by Ernie Els.
Other projects of this type, mostly with a golf course, are awaiting approval from the public authorities. In the nearer future, Domaine de Bel Ombre, the complex made up of three resorts (Heritage, Telfair, Voile d'Or), should soon be enhanced by a residence, Les Villas de Bel Ombre, as well as two establishments, including a Sofitel. A second eighteen-hole course is also in the process of being approved to meet demand on the site, in addition to the existing eighteen-hole course and nine-hole 'compact'. For its part, the Constance group is not ruling out the creation of new courses on the island.
This should turn Mauritius into a true golfing paradise within the next five years, and strengthen its appeal for thematic business tourism. Already, the cocktail of golf, seaside attractions and quality local hotels is attracting top-of-the-range groups. Patrice Binet-Descamps is talking about groups of between 20 and 200 people on average, from sectors as varied as the medical and property industries. "It's a niche market", says Vincent Desvaux de Marigny, who also cites car manufacturers as "very good clients for golf competitions".
At Beachcomber, the General Manager of the French office notes the increase in the number of golfing customers on the French market, including "small groups of 20 to 30 friends who come regularly, courses run by golf pros who come with their trainees, or incentive groups who don't necessarily choose Le Paradis or Le Dinarobin for their golf". Faced with an avalanche of new projects, the Beachcomber resort has to innovate.
After completely overhauling the course, at the cost of an eight-month closure, the group recently created a Golf Academy, which includes video instruction to help improve your swing, and is offering a new service to guests at the Dinarobin, who are further away from hole one than the golfers staying at Le Paradis: for each green fee, a golf cart is now made available in front of their suite, half an hour before tee-off time.
Geographical limits
Improvements to existing products, partnerships between courses, a steady stream of events and new projects: the destination has not finished making waves in the golfing world. In the Indian Ocean region, it is well and truly ahead of its competitors.
La Réunion is home to three courses, two eighteen-hole courses and a nine-hole mountain course, which are more of a complementary offering than a motivation in themselves, in an island that relies heavily on the 'multi-activity' argument. The Seychelles have a superb representative with the Lémuria course at Praslin. However, its owner, the Constance group, has no plans to repeat the performance, despite a very top-of-the-range project, the Ephélia hotel, due to open in 2008. "Guests will be able to use a helicopter shuttle to get to the Lémuria," says Patrice Binet-Descamps.
British heritage in Sri Lanka
With an even less favourable configuration for the development of golf courses, the Maldives are currently content with a symbolic six-hole course at Kuredu Island Resort. However, the authorities are talking about the possibility of setting up a real course in the far south of the archipelago, on an island larger than the tiny coral islets that make up most of the destination. Indeed, with its roads and lakes, Foamulah is the subject of an ambitious tourism development plan, of which the greens could well be a part. But be patient, nothing more precise has been put forward yet.
Then there's Sri Lanka. Little known for its golf courses among French customers, the island nevertheless benefits from the British heritage, as witnessed by the Royal Colombo Golf Club, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2004. Sri Lanka is committed to promoting its golfing heritage, notably through an annual competition sponsored by the national airline: the Srilankan Airlines Golf Classic, held last year at the Victoria Golf and Country Resort, which opened seven years ago near Kandy.
The latest of the destination's four eighteen-hole courses, Waters Edge Golf Club, is not yet linked to an accommodation offer (this is planned), and is initially aimed at residents of Colombo, just a few minutes away. The last eight holes should be completed during 2007. "French golfers are looking for new destinations," says Ruvan de Alwis, Director of the Sri Lanka Tourist Office in Paris, pointing out the promotional efforts being made on the golf front, including a brochure devoted to the four courses.
