Heritage

How golf tourism can give the Coast new shine

golf

Baobab Course: The three golf courses are playable throughout the year and are reasonably priced. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

The Kenyan coast is home to some of Kenya’s top championship golf courses; the Leisure Golf Club in Diani, Kwale, the Nyali Golf and Country Club just off the island on the North Coast and the Baobab Course at the Vipingo Ridge further North towards Kilifi.

These three golf courses, all of them 18-hole challenging layouts, are playable through the year and are reasonably priced. In terms of accommodation, leisure is part of the Leisure Beach Resort which offers more than 200 hotel rooms and there are several other hotels in close proximity, including Leopard Beach, Diani Reef and Swahili Beach Resort.

Frequent flights

In Nyali, the course is within a few club lengths from the belt of hotels, just off Link Road – Voyager Beach Resort, Reef Hotel, Nyali Beach and Bahari Beach Hotel. Vipingo Ridge boasts its own accommodation, a combination of villa rooms and private homes; the hotels on Shanzu Beach – Serena, Continental and Flamingo are all within a 25 minute drive of Vipingo Ridge.

Why then isn’t golf tourism a big deal at the Kenyan coast?

The combination of great weather, affordable green fees, ample and also affordable hotel rooms, frequent flights from Nairobi into Mombasa and Ukunda are all the necessary ingredients for a booming golf tourism industry.

Some may want to cite insecurity as an issue and they would not be far off the truth if that was in reference to foreign tourists sitting in Oslo reading the Lonely Planet Guide.

But for a local tourist in Kisumu, Nyeri or Nairobi, the streets of downtown Nairobi are definitely more unsafe than the tranquil fairways at Vipingo or Leisure Lodge. So, why is golf tourism, especially local golf tourism, not booming?

In a bid to address this problem, the Kenya Tourism Board has sponsored a local golf series that aims to spur golf tourism. Speaking at the launch of the series, KTB managing director, Muriithi Ndegwa, said the events will be held across the country.

“At KTB, our core mandate is to drive marketing of tourism locally, regionally and internationally. To promote local tourism, we are working with the county governments to promote Kenya as the preferred tourism destination for both local and international visitors,” he said.

Common front

“We must create synergies between tourism marketing by the counties and the national mandate entrusted to KTB and forge a common front in marketing the diversity of the tourism products that Kenya is endowed with.

“The KTB golf events in Nyali, Nakuru, Nyanza, Vet Lab, Sigona, Limuru and Eldoret are part of this strategy to spur local tourism in the various counties.”

This weekend, the KTB Golf Series will visit the 18-hole championship golf course at the Nyali Golf and Country Club where 200 plus golfers from across the country are expected to participate.

“We have been to Nyali before and we are encouraged by the efforts the Country Club and the hotels at the North Coast have put in place to promote local golf tourism,” Ndegwa added.

“Both local and international golf travellers get real value for money at Nyali, Vipingo and Leisure Lodge and no visit to the Coast is complete without playing on one of these golf courses.”