The hub of the Turkish Mediterranean tourist industry is the medium sized city of Antalya, with a population of about 250,000 people. It has long been a busy destination for German tourists, mainly for the nearby beaches, but also there is a quaint section of the old port, and various Roman ruins scattered around.
In the 1980’s, in order to encourage tourism, the government provided enticements and subsidies for several Turkish businessmen to develop hotels along the beaches about 20 km. to the west of the city, in the area of Belek. These were designed to be “all-inclusive”, and catered to budget/package holidays. Tour operators organize charter planes to bring groups down, they have charter buses to the hotels, where they may stay the entire time, never leaving the premises, until it’s time to get back on the bus for the airport. Indeed, the hotel operators used to actually discourage people from ever leaving, wanting a captive clientele.
The Turks turned to golf because the weather in Belek is not agreeable for beachgoers from about October-April, and they needed some kind of draw to fill rooms the winter months. Also, somewhere along the line they realized they were missing out on the more up-scale tourism market; the so called “white glove” tourist who had a bit more disposable income.
At some point, somebody noticed that there was loads of undeveloped government property near the beach that was suitable for golf development. I believe that English architect Howard Swan was first hired to come down and designate about 10 or 12 sites of a size and terrain for golf courses. The government then let out the sites on 99 year leases to developers. The main investors are naturally the hoteliers. The land is all leased from the government, so there can be no title on the property, hence there is no golf course frontage real estate development.
The first course in the region, National Golf Club, was designed by David Feherty, and built from 1993-95. It was followed by the Tat Beach (27 holes, can’t remember the architect, Rock Roquemore?), then Gloria, (Michel Gayon of France, et al. with 45 holes), then Antalya Golf Club (36 holes, European Golf Design & David Jones) and numerous others followed, with top tier architects like Faldo, Thomson, Thomas, another EGD with Colin Montgomery (I haven’t seen that one yet, it wasn’t open last time I was there), and Perry Dye. Today, there must be over a dozen courses, I can’t keep track.
Many more hotels have sprung up, too. When I was there in ’94-’95, there were 5 hotels in Belek, today there must be ten times that number. They are becoming ever more sophisticated and up-scale. The Antalya Golf Club now boasts the Dome Kempinski on site, for example.
The Antalya airport is about a twenty minute drive, it is all new in the past ten years. The airport road has been widened and divided, making it much safer. I was witness to several horrific accidents involving fatalities during my time there, and indeed, the Turkish drivers were a contributing factor to my decision to leave when I did.
With the emergence of more golf courses, the investors cooperatively began marketing Belek as a golf destination in the U.K., Scandinavia, and other northern European countries. This has broadened their clientele considerably form the predominant Germans in the old days. Russians are a presence, as well, in the hotels if not so much on the golf courses. I think that today you could have a two week golfing holiday and play a different course each day.
They still sell most of their golf through European tour operators in various package deals. In Turkey, everything is negotiable. Don’t believe the 90-120 euro green fees in the Peugeot Golf Guide, most green fees, even in season, are sold in the 50-75 euro range. Off season you might get half that. If you’re not on a package, call one of the hotels and ask what they could arrange for you.
I believe now that the government sites are all leased, if not built on. There are a couple of sites in the hands of private owners that may eventually be turned over to golf.
The area has been hurt by the recession. When I was there in May, the chatter I was hearing was that bookings were off about 20%. So far, this hasn’t put anybody out of business, but it has put a stop to anybody starting new development.