Over 160 million rounds of golf were played in Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 2007, according to KPMG’s third annual Golf Benchmark Survey.
The report analyses the business performance of golf courses across the EMA region, based on golf courses’ performance in the 2007 operating year. The Survey found that the development of the golf market in the EMA region has grown by approximately 3 per cent annually, while the number of golfers has increased by 5 per cent annually – to currently around 7,100 regular golf courses across the EMA region and approximately 4.5 million affiliated golfers.
Golf courses in Dubai remain the highest earners in the EMA region, with an average annual turnover exceeding €7 million, a slight increase on last year and four times more than courses in Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands. The top five performing regions are the Middle East (€5.8 million), Western Europe (€1.4 million), Benelux (€1.4 million), Central Europe, comprising Germany, Austria and Switzerland (€1.1 million) and Great Britain & Ireland (€933,000), the largest golf market in EMA by share of courses (42 per cent) and golfers (33 per cent).
The estimated total number of rounds of golf played across EMA was 162.5 million. The region with the most rounds played was Great Britain & Ireland 75.3 million (46.3 per cent), followed by Western Europe 28.5 million (17.5 per cent), Central Europe 18.8 million (11.6 per cent), Northern Europe 18.2 million (11.2 per cent) and South Africa 11.7 million (7.2 per cent). Golf courses in the Middle East recorded the highest number of rounds played per 18-hole course, averaging 40,237 rounds per year, followed by South Africa 33,575, Benelux 28,092, Great Britain & Ireland 26,853 and Western Europe 25,870. However, the number of rounds at top performing 18-hole golf courses is even higher with 49,200 rounds at courses in Western Europe, South Africa 48,743 and Middle East 47,150.
Andrea Sartori, head of KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice in EMA, said: “When comparing revenues and profitability with development costs by region, golf facilities in the Middle East generate the highest average revenues/profit per hole, while this is the region where it costs the most to develop a golf hole, according to our research: €528,000 against the average of €217,000 in the EMA Region”.
More than 1,500 courses in 35 countries participated in the comparative survey which, for the first time, includes figures for the growing North Africa region.
