Preferential agreement enriches Mauritius golf offering

Sugar Beach

What led to the signing of the preferential agreement?

We’ve been thinking about this partnership for a long time as we already have a lot of golfers staying at Sugar Beach. It was logical for us to partner with Tamarina, which is just next door to our resort. As a 5-star hotel, Sugar Beach always looks for ways to add value to guests and so, offering unlimited free green fees to the clients, plus positioning the hotel as a Golf hotel was logical as it opens the door to another niche market.

What does the preferential agreement include?

The agreement includes unlimited rounds of golf at Tamarina Golf Course to guests during their stay at Sugar Beach Hotel. Also included are

• free green fees
• golf range balls
• 500ml of drinking water per person, per round
• use of driving range facility
• putting green and pitching green and
• a free shuttle to and from the golf course (golf trolleys and buggies are available for a fee)

How has the agreement benefited Sugar Beach Hotel as businesses?

The agreement is for a period of five years. Sugar Beach is permitted to review its branding from SB SR to Golf and Spa Resort, which enables us to market our product to the golf segment.

What benefits can Sugar Beach guests look forward to, how will it enrich their stay and experience?

Mauritius is positioning itself as a Golf destination with nine golf courses within a 45mins drive from one another. This was a contributing factor for us to consider adopting and investing in a Golf Strategy. Sun Resorts is the only Hotel Resort that has three internationally renowned Golf Courses on the Island.

Tell us about the golf offering at Tamarina:

This championship 18-hole, par 72 course was designed by architect Rodney Wright and combines technical challenges with sweeping views over the stunning Rempart Mountain and Tamarin Bay. The golf course offers only the highest quality infrastructure and services. These include a practice area, changing rooms with lockers and showers, a bar and restaurant, a pro shop, an academy offering the services of a PGA pro and much more.
Alain Lenoir the Golf Manager often says, "swing West where the sun shines!"

Golfer at Tamarina

What impact has the growth of golf tourism in Mauritius had in terms of attracting tourists and golfers alike?

Referring to the chart below, are some figures around golf in Mauritius – these only represent Resort Golf Courses – seven in total. Around 85% of those rounds were played by golf travellers who come mainly from Europe (France, Germany, Switzerland, UK and Reunion Island) and the remaining 15% by local players.

A few things that are important to note with these figures:

• Golf Promotion on a large scale started with the 2015 AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open (a men's professional golf tournament, co-sanctioned by the European Tour, Sunshine Tour, and Asian Tour). The effects are clearly seen in the improved growth from 2014/15 to 2015/16 – bringing us new golfers, mainly from Asia.

• We believe that the rounds would have been even higher for 2015/16 if one of the Golf Resorts didn’t close for three months (due to the heavy maintenance of their course).

• We believe we can achieve even greater growth through the next few fiscal years because of:

a) the quality and services of our golf courses and resort hotels;
b) one new golf course in full operation in the past six months;
c) opening of one new golf course in November 2017;
d) resort hotels doing more promotion vis-à-vis this segment.

• Golf travellers spend 100 – 120% more on their holidays than regular travellers

• The estimated number of golf travellers is around 52,000 for 2015/16.