Market Entry Challenges of Swiss Golf Hotels. How to Position as Attractive Tourism Location for Golfers from India

MARKET ENTRY CHALLENGES

OF SWISS GOLF HOTELS:

HOW TO POSITION AS ATTRACTIVE

TOURISM LOCATION FOR GOLFERS FROM

INDIA?

PUBLIC SUMMARY

PHILIPPE GOBET

STUDENT OF

UNIVERSITIY OF ST.GALLEN

Study mainly based on

KPMG sources as well

as Hudson, L. &

Hudson, S. (2010).

Golf Tourism. Oxford:

Goodfellow Publishers.

Study background and approach

„In golf tourism nearly a fifth of the world's tourist revenue is generated,

although only one percent of the tourists are playing golf on vacation” (CMT

Press Release). As this quote indicates, the golf tourism branch represents

the largest sports-related travel market in the world. With thousand new golf

courses being built worldwide every year, the golf tourism industry has huge

growth potential. There are thirty million golfers in North America and

Europe and participation in Asia is growing at an astronomical rate.

The population of very rich Indians, with a disposable income of over USD

150,000, estimates 2.1 million and represents the target market size for Swiss

golf hotels. It is estimated that the population of very rich Indians will nearly

have tripled by the year 2020 (Euromonitor International). Not only is the

potential target market size growing at high speed, but there are also several

other facts, why it seems to be attractive to enter the Indian golf tourism

market. Indian golf clubs are overcrowded, especially the high

quality ones, as half of them are only accessible to military

personnel and select individuals. The demand for golf courses is

increasing extremely, but according to KPMG India faces a major challenge

today in developing golf courses: the ability to acquire land in both a cost

and time efficient manner. Land parcels are generally small; and developers

need to purchase multiple plots at a cost that can quickly inflate.

Furthermore, as most of the golf courses operate on a “members only” basis,

the potentially golf playing Indians are confronted with the huge...