Golf in Kuwait: Investment Plans, Golf Events & Tourism Outlook

We meet again after two years. At present, how do you assess the tourism sector in Kuwait? What is the outlook for 2012? Are you optimistic in the short-term/long-term?

Yes, I am very optimistic. Here are some reasons why. First of all, because the year 2012 witnessed the taking of a very important decision by the government, which consisted of the approval of the 5-year plan for the country.  We are talking about $130 billion that was allocated to be spent for the development of Kuwait for the coming years.

This initiative is meant to affect all sectors, including the tourism industry, because tourism is usually influenced by the economy of the country. The more money is spent in a country, the better it is for its tourism industry. This is why I have high hopes that our sector will be rewarded by this in the future, and that its activities will grow.

What are your expectations in 2012 in terms of major events and investments?

It is safe for me to say that there has been a lot of development over the last two years, after the introduction of golf as a sport in the local community and inside our activities as a result. Two years ago, the number of golfers almost doubled, because it was widely spread and because we have given a lot of support to the youth for them to learn this sport. We offer them very low membership fees to attract them now so that in the future, they will become very good golfers.

Also, the support has not only come from us, but also from the government. It has even been decided that the current Kuwaiti golf team will take part in the upcoming 2016 Olympics. It will be a good opportunity for the country to show to the world that golf is a sport that we practice here in Kuwait.

Now, for this year, we are planning to and are looking forward to hosting one of the tournaments, which hopefully will attract many celebrities in the world of golf. Last December 14th, we had the honour of welcoming one of the top 5 golfers in the world, Mr. Colin Montgomerie, who has used our golf courses during a mini-tournament that we hosted.

He was actually the organizer, and he praised our golf courses, our resort in general and the service. He said that he couldn’t believe that there was something like this in Kuwait, such a beautiful golf course despite the difficult climate. Thus, because of the success of the tournament, we will continue hosting other similar events in the future.

We are in the process of building a complex – a commercial mall, which will be right next to us when you enter the resort, on the right side of the road. There will also be a multi-function ballroom in a couple of years and an entertainment center concerned with sports and other indoor activities.

If we compare Sahara with other regional resorts, how is it ranked? How does it compare?

I wish to be perfectly honest and precise with you. Mr. Colin Montgomerie, as I told you before, said that our golf course was one of the very best in all of the GCC. Even if he had not given us such excellent feedback, we would have taken his comments to heart and followed his direction, but he only had good things to say about us. Now, ranking our resort among ones from other countries would be unfair, because Kuwait as his own environment, policies and procedures.

Here is an example. These days, a lot of people like to go to Emirates; there are at least six golf courses there that I know of. There are so many things to do; namely golf, but also leisure, food, etc. In Kuwait, still, we need extra attraction sites – not only golf courses.

There are still many things that the country is lacking for it to be number one in the region as an attraction center. Even if we were to rank ourselves according to the region only, I would say there is still much we need. I hope this will be compensated by the long-term Kuwait development plan.

That leads me to another thing. If we speak about tourism, we need to mention hotel service. I think that hotel service in Kuwait is very adequate at the moment. However, in 2012, occupancy for five-star hotels does not currently exceed 50%.

This means that they are only working with half of their full capacity. If you take another country such as Emirates or Qatar, I am sure that it is over 80%. That is because of attractions and this is what I think we need in Kuwait. In order to achieve that, I think we need collaboration between the public and the private sectors. This is what can be invested in. Maybe foreign investors can fill the gap and compensate the lack of entertainment.