Brazil has always been renowned all over the world for its beaches, rich culture, music and the warmth of its friendly people. But all these features were not enough to attract a certain type of tourist - more precisely a species that leaves a trail of dollars wherever he or she travels, namely golfers. Peter Walton from Britain, who is chairman of the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO), says that golfers spend 50% more than conventional tourists. “Golf tourism turnover is US$ 12 billion a year. More than 30% of the world's 50 million golfers take a golf-focused trip at least once a year. Golf tourism is growing four times as fast as tourism based on beaches and sun," said Walton on a recent trip to Brazil. “
Until a decade or so ago, the predominant model in Brazil was the restricted membership club, which gave the sport the fame of being elitist and curbed growth in numbers of golfers. There are currently 20,000 golfers in the country - growth of 30% in just over four years. The Brazilian Golf Confederation (CBG) is predicting that there will be over 200,000 golfers in the country within 10 years. This boom is being powered by new courses associated with gated communities and tourist resorts. Embratur, the government agency charged with encouraging tourism in the country, is attempting to have more beach resorts provide golf facilities. It has joined the CBG to set up the National Golf Tourism Bureau and show Brazilian travel agencies how to sell golfing vacations to foreign tourists.
The boom in Brazilian golf has also drawn the attention of two world icons: the mega-entrepreneur Donald Trump and golfer of the century Jack Nicklaus, both Americans. The two are working together for the first time on the same venture, which promises to revolutionize golf in Latin America. Villa Trump will be a luxury gated community that will follow the highly exclusive Trump style but it will also have a trump card that not even the best courses in the US can match: design by Nicklaus, who will plan and build the 18-hole golf course as well as Latin America's first golf academy based on another course with 9 holes.
The Villa Trump project involves over US$ 40 million, most of it put up by Brazilian investors. There will be "golf residences" in the shape of 18 luxury mansions dotted around the golf course, a 6-star hotel, a Trump Spa (based on the exclusive Mar-a-Lago Trump Spa at Palm Beach) and restaurants. The Trump signature will be present even on the Nicklaus-designed course. Among the services to be offered for members is the golf concierge, a type of luxury caddie who will know how to choose clubs, find members' balls, open a bottle of champagne or cut a cigar.
Part of the strategy for the Villa Trump launch includes unconditional support for the development of golf in Brazil. “Brazil already has its star players in soccer, volleyball and tennis. We want to create star golfers too," says entrepreneur Ricardo Bellino, president of Trump Realty Brazil and the local spokesman for Trump and Nicklaus.
Trump Realty Brazil started to boost golf in Brazil with a real hole-in-one shot. This was the First Trump Open, a new name for the Brazil Golf Open won in late 2003 by the Paraguayan Carlos Franco. As the first golf tournament in the world to bear the Trump name, the event was opened by Jack Nicklaus himself, who visited the country for the first time to take a close look at the terrain where his new course will be laid out. His presence and the impeccable organization ensured an unusual result for golf in Brazil: full press coverage, including reports in Brazil's top weekly news magazines. This year is likely to see another successful event, since Trump himself is due to cut the ribbon and open the event - which will held at Villa Trump in 2006 and thereafter. “This is the most exclusive golf tournament in the world", says Bellino.
In addition to developing golf, Trump, Nicklaus and Bellino want to see Brazil create a cohort of top players in Latin American and world golf. “Rather than just being a golf resort and a leisure and family space, Villa Trump and Jack Nicklaus Signature will be a place for exclusive networking where members will meet people who share the same lifestyle and may become business partners too," Bellino says. And who will these members be? For the time being, this is a well- guarded secret. Villa Trump membership will be selected by invitation from a list to be drawn up with the help of Trump and his team. But this select and hotly disputed networking club will not be restricted to Brazil: Jack Nicklaus Signature at Villa Trump will not be ready until 2006, but it is already part of Jack Nicklaus International Golf Club (JNIGC), the world's largest network of golf clubs. In other words: Villa Trump members will be able to meet others and play the best courses planned by Nicklaus worldwide- just as members from other Nicklaus clubs will have the opportunity to play at Itatiba, in Brazil.
By 2006, when Villa Trump opens its doors, golfers visiting Brazil will not be able to complain of lack of choice for a game of golf. The Terravista complex with a hotel (Club Med), gated community and golf course has just opened in Trancoso, in the south of Bahia. Part of the Terravista course is surrounded by Atlantic forest. Another part of the course is located on 30-meter high cliffs with a view of the sea that practically begs you to stop and take photos.
Just to the north is a fine option for tourists at Hotel Transamérica on the Island of Comandatuba, which opened its golf course in 2000. Comandatuba Ocean Course was chosen best in the country by the US magazine Golf Digest. Four of its holes are less than one meter from the sandy beach that is part of the course.
The Costa do Sauípe tourist complex (around an hour's journey from Salvador in the state of Bahia) also has a golf course near the beach (some 100 meters away) that was laid out on sand dunes with an undulating course surrounded by low vegetation - a sure source of natural features, fun and lost balls. There are plenty of ways of relaxing after any stress on the course, since the complex includes hotels such as the Renaissance, Sofitel, SuperClubs Breezes and Marriott. There is also a spa, and horse-riding and sailing facilities - and of course a fine beach for sampling coconuts and caipirinhas (the most famous Brazilian aperitifs) after sweating on the course.