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THE island had 4.4 million visitors last year and if the pattern is followed there’ll be an increase in excess of two per cent this year. So tourism is the well that feeds a soaring economy, the major source of employment and the root of a continuing boom in the construction industry.
It is a common story in global tourism but in this case the first chapters were written in the ashes of a dreadful tragedy, the world’s worst aviation disaster.
It happened in March 1977 at Los Rodeos, the original airport in the more elevated north of the island when a jumbo jet about to take off hit another that was taxi-ing. A hill fog and a misunderstanding in radio communications caused the tragedy in which 583 people died.
Ironically, both flights were there only because they had been diverted following a security alert at the neighbouring island of Las Palmas.
The consequence, though, was a decision to build a second airport, at sea level in the south of the island.
Arid, rock-strewn and redolent of its volcanic origins, the desert-like region was punctuated only by the odd banana plantation, a clutch of tomato farms and two tiny fishing villages known as Las Americas and Los Cristianos.
But here was space to expand and the ocean beaches were close to hand. The rest, as they say, is history.
The two villages have exploded in size to become minor cities, with a necklace of hotels, resorts and beaches, the magnets for thousands of package holiday-makers who arrive each week.
Reina Sofia, the once tiny airport, is now the equal of any in size and facilities and, being just off a six lane motorway, is within minutes of most resorts in the south. Like visiting golfers, the local taxi drivers think they’ve died and gone to heaven!
By the time the new airport had become established so had the golf industry. The first two resorts centered around golf were the Amarilla Country Club and neighbouring Golf del Sur. Both are less than 10 minutes from the airport, both are of 1,000 acres plus, with self-contained residential communities and every facility and recreational amenity required of a resort.
Both opened in the late 1980s and for almost a decade were the sole attractions for golfers on holiday. The latter were enticed by reports of the Tenerife Open, a European Tour event staged by Golf del Sur between 1989 and 1994 as part of their marketing strategy.
It worked. The volume of visiting players increased steadily and by the mid-1990s it became obvious, in keeping with world-wide trends, that more golf facilities were required. A charming little nine hole par three course known as Los Palos had opened in 1994 but in 1998 things became serious as two major new courses were opened on expansive estates at Las Americas and nearby Adeje.
All very well, you’ll agree, but experience shows that new courses simply attract more players, the demand becomes close to insatiable in the winter months and the architects are required to present themselves yet again.
So it is that Donald Steel, the architect of Amarilla, is building a course at La Gomera, an island reached by ferry from Las Americas; David Thomas, the creator of Almenara and San Roque in Southern Spain, is hard at it building the Abama Golf Resort near Porto Santiago, close to Las Americas, and Seve Ballesteros is furthering his architectural reputation with an 18 hole course at Buenavista del Norte, in the north of the island.
There’s more: a second 18 holes is in planning at Amarilla, and Pepe Gancedo is about to add a third loop to his 18 holes at Adeje, where a sumptuous clubhouse is now rising.
There’s a good deal of wisdom being exercised hereabouts, too. The local authority has banned further golf resort projects involving any building other than a hotel, thus negating the problems emanating from over-development that have plagued certain Iberian resorts.
All the courses have slick marshalling, to keep tabs on slow pokes and ensure that even in the peak winter season all will be back in the clubhouse bar in four and a half hours or better.
At Golf del Sur and Adeje I saw marshals repairing pitch marks on the greens in the course of their other duties: most commendable, and an indication of local standards of presentation.
Equally importantly, with such a level of investment nothing is being left to chance apropos promotion. The Tenerife Tourist Board takes a keen interest in this burgeoning aspect of their market and they have division whose raison d’etre is golf promotion.
Also to this end has been formed Tenerife Golf, an association of hotels and golf clubs. Currently, there are 18 of the former and all six of the latter.
Their objective is to present a united front in areas of marketing and promotion, as well as standards of presentation.
They offer brochures and maps to guide visitors from course to course, and to promote their summer golfing programme the association has devised a weekly green fee ticket that brings a round of golf at each of the four major southern courses for only 22,000 pesetas (about £88).
Naturally, you’ll need to stay at one of the association hotels to take advantage of this offer but take my word that this will be no hardship. Any self-respecting millionaire would be delighted.
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