United Arab Emirates-The Ultimate Golf Holiday
The United Arab Emirates is one of the world's fastest growing tourist destinations and is quickly becoming known as the ultimate golf holiday destination. With sun, sand and sea available in abundance, the United Arab Emirates has all the right ingredients for an unforgettable holiday.
The United Arab Emirates has many top class sporting venues, unbeatable shopping, top-class hotels, restaurants and an intriguing traditional culture. It is also home to Dubai's Burj Al Arab Hotel, the world's only 7-star hotel, just down the coast from the Dubai International Marine Club.
When talking about great international golf destinations, golf courses in Scotland, Ireland, England and the US are the ones that usually come up. But that's starting to change. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been doing everything it can to transform its coastal town of Dubai into a world-class golf destination.
Currently, the UAE has 13 golf courses and the influx of ex pats and tourists is fuelling rapid growth with at least 10 more courses planned or under construction due to be opened by 2010.
According to the KPMG Golf Benchmark Survey Summary report, the Middle East is turning out to be golf's international hot spot, with courses in the region averaging 45,000 rounds per year, compared to the 26,000 rounds played on courses in Great Britain and Ireland.
The United Arab Emirates is a constitutional federation of seven emirates; Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. Four-fifths of the UAE is desert, yet it is a country of contrasting landscapes, from awe-inspiring dunes to rich oases, precipitous rocky mountains to fertile plains. The perfect setting for a vast array of differing style golf courses.
Golf development in the Middle East, especially in Dubai, has received significant media exposure in recent years. With the world's top golfers competing annually in the highly acclaimed Dubai Desert Classic, the world wide media coverage is demonstrating to the golfing world that the hype has been justified and that the region is fast becoming a major destination for golf.
Emirates golf scored a big coup in 2006 when Tiger Woods announced that he planned to design his first signature course, The Tiger Woods Dubai, due to open in 2010.
The European PGA Tour has recently announced that Dubai will play host to the richest golf tournament in the world, the $10 million Dubai World Championship. Beginning in 2009, The Dubai World Championship will be the closing event for the PGA European Tour, with the inaugural event taking place at the Jumeirah Golf Estates.
Early in 2007 Sergio Garcia, Pete Dye and Greg Norman have announced their collaboration with the Jumeirah Golf Estates, to build and design four very different golf courses to host the tournament.
The Emirates has seldom missed the chance to tell the world that Dubai is synonymous with golf. Many regular visitors to the UAE book their tee times on-line long before they arrive in Dubai. Superb hotels and other hospitality outlets have also added to Dubai's lure as a world class golfing destination. The UAE is already regarded globally as the top golf destination in the Middle East.
Many of the worlds top golfers, such as Henrik Stenson, Johan Edfors, Gregory Harvet and Jean Van De Velde have chosen to locate themselves in the UAE for a number of reasons. With a perfect all-year-round climate, a thriving economy and a place to practide their golf as much and as often as possible, it is hard to imagine a better place than the Emirates.
An estimated 220 million AED is being invested in golf courses in the UAE, as the sport rakes in profits on the back of strong demand from the tourism sector. In the next few years the UAE will be home to a number of world class golf destinations. These will include the 6.5 Billion AED Dubai Golf City being built on 55 million square-feet of land and housing, with five themed signature courses, a golf academy, a six-star resort hotel and spa, golf communities, golf villages and retail areas.
Whether you want to play the world famous Majlis Course at the Emirates Golf Club, enjoy some night golf at Nad Al Sheba or play one of the best sand courses in the world at Al Ghazal Golf Club, the UAE provides a huge variety of top class golf courses making it the ultimate golfing destination.
