Chinese island province plays "golf economy"

At the two major airports of China's southern island province of Hainan, tourists wearing golf suits and carrying golf tools are a common view.

They are mostly from Hong Kong, Japan and the Republic of Korea, and they go directly to hotels with or near to a golf course. A golf holiday on the sunny island has become a vacation option for rich tourists from both home and abroad.

With a new golf course opened on Sept. 1, the province have 13 courses in operation, in addition to 17 others that are either under construction or being planned.

Cao Xiren, vice chairman of the provincial federation of social sciences, noted the island has the best living environment, a favorable mild climate in all seasons suitable for playing golf, and has much undeveloped waste land. The last property is decisive, as China is short of farmland. In most provinces, the construction of golf courses were ordered to be suspended due to limited arable land.

Cao said if Hainan can build a number of courses, 30 or 50 or even 100 that range from cheap to luxurious and cater to different people, golf tourism will hopefully become the pillar industry of the island.

According to officials of the Hainan Golf Association, playing golf in Hainan has been tremendously attractive to northern Chinese and golfers from Japan, the ROK and northern and eastern Europe.

Statistics show that in the past two years, courses in Hainan received more than 100,000 golfers each year, providing nearly 5,000 jobs and giving rise to retail, advertising and training industries.