By Nangamso Mabindla
5 May 2006

GOLF is a popular past-time in Scandinavian countries, and Scandinavians' desire to play the sport around the world could soon have huge spin-offs for East London.

Two representatives from Unigolf, a travel agency, visited Buffalo City this week to look at the quality of golf courses East London had on offer. One of them, Lennart Palm, explained that they had come to the city because of its links with the Swedish city of Gävle.

"We have come to South Africa before, but have never been to East London. So when we were told about the place by people from Gävle, we thought we would give it a chance and have a look at it. We aim to see if we can bring Scandinavian tourists down here to enjoy themselves," Palm said.

Scandinavians loved golf, he added, but because of the northern climate they could only play the sport for five months in a year. "We are covered in snow for most of the year – that is why our people decide to tour to other countries to play the sport they love so much.

"Most of them go to Spain, but South Africa is becoming a popular destination for our people."

Unigolf's first trip to East London was more of a fact-finding mission to discover whether the city's golf courses were up to international standards. And speaking about the quality of the courses, Tommy Flybring, who owns a golf restaurant in Gävle, said they matched up to international standards.

"The East London Golf Course is excellent and the climate here would also be good for our tourists. We are definitely looking to bring more of them to play golf here," he said.

Golf, however, was not the only sport on the menu. Unigolf also planned to bring Gävle Football Club for a training camp with East London's professional soccer club, Bush Bucks, in January 2007. "We will also be looking at taking some local youngsters to our training camps in Sweden. We want to play our part in promoting sports tourism in Buffalo City," Flybring explained.

Darby Gounden, Buffalo City's communications manager, said that there were exciting times ahead for sports tourism. "We are looking at teaming up with Unigolf and promoting sports tourism in our city. And we are very excited about the amount of exposure we will be getting in Scandinavian countries."

Sports tourism would bring major financial spin-offs to Buffalo City. "With these partnerships we are definitely going to improve our sports tourism. We have also launched a golfing brochure that exposes our golf facilities around the city. We will definitely be handing it out at the Tourism Indaba in Durban."

The annual Tourism Indaba is being held in Durban from 6 to 9 May, at the International Convention Centre and Durban Exhibition Centre.