By Nangamso Mabindla
9 May 2006

THE Eastern Cape's efforts to be a sports tourism destination are set to receive a major boost from a Scandinavian company, which to build two golf estates in the province – one in East London and the other in the Nelson Mandela Metro.

These estates would be the third of their kind to be earmarked for the province, as plans are already in progress for the development of a R1-billion golf estate in Chintsa, 20 kilometres from East London. That area falls under the Great Kei Municipality.

Unigolf, the Scandinavian company, aims to contribute to the growth of the sport and to bring more tourists to the area to boost its tourism industry. Representatives from the company recently visited East London to look at golfing opportunities in the city, and decided that Buffalo City was a suitable site for a golf estate.

One of them, Lennart Palm, said that golf was a popular past time in Scandanavia but because of the cold weather it was difficult for his countrymen to play the sport at home.

"We now travel all over the world to the best courses to enjoy the game of golf. However, we don't stay long in these countries and this becomes expensive for our tourists, especially our more senior people," he said.

Because of this, Palm said his company intended building the estates so that some of these golfing tourists could own flats in South Africa.

"With golf estates, they will be able to stay in East London for up to six months and contribute greatly to the economy of the city. Here I'm talking about the older people who do not have great family responsibilities back home."

The Eastern Cape was a great place to build a golf estate as it had a very good climate that people could enjoy. "Some of them could buy property on the beachfront and thus help improve the image of the East London beachfront," he added.

The company also identified Port Elizabeth in the Nelson Mandela Metro for the other golf estate. "We don't really want to say when we will start the project. We are personally looking to move here in the next two years; we will see how we go about with our plans once we are here," Palm added.