Julio Delgado

You have recently joined PGA Catalunya Resort. Briefly tell us about your
experience of running international golf resorts.
Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to work at a number of prestigious resorts, including two of Spain’s leading golf venues, La Manga and La Cala. My tenure at these clubs made me understand the plethora of factors required to ensure smooth business operations and successful golf destination marketing. One of my primary objectives at PGA Catalunya Resort is also to oversee our real estate development, which is now underway.

The Stadium Course has once again been recognised as one of the world’s Top 100 Golf Courses.
Strategically, how important is this and how have you achieved this?
Course rankings have been an essential part of our strategy, and an important element of our marketing campaigns. These have, without doubt, helped increase our brand and media awareness, position us among the world’s prestigious destinations and added value to visitor experience.

Of course, you need a great golf course design to start with, which Ryder Cup star Neil Coles MBE and Spanish golf legend Angel Gallardo, together with European Golf Design, have given us. However, maintaining that status is challenging. Over the past 18 months, we have carried out an extensive course upgrade programme, starting with the replacement of bentgrass on our Stadium Course fairways to a bermuda bed overseeded with ryegrass – the same formula used by Augusta National for The Masters Tournament. We also invested in our member, practice and clubhouse facilities to continue to provide every visitor with an unforgettable and compelling experience. We are a member of the European Tour Properties network and our brand promise is ‘world-class golf’.

How important is it to offer high-quality Golf Academy facilities to visitors?
I would say it is now critical to have a well-equipped golf academy. We have just opened a new 2,000 square-metre putting green and chipping area to provide just that. It offers golfers five bunkers each containing different sand types (Augusta, St Andrews, Hawaii volcanic, PGA Catalunya Stadium Course sand bunker and Pebble Beach), as well as a PGA Catalunya
Tour Course grass bunker where players can refine the approach-play part of their game in optimum conditions. The facilities have already attracted the national teams of Norway and Finland for winter training, so it is already driving business.

Does hosting a tournament benefit a golf travel destination?
Yes it does. The TV and media coverage raises awareness of the brand and creates the right perception in terms of quality. PGA Catalunya Resort was originally built by the European Tour to host the 1997 Ryder Cup, although that didn’t come to pass due to delays in course construction, we have however, twice hosted the Spanish Open and have been the venue for European Tour Qualifying School Final Stage on four consecutive occasions.

Our customer base was previously 50-50 Spanish and international. Now, 70% of our visitors are international. Clearly, being an international tournament venue is one of the reasons for this.

Has your customer profile changed?
European markets have always been important to PGA Catalunya Resort, notably France, Germany, UK and the Scandinavian countries. Sweden tops the list of international visitors at 15% with the UK and France each providing 12% of tourists. The six other European countries with the most visitors are Germany (5%), Norway (4%), Ireland, Holland and Denmark (3% each) and Finland (2%); visitors from other parts of the world together account for 9%. Our local Spanish market is of course very important to us, with residents, unsurprisingly, providing almost a third (32%) of the business for PGA Catalunya Resort.

Where do you see the biggest opportunities for growth at PGA Catalunya Resort?
Our location in Eastern Spain is a significant advantage. Catalonia is a distinct region of Spain and its low-density, varied landscape, cultural, historical and leisure offerings are appealing to many international visitors looking for an authentic and enjoyable experience. We are also close to the cities of Barcelona and Girona, and their international airports, which makes accessibility easy.

While Western European visitors remain our core market, we have recently seen a spike in golfers coming to PGA
Catalunya Resort from Russia and Eastern Europe. They appreciate the region, resort and are also interested in the real estate.

Finally, with the growth of social media, golf courses, clubs and resorts must address and embrace the value of such powerful communication channels and make them an important part of their marketing strategies. No one can deny the vital role social media plays in the golf travel sector, especially as a tool to proactively inform and attract current and potential visitors.