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Golf
The 1980s economic boom saw a proliferation of golf courses world-wide and a massive surge in golf tourism, particularly in tropical south east Asia. By the 1990s, 350 new golf courses were being built world-wide each year. Maintaining golf courses in prime condition requires massive inputs of fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and water. An average 18-hole golf course soaks up at least 525,000 gallons of water a day - enough to supply the irrigation needs of 100 Malaysian farmers. Many farming communities lost their land and were evicted either with minimal or no compensation for golf course development.
Our campaign: Tourism Concern had a very successful press campaign supporting World No Golf Day for a number of years, highlighting the environmental and human rights issues connected to golf course development. We also brought together partners visiting from Asia with golf industry officials to discuss the issues. Golf course design has been very much improved as a result of this world-wide campaign. The Asian economic crisis in the mid 1990s briefly halted the golf course boom.
Golf courses are now commonly incorporated in to huge tourism developments in even the driest of environments of Africa and the Middle East.
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