SILPORT CO-HOSTS CHINA GENERAL MANAGER CONFERENCE

Shanghai: The state of China’s economy and how it affects the country’s nascent golf industry were the topics of discussion at the National Golf Clubs General Manager Conference co-hosted by Shanghai Silport and Tianma Country Club.

Taking place over an action-packed four days, general managers representing more than 120 clubs and some 300 delegates were in attendance for the fifth anniversary conference. The guests were treated to some thorough insight into the realities facing the country’s golf industry today from some top-notch speakers during the conference portion held at the JC Mandarin Hotel on the first full-day session.

Representing such diverse fields as politics, the environment, sponsorship, tourism, branding and finance, to name but a few of the topics, Long Yong Tu opened the forum talking about golf’s role in China’s economic development.
As the secretary general of the Boao Asian Forum and China’s chief negotiator for its 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization, Long, himself an avid golfer, was well placed to speak about the rapid development of the country’s golf scene.

He said for the industry to develop at a rapid pace, more needed to be done to create a “better outside social environment” and to “accommodate all of the society.”
“For many places in China, golf is one important way for the governments to attract foreign investment. At present, golf is at a very high level and only for the rich people. This is the time that we should pull it down from that high level to downstairs,” Long said. “No political things should face it and it should be treated as sport.”

With the country’s golf industry currently restricted by a government ban on the construction of any new courses, Long’s words gave some hope that it could soon be lifted, saying that if there was a demand for such activities, that market should be developed.
“In our country, we already have over 1 million golf population. The demands of these people is already enough to support this industry. We should be confident for the development of golf itself,” Long said.

“Golf is a kind of market thing. But that doesn’t mean we don’t want the government to be too involved. We should try our best to reduce the government’s direct control on it. We should interest the golf association’s role in golf development and we should use international and open vision to face the development of this event.”

After Long Yong Tu set the tone of the conference with his powerful speech, others provided further insight. Chi Fu Lin, president of the China Institute for Reform and Development, spoke of the relationship between consumption structure’s change and golf development in China while Mel Pyatt, president and CEO of Volvo Event Management, championed delivering economic value through sponsorship.

Dr Han Lie Bao of the Beijing Forestry University discussed golf industry development and land resources utilization and Dr Zhang Maolin, dean of Tongji University Golf Business School, spoke of building the golf industrial value chain. Francois Bras spoke of tourism and the economy and promoted golf tourism to France.

Others included Dr Yu Xiaoping, Shenzhen Golf Club’s deputy director, who spoke on the research behind his golf economic theory and Dr Joseph Mula of the University of South Australia discussed the impact of leisure and education industries on regional economies.

Rounding out the speakers was Hu Juan-Guo, director of the Multi-Ball Games Administrative Center of the State Sport, who praised the conference as a platform for idea exchange.

“At the beginning (five years ago), the conference was just for the industry. Now, it has changed lots. It is a platform for the related information. Because the golf association is involved as well as industry experts to provide speeches, this helps to make it of high quality.”

The weekend portion of the conference took on a lighter tone as the general managers got to show off their golf mettle in tournaments held at Silport and Tianma on the Saturday and Sunday respectively.
The highlight of the weekend undoubtedly was the gala ball held in Silport’s upstairs restaurant on Saturday night. Based on the theme of “Old Shanghai,” the delegates were treated to a Las Vegas-style review, complete with a floorshow, a jazz band and lucky draw for some valuable prizes.

Aylwin Tai, head of Richtone Worldwide which organized the conference, called the fifth edition of the general manager meetings the most successful yet.

“The managers have very much enjoyed this platform. Someone said to me that this is a good transformer where we can put all the external resources. We can then convert this into the right current to tap into the people of China.”