THE COSTA DEL GOLF
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It is the largest concentration of golf courses that exist in Europe, in the smallest space between Rincón de la Victoria and Sotogrande. There are 40 golf courses which form an unprecedented rich tourist heritage for they are a high quality collection and many of them are considered to be the best in the world.
In fact, the Costa del Golf has acquired a spectacular development
in the last decade, and the existent prospects are of a moderate growth
for the next years, above all if the projects are fulfilled in some 
areas
of the eastern coast such as in Nerja and Torrox. Now, the municipalities
which have this type of installation are Rincón de la Victoria,
Malaga, Benalmádena, Mijas, Marbella, Estepona, Benahavís,
Manilva, and inland of the province, at a stones throw from the coast,
there is Alhaurín el Grande, and Alhaurín de la Torre. To
the 36 golf courses corresponding to Malaga, there are also four in the
province of Cadiz but which form part of the tourist unit based on golf,
and they are La Alcaidesa, Sotogrande, San Roque Club, and Valderrama,
the course par excellence, where the Ryder Cup will be challenged for the
first time outside of the United States or the British Isles. This world
golf event will take place in September 1997 and since the appointment
was made by the corresponding committee in Whenworth (England) in 1993,
it has meant a spectacular boost for the promotion of golf tourism and
the Costa del Sol for being the first area where there is the largest density
of courses per square kilometre in the whole continental Europe. 
The impressive height reached by the tourist golf offer complies with the growing demand of the players who are converted into tourists when they practice this sport out of their usual place of residence, especially in the autumn, winter, and spring, in other words, out of the high season, which exceedingly contributes to out of season travels, which is very important for the Costa del Sol, with the added value that the golf tourist spends four or five times more - about 25.000 per day - than the conventional tourist as the social and economic profile of golfers tends to be of a higher class, which entails a multiplying effect in hotels and out of hotel offers.
The last data concerning the evolution of the golf tourist sector, which corresponds to 1994, indicates that the Costa del Sol attracted no less than 300.000 golfers to practice their favourite sport, a demand which brought about a hotel occupation calculated to be between 70 and 100 percent during the non-vacacional months, and in those establishments which have their own golf courses or agreements with others for the commercialisation of complete packages.
The statistics of this year for the whole of Andalusia reveal that the number of green fees ascended to 1.250.000 to which 800.000 correspond to foreign tourists and the rest are national.
