Are you a golfer ?
I first discovered golf about ten years ago. On the advice of a physiotherapist whom I had consulted for a health problem caused by playing tennis, and despite my reticence for a sport which seemed to be too “sedentary”, I launched into my first swing. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with this game which personifies values I think of as my own. You can’t cheat when playing golf. Neither with others, nor with oneself. I now have a –15 handicap, but it’s hard to find the time necessary to perfect my technique.  
Earlier on, before discovering the appeal of golf for myself, I had however participated in a study of golf undertaken by the former Sub-Prefect of Grasse, Bernard Larvaron, an expert on the subject and, incidentally, a very good player. He made me realise that there was an international golfing clientele that could quite rightly comeand complement the clienteles we already had. I’m used to trusting specialists, so I looked at the files he gave me, completed by those I was able to obtain from other institutions, and I discovered that this was indeed a potential gold-mine that the Côte d’Azur was not exploiting, or very little. As a simple, disciplined technician, I decided that work need to be done in this area.

Which means… ?
We realised that there were some things, very simple, that needed to be set in place. Firstly, we hoped that new courses would open on the Côte d’Azur. Thankfully, the powers that be agreed. Then the Var, especially near the border with the Alpes-Maritimes, started to build golf-courses too. Given that Nice Airport mostly brought people into these regions and that we had real know-how in drawing a classic clientele to the Côte d’Azur, we were potentially ready to deploy a marketing plan for golf that was well-targetted and coherent. We analyzed the most promising markets. We soon noticed that countries whose weather conditions prevented people from playing golf in winter were the ones which offered the best potential for our purposes. At the time, these players were used to migrating to Mediterranean destinations such as Spain, Tunisia, Morocco… From then on, I started to imagine charters full of golfers who were flying over our heads, and the thought really irritated me ! You have to remember that the French clientele, outside our region, had never been sollicited either. Existing clients were then the pride of the Côte d’Azur, and thus of its golf-courses. Nevertheless, the creation of new clubs and the rapidly growing number of airlines generated a “Venturi effect”, increasing the need for new tourists. In paralle, new investors with a very international approach started to look us up. For them, luring visitors from Scandinavia or the United States was something quite banal. If we knew how to do this for our usual leisure and business tourists, we would know how to go about developing a marketing strategy for the benefit of golf-courses on the Côte d’Azur.

When did all this happen ?
About 15 years ago.

What did you decide to do ?
We associated ourselves with the organization of competitive events such as the Martinez Cup and Carlton Cup. Then I also got in touch with the entire team at La Maison de la France, which was then organizing a lot of tournaments abroad. On the strength of this contact, I was able, for example, to go prospecting for clients in Scandinavia. We thus inherited, three years running, the finals of the “Grande Coupe Française de la Scandinavie”. I also got to sit on board of directors of France Golf. Which allowed me to widen the renown of our region. We bought advertising in foreign publications and invited international journalists and tour operators. We also highlighted the Côte d’Azur as a golfers’ destination in our usual communications.

Did you try to federate the various local golf-courses, and did they play along ?
On my arrival, that was rather difficult. Three years later, in the middle of a crisis, I fell upon more attentive ears. People then remembered that the Tourist Board had tried to promote activity in this sector. Several course directors were trying to set up a “pass” system and came to see me to explain their initiative. I assured them the Tourist Board would back them up. Gradually, everyone began to play along. My main regret is still not having been able to federate all the courses on the Côte d’Azur. Though I think, today, that this idea is perhaps no longer of any interest.

Why is that ?
Bernard Lombard, the director at Saint-Endréol, who does a wonderful job, has come up with an idea that I think is really great. He has hooked up with eight high-flying Italian golf-courses that are prepared to work towards a commercial partnership. I thus have an appointment with Pascal Brochiero, who represents the clubs in the area around Grasse, to set up a package system which could thus be marketed on both sides of the border.

What will the package comprise ?
You’ll hear more about it in a few weeks’ time, the file is really advanced.

What is your general feeling today about the economic situation regarding golf in the region ?
It’s undeniable that we have  made a lot of progress and that the Côte d’Azur now exists as a golfing destination. But we mustn’t fall sleep. Competition is ferocious and new rival destinations appear all the time. However, one thing never changes : the Côte d’Azur and its natural assets. We need to put in a lot of effort to present a homogeneous  array of offerings in terms of services, pricing policies and promotion at international level. Today, anyone who  rests on his laurels finds himself on the downward slope. I dare to hope that this notion stays in the minds of one and all alike.

Interview conducted on 21/11/2005 by Christophe Messalti