Italian Ambassador to Vietnam Antonio Alessandro expressed his wish for Italy and Vietnam to join hands in golf tourism development during a presentation in Hanoi this week to promote the 44th Ryder Cup 2023, one of the world’s most prestigious golf tournaments.

The Italian Embassy in Vietnam hosted the presentation on Thursday to launch activities that promote the Ryder Cup 2023, a biennial men’s golf competition between teams from Europe and the U.S., which will be organized for the first time in Italy from September 29 to October 1 at Marco Simone Golf and Country Club in Rome.

Vietnam is the only country in Southeast Asia that the Organizing Committee for the Ryder Cup 2023 has selected as the place for launching such promotional activities.

At the presentation, Ambassador Alessandro expressed his wish for Italy and Vietnam to cooperate in developing golf tourism programs.

The ambassador told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that he had just met with the director of the Italian National Agency for Tourism who was on a visit to Vietnam.

One of the goals of the trip was to explore and establish cooperation opportunities with Vietnam in the fields of sports and tourism, Ambassador Alessandro said.

“Golf is certainly an important area of cooperation in the development of sports tourism between the two countries,” the diplomat affirmed.

The ambassador joined other speakers at the presentation to discuss opportunities and challenges in organizing major golf events and developing the golf movements in both Italy and Vietnam.

As part of the activities promoting the coming Ryder Cup 2023, and also in the framework of the 50th anniversary of Vietnam - Italy diplomatic relations, Vietnam Golf Service Group will host a Vietnam-Italy Golf Tournament at Long Bien Golf Club in Hanoi next Monday.

This friendship tournament, to be run by the group in partnership with the embassy and sports platform We Love Sport, is expected to attract 100 golfers from Italy and Vietnam, the embassy said.

Vietnam welcomed three million foreign golfers in 2019, and the country is now implementing a strategy to attract more golf players from the region as well as from Australia and European countries including Italy, according to the presentation.

Regarding the potential for golf tourism development in Vietnam, Pham Thanh Tri, standing vice-president of the Vietnam Golf Tourism Association, expected golf tourism to yearly contribute up to US$10 billion to Vietnam's tourist industry in the coming years.

Each foreigner visiting Vietnam for golf playing spends two to three times more than a normal foreign visitor to the country, Tri estimated.

The World Golf Awards (WGA) honored Vietnam as the World’s Best Golf Destination in 2019 and 2021, and as Asia’s Best Golf Destination in the five consecutive years from 2017.

The WGA also commented that Vietnam, with 80 golf courses across the country, is “where the golf market is reviving” after the COVID-19 pandemic was kept at bay.

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