Cyprus hosts 150,000 rounds of golf a year, says Minister

Cyprus hosts between 90,000 to 150,000 rounds of golf a year in its three main golf courses, according to Trade and Tourism Minister Antonis Paschalides, who added that about 60,000 of those games played are tourists.
Responding to questions posed by Greens MP Yiorgos Perdikis, the minister said that the golf courses attract high-income tourists who stay in 4- and 5-star hotels and spend much more than the average holidaymaker on the island.
Paschalides said that golf tourism is also a boost to winter tourism and hotel occupancy rates, specially during the low season of October to April, as golfers, due to the harsh conditions in their home countries, prefer the weather in Cyprus for their game. Most of them come from the U.K., with smaller numbers from German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), the Scandinavian countries and some from France and Holland.
However, he admitted that the data compiled by the Statistics Department of the Ministry of Finance has not defined the category of “golf” among the purpose of visit to the island.
The three main golf courses of Minthis Hills (formerly Tsada), Secreta Valley and Aphrodite Hills, were established in 1994, 1996 and 2002, respectively.
There are three other non-commercial golf courses operated by local clubs, all of which are members of the Cyprus Golf Federation. The three are in the UNPA area within the UN-controlled Nicosia airport boundaries, Dhekelia in the Eastern SBA and Episkopi Happy Valley in the Western SBA.