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Andrea Sartori of KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice EMA.

KPMG recently published four reports on the golf business. Andrea Sartori, head of KPMG's Golf Advisory Practice for EMA, highlights the key findings and insights.

The development of the golf market in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMA) region has been remarkable. In the past 20 to 25 years, the number of courses has been growing by approximately 3% annually, while the number of golfers has increased by 5% annually.

Today there are close to 7100 regular golf courses across the EMA region and around 4.5 million affiliated golfers, in addition to an estimated 1.5 million non-affiliated players.

Like many businesses, golf is globalising, and emerging markets such as India, Eastern Europe, China, South America and North Africa are now seeing significant business opportunities for new courses, resorts and real estate communities.

Since September 2008, KPMG's Golf Advisory Practice for EMA has published four important reports on the golf market as part of our Golf Benchmark Initiative, with the contribution of leading industry players including Leisurecorp, Dubai World Championship, Nicklaus Design, Toro, Club Car and Troon Golf.

The reports - The Value of Golf to Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the Golf Travel Insight report, The Golf Course Development Cost Survey and The Golf Benchmark Survey comparative report for EMA, plus three new regional reports for China, North Africa and South America - are fascinating and exciting, and shed light on a dynamic market.

One key statistic we wanted to put a value on, which had not been researched before, was the subject of a report published at The Ryder Cup in September 2008 - The Value of Golf to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Our research, conducted with Oxford Economics and nine leading golf bodies, calculated that golf generates total revenues of €53 billion (US $68 billion) in EMA, supports almost half a million jobs and pays nearly €10 billion ($13 billion) in wages.

And while golf in the EMA region is about one-third the size of the US golf industry, it is growing fast, especially in the golf tourism and golf real estate sectors.

In fact, our report showed that these sectors now account for almost half of the game's total revenue. Real estate is the number-one money earner, bringing in almost €19 billion ($25 billion), which outstrips the total cash generated from on-course activities including green fees and memberships.

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