Bangkok, Thailand: Restaurants, hotels, golf clubs and local economies around the region are set to cash in on an increase in the number of large-scale amateur tournaments.

Such has been the success of Golfasian-organised events in recent years that the demand for additions to the calendar is growing.

“When we started running these events more than 10 years ago, hoteliers and courses were unaware of the potential,” said Mark Siegel, Managing Director at Golfasian, a Full Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.

“Now we are being approached by tourist boards asking us to consider creating new events in their regions,” he added.

Last month, Golfasian staged the Centara World Masters in Hua Hin and the Avani Pattaya 2 Ball. Spanning two weeks, the tournaments featured more than 550 amateur golfers from 20 countries.

The impact on the two cities was substantial with income generated through hundreds of room nights for local hotels, while F& B departments were busy organising nightly parties and gala dinners.

In the wake of the success of these gatherings, Siegel said Golfasian has enlarged its future calendar of events with golf vacationers from across the world already signing up for events that are being planned in Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

Siegel said he’s confident that the 2024-25 season will see Golfasian events top the 2,000 competitors who played in the last 12 months.