Marbella courts British golf holidaymakers at Chart Hills Legends Tour

Marbella’s tourism chiefs have taken their golf sales pitch straight onto English turf this weekend, setting up shop at the Staysure English Legends at Chart Hills Golf Club in Kent. Town hall staff say the trip is about more than a polite wave to the cameras. Britain remains one of the Costa del Sol city’s priority markets, and this stop on the Legends Tour is being used to talk packages, tee times and winter breaks with people who actually book them.

Laura de Arce, Marbella’s director general of tourism, put it plainly: presence at Chart Hills lets the city push its product into a market that already knows the Costa del Sol, while opening doors that can turn into real visitor numbers. A promotional stand on site is handing out specialist golf material and merchandising aimed at players, fans and trade contacts rather than generic holiday leaflets.

Why Kent Is impotant for Costa del Sol golf sales

Chart Hills, Sir Nick Faldo’s 1993 design near Ashford, was hosting the English Legends from August 28 to 30. Major winners, Ryder Cup names and familiar faces from the senior circuit are on the card, which gives Marbella a handy backdrop. Officials want the city’s name tied to a respected tour rather than just another travel fair stand. That line of work already includes hosting the Staysure Marbella Legends at Aloha Golf Club earlier this year, so Kent is treated as a follow-up, not a one-off. Readers can catch that February field, including Miguel Angel Jimenez and Colin Montgomerie, in Euro Weekly News’s earlier report.

De Arce argued Marbella can keep golfers on the course almost twelve months of the year, then wrap the round in decent hotels, restaurants, spas and shops. Golfers who spend well are exactly the visitors the town hall wants in quieter months, when beach demand dips but fairways stay playable.

Trade talks with Golfbreaks and Your Golf Travel

Commercial meetings are at the heart of the Kent visit. Delegates sat down with Golfbreaks and Your Golf Travel, two UK specialists who send thousands of British golfers abroad every season. De Arce said those chats let Marbella speak directly to people who influence itineraries, tighten working relationships and look for new ways to sell the destination to British clients.

Town hall wording is unusually blunt for a tourism brief: international events should produce bookings, not just photos. Golf is treated as a high-value product that spreads demand through autumn, winter and spring. Britain already leads Marbella’s foreign visitor list. Last year’s figures cited by the tourism department put British arrivals at around 120,000, with about 500,000 overnight stays, a point also made when the city worked the London travel trade last November.

Whether those Kent conversations produce extra winter tee sheets will show up in next season’s booking books. For now, Marbella is treating Chart Hills as a shop window aimed squarely at British golfers who already like Spain and just need a reason to come back when the beaches are quieter.