Puerto Rico’s Golf Resorts Put New Spin On Luxury

This seaside stretch, a half-hour’s drive east of the airport in San Juan, is not placid in midday. Construction equipment rumbles through the beachfront while workers sweat out installing the marble floors and granite countertops in developer Donald Trump’s latest Caribbean venture.

The 700-villa Trump International Golf Club and Residences is among several golf resorts on this Caribbean island that are either under construction or being upscaled. Some have famous course designers like Robert Trent Jones, and many are attached to luxury resorts with well-known hotel brand names like St. Regis and Mandarin Oriental.

Golf is one of three tourism niches being targeted for promotion here, along with water sports and food, said Mari Jo Laborde, deputy executive director of marketing and promotions of the Puerto Rico Tourism Company.

Golf is a big part of the island’s “Explore Beyond the Shore” campaign highlighting activities outside beaches, she said. And although Puerto Rico has long been a golf destination, the combination of a growing local golf market and a drive to attract more affluent tourists is putting an emphasis on luxury.

This might seem like a risky approach given the current economic downturn. Puerto Rico, like many tourism destinations, is experiencing a drop in visitors, with a 3 to 5 percent decline projected for the near future.

But hoteliers and course owners are hoping that a more affluent crowd will be less vulnerable to the economy’s swings than the package-tour-and-cruise market concentrated around the port of San Juan.

While most golf resorts have traditionally been located in the greener northern coast, the last couple of years have seen new courses appear in the more arid south. In Guayama, on the southeast coast, veteran golf pro Chi Chi Rodriguez designed the course in El Legado, his 200-villa resort, and the Hilton Ponce Resort in the southern coast recently opened a country club with 27 holes of PGA championship play.