Portugal Getting Back Into the Swing of Things
Golf can be the perfect post-COVID 19 bleisure activity for business travellers looking for a safe outlet.
There’s good news coming from one of Europe’s premier golfing destinations. As the first phase of reopening starts in Portugal, Golf courses get the green light to open.
It makes perfect sense! Endless green fairways stretching ahead with nothing but trees and nature for miles, played in twos or small groups that have no need to stand close to each other; golf is the social distancing sport for the times.
It’s also well documented that beyond sport, the golf course is where many of the most groundbreaking decisions, partnerships, deals and sales were ever made. Despite this, perhaps because golf is time-consuming and out of the way of city centres, in the 2010s golf seems to be losing out in popularity.
So could this mean that golf will make a comeback in the post-COVID 19 business world?
A Forbes article states that a whopping 80% of Fortune 500 executives revealed that playing golf enables them to establish new business relationships! There are plenty of reasons why.
On average a round of golf takes up to four hours, providing a unique, tranquil and inspiring setting that allows ample time for business talk and bonding. Players can learn tremendously about the behaviour and ethics of their counterparts just by watching them play, and when they are not on the golf course – the game can provide an engaging topic of conversation that can give provide an effective gateway to a stronger connection and camaraderie.
Whether your client is an entrepreneur that needs to get out there and drum up business, an executive with a pent up desire to get back to meeting and greeting, suggest he get out on the golf course! You won’t regret it.
Great Hotels of the World has 4 spectacular hotels in some of the most renowned destinations in Europe with unforgettable and prized golf courses. The Old Course at Hotel D. Pedro Vilamoura and the Salgados Golf Course at NAU Salgados Palace & Resort in the Algarve. Onyria Quinta da Marinha’s golf course and Golf do Estoril, just minutes from the iconic Hotel Palácio do Estoril both just 30 minutes away from Lisbon’s international airport.
Portugal’s response to COVID-19 has earned international respect as publications like The Financial Times, The Telegraph, Forbes and Der Spiegel have underscored its early and swift approach as key success factors in keeping infection and death rates low in comparison to neighbouring European countries.
