Stop On By the Ho Chi Minh Trail: Vietnam's Newest Tourist Destination!

The New York Times did a story today on the explosion of golf course development in Vietnam.  There are proposed golf course development projects in the country that - if all completed - would give the country some 200 golf courses. 

There are an estimated 5000 golfers in Vietnam.  So, there would be 2.5 golfers per course in the country.  Even if there were 200 Ben Crane clones on every course, rounds would go lightning quick.

But, not so fast, my friend.  The Vietnamese government has halted about fifty of the projects because many developers are using golf courses as a guise for other real estate and land development. 

Credit: Justin Mott, NY Times

Taxes in Vietnam are lower on golf course development, so comapnies are skirting the rules to build courses on about 65% of the land and everything else on the other 35%.  In the process, they're plowing plenty of land that was used formerly for family-based agriculture - and likely the scene of bloody battles in the Vietnam War.

The answer?  According to the Vietnamese government, it is to jack up taxes on golf courses because golf is a game for the wealthy.

For countries that are struggling to bring in tourist dollars, they hope that these massive scale luxury golf developments will bring golfers and their deep pockets.  Unfortunately, it doesn't really work out that way in current or formerly-recent war torn nations. 

Golf is not a panacea.