Surya Nepal Masters, started way back in 1993, is today perhaps the biggest sporting event in its category in Nepal. This event has not only helped develop the sport in this country, it has also helped promote golf tourism and been a proud ambassador for Nepal.

The tournament is sponsored by one of Nepal's biggest private sector organisations, Surya Nepal, a company that has continually invested in enhancing golf's profile and used the sport to promote tourism.

As part of this sustained effort towards building golf tourism, last year Surya Nepal tied up with the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) to take several fresh initiatives, such as event and country coverage by Ten Sports, targeting Indian golf enthusiasts at over 40 golf clubs in the country and inviting prominent Indian tour operators to visit the country for a first-hand look. All that hard work has paid off as golfing tourists from India and elsewhere are arriving in increasing numbers.

Surya Nepal plans to take those initiatives even further this year. In an effort to extending coverage beyond India, the company, in association with NTB and Le Meridien Gokarna Forest Golf Resort and Spa, plans to do extensive promotion in West Asia, South and Southeast Asia. Ten Sports will again be back to feature the best of the event and telecast it to millions in the region.

In addition, Surya Nepal will now be promoting inter-club tournaments with international golf clubs all year round. Held under the Surya Nepal Golf banner, this will be a series of planned tours by golf enthusiasts from countries such as Dubai, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Thailand, Singapore and, of course, India.

As a first, this last weekend a number of golfers from New Delhi were flown to Kathmandu on special packages to compete with locals in the Diwali Golf Tournament under the Surya Nepal Golf banner.

Many more such initiatives are planned during the next few months. The objective is to offer ready-made attractive package deals to willing tourists across the region and to ensure that they have wonderful golfing vacations. These golfers will then be ambassadors for tourism to Nepal and the numbers will only multiply, according to the plan.

Countries like Thailand and Malaysia have benefited immensely by promoting golf tourism. For example, over 100,000 golfers go to play in Thailand each year. Nepal has a comparatively better climate and also offers great golfing, so why miss this opportunity?

Deepak Acharya is a golf instructor and Golf Director at Gokarna Forest Golf Resort & Spa, Kathmandu. prodeepak@hotmail.com