A new industry conversation published this week gets at something worth sitting with: the golf trip itself is evolving, and the resorts paying attention to why are the ones pulling ahead.
European Tour Destinations sat down with Daphne Yuanidis, Senior Consultant at HKS Advisory Services, and David Ashington, General Manager of Golf at Costa Navarino in Greece, to talk through three shifts reshaping golf tourism in real time.
Younger Travelers, Bigger Wallets
Millennials and Gen Z aren’t just showing up to golf travel — they’re increasingly setting the agenda. As Yuanidis put it, travel spend is now “part of their identity” for this generation, and that’s pushing destinations to think past the 18th green. Younger travelers are prioritizing flexibility, authenticity and broader experience over the traditional off-the-shelf golf package.
Ashington’s on-the-ground view from Costa Navarino backs this up in an interesting way: it’s not solo younger golfers driving the change, but multi-generational groups traveling together — families opting for villas and suite-style rooms so they can be together, not just co-located.
Wellness Has Left the Spa
Wellness in golf travel used to mean a spa day tacked onto a golf itinerary. That’s shifting toward what Yuanidis calls “social wellness” — trips built around ritual, nature and a sense of place. One trend getting real traction: “adaptive reuse” lodging, where guests stay in a converted abbey or a historic train station rather than a standard resort tower. Golf, with its deep ties to land and legacy clubhouses, is unusually well-positioned to lean into this — the story of the land is often already there.
The World Just Got Smaller
New narrow-body aircraft are quietly reshaping international golf travel by enabling longer routes with fewer layovers. Combined with infrastructure investment in emerging hub cities — Athens positioning itself as a bridge between Europe, Asia and the Middle East is one example cited — golf destinations that once felt like a serious commitment to reach are becoming realistic additions to a broader trip.
Ashington noted that guests connecting through hubs like Athens increasingly want to build in time for the destination city itself — the Acropolis, the sights — rather than treating the airport as a pure pass-through.
What’s Actually Changed at the Booking Level
Maybe the most concrete data point: the standard pre-COVID golf package — seven nights, five rounds, off the shelf — is giving way to bespoke bookings. Guests are now asking for spa and wellness add-ons, cycling, even yacht hire, layered onto the core golf trip, often wanting guaranteed access to those extras locked in before they book.
The Takeaway for Destinations
The resorts and destinations that come out ahead won’t be the ones with the best course alone — they’ll be the ones that understand modern golf travel is judged on the richness of the whole experience. Course quality gets a golfer in the door. Everything else determines whether they come back.
