Whatever Thuy Trang, Vietnam’s golf tourism dynamo, lacks in stature she makes up in business skills and success. For the past five years, since establishing Golfasian Vietnam, Trang, 35, has been the driving force behind Vietnam’s rise as a major golf tourism destination in Asia. She and her 11 other staff – seven in Ho Chi Minh City and two each in Danang and Hanoi – built the business...

In April 2010, when Colin Montgomerie played an exhibition round at the course bearing his name near Danang, golf was unknown on the Central Coast of Vietnam. While his score of 68 remains the course record at Montgomerie Links Vietnam, designed by the eight-times European Order of Merit winner, everything else about golf in the region, and even Danang itself, has changed in the ensuing five years. Vietnam’s fourth...

What does it take for a region to become a successful, sought-after international golf tourism destination? Great courses, attractive prices, easy access, an inviting climate, high quality accommodation, beaches, mountains and scenery, a safe environment, interesting local food, culture and history and friendly people are all part of the perfect formula. But few golf destinations can claim all these ingredients, so when a region has the whole package, success...

Bookended by the World Heritage-listed cities of Hoi An and Hue, Danang has emerged as the world’s newest and most exciting golf tourism destination. Ask any reputable golf course designer to nominate his favourite type of land for a new or existing course, and chances are he’ll say, “Duneland beside the sea.” This is, after all, the DNA of some of the world’s great golf courses … in Scotland,...

Vietnam’s boom in golf tourism has been brought about by four distinct, but intimately linked drivers. Firstly, the emergence of the country’s Central Coast region as Vietnam’s version of the Algarve or Costa del Sol. There is also the growing recognition that a region is better served by a few great courses rather than plenty of also-rans. Of course, the cultural and historic attractions Vietnam offers golfers and non-golfers...