A golf player hits a shot toward a putting green on a lake from a tee ground on top of a hill, at Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province, Sept. 23, 2014. (Photo : REUTERS)
Investors from China have purchased 13 golf courses and other properties at the Grand Strand and are doing much promotional work for them, which should boost Chinese tourism to its main city, Myrtle Beach.
A Chinese investment company, Yiqian Funding, has purchased eight Strand golf courses in the past six months, according to Xian "Nick" Dou, a New York-based attorney who represented the company in the transactions.
This comes after the Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce and marketing cooperative Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday have managed to get a widespread promotional campaign for the Grand Strand in China.
It was featured in China's largest cable network, on videos in Chinese international airlines, in magazine articles, other TV shows and billboards.
"We set up a travel department in China to take care of people and take them to Myrtle Beach for golf, shopping, the ocean, everything, even to buy a house," Dou said.
On April 25, the company will bring a group of about 60 from China to Myrtle Beach for a wedding.
Dou also expects group members to experience golf, deep sea fishing, shopping and other area attractions. They are also expected to look at real estate.
"We want them to spend money in Myrtle Beach!" Dou exclaimed.
While the golf course purchases along the Grand Strand are not the largest travel-related Chinese investment in the U.S., these are significant because of the number of golf courses involved and the speed with which deals were closed, said Cassie Gao of the Rhodium Group, which tracks Chinese investment in the U.S.
