May brings the grand event for European golf tourism to the south of Gran Canaria: the IAGTO 2025 European Convention, a top-level event that will turn Maspalomas into a meeting point for tour operators, courses, hotel chains, and international destinations. Among the attendees, one of the most active will be Morocco, which is taking advantage of the opportunity to promote its extensive network of courses through Madaef Golfs, with Royal Golf El Jadida prominently represented.
While Las Palmas continues its policy of attracting, or extracting, tourism from the southern part of the island to the urban chaos of the "thousand and one unfinished projects," Morocco is also grazing land in the economic capital of the Canary Islands, strengthening its brand among European golf professionals with an ambitious agenda. Networking, meetings, and direct promotion in one of the most established destinations in the segment. The race for premium tourists is also played out on the green... and Gran Canaria is now a shared course. Morocco already receives 17 million tourists a year.
Morocco is coming to the archipelago's tourist capital not as a spectator, but as a commercial agent in the midst of a promotional offensive, with the clear intention of attracting international tour operators to its golf courses in El Jadida, Marrakech, or Agadir. In golf, a sport that arrived in Morocco in 1914, Turismo de Marruecos is giving the Canaries a run for their money in promotion. For example, since 2023, Netflix has established a strategic partnership in that market aimed at promoting golf in Morocco internationally under the brand "Morocco, Land of Light." This collaboration began with the integration of the Morocco brand into the recently held Netflix Cup. The 2023 event, for example, featured Formula 1 drivers and PGA Tour golfers, marking Morocco's presence as an official destination, benefiting from visibility through the communication channels deployed by Netflix, reaching more than 247 million subscribers.
The paradox is hard to ignore: Maspalomas serves as a springboard for Morocco to attract high-end European tourism, using the Canary Islands' infrastructure and prestige as a platform, but diverting flows to its shores. A vivid metaphor for what has been happening for years on the island itself: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria also uses the south as a tourist attraction, selling urban city breaks with excursions to the chaos of endless construction work and jammed buses. The economic capital of the Canary Islands, unable to retain large international flows on its own, fishes in the calm waters of the south. Morocco, with fewer qualms, does the same, but on a grand scale. The south sets the stage, and others—once again—steal the show.
