Rapidly turning into Turkey's hottest new kid on the block in terms of tourism, Belek is a region on the coast of southern Turkey which includes the town of Belek itself, the city of Antalya and the stunning Aspendos amphitheatre. Here the coastline is scattered with "blue flag" quality beaches, newly developed tourist centres and a variety of historic and cultural attractions.

Turkey was until recently a developing and undiscovered golf destination of Europe but during recent years that position has changed significantly. Scandinavian, German and Italian golfers have known about golfing in southern Turkey for a while but with the help of better media coverage and new operators, the number of British deciding to play their holiday golf in Turkey has increased. The resort of Belek is the centre point for many of the good golf courses in Turkey. Nearby there are lovely beaches, mountains to the north and sunshine for over 80 per cent of the year.

The tourism authorities in the region are keen on quoting numbers to illustrate their attractions, namely 32 top class hotels, over 500 varieties of plants, over 100 varieties of birds and more recently six international standard golf courses.

Golf, and its potential to attract visitors to the region, has certainly been taken to heart by the authorities here and they claim that a further 15 courses are planned to be built in the next 10 years. The previous golf hot spots of southern Spain and the Algarve coast in Portugal are now seeing competition places like Belek and also the island of Mallorca which too is planning new courses.

European golfers are certainly the target market and course designers have been selected from some of Europe's best. Protecting the local environment has also been key so new developments should blend well into the coastline area that sits below the Taurus mountains to the north.

FlyThomascook is now the number one flight operator to Turkey from the UK.