Upmarket development plans include a golf course at Lake Burabay in northern Kazakhstan and a smart resort on the Caspian Sea – leaving critics wondering who will frequent such places: wealthy Europeans and South East Asians, after all, are unlikely to choose Kazakhstan as a place to hone their backswing or sun themselves on the beach, they suggest.
Foxtons North America, as the offshoot eventually called itself, had its own Minis, almost 400 staff, and splashy advertising – such as a giant billboard above a tunnel entrance on the road back to New York City from the smart resort of East Hampton.
The only foreign investment of note is in two smart resorts.Yeshey Zimba, the trade minister, says the government no longer limits the number of visitors.
Most visitors go to the north-east, to the touristified fishing port of Alghero, or to smart resorts like Forte Village and Costa Smeralda.
Poverty remains widespread, of course, and some may find it hard to cope with the contrast between the smart resorts and what lies outside their walls.
An average four-bedroom villa of 350 square meters with sea views and 1,000 square meters of land is roughly €3 million to €3.5 million in the southwest but, "in the east of the island, in smart resorts such as Cala D'Or, Puerto Christo or Porto Colum, this would be €2 million," said Mr. Waschke, the Engle & Völkers managing director.
Travellers have been returning to Cancun by the chartered planeload, driven by cut-price packages available even in the smartest resorts, and the sands are once again there to welcome them.
Among the smartest resorts is the Hesperia-Lanzarote, Urbanización Cortijo Viejo, Puerto Calero (34-828) 080-800, www.hoteles-hesperia.es, which, while offering 335 rooms with water views, has adopted the island's indigenous low-slung, whitewashed architecture.
THE casino at the smart Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas is bigger than 20 tennis courts.
Doubles from €50 B&B, +351 219 289 050, arribashotel.com Estoril is a smart beach resort 28 minutes by train from Lisbon.
It was a smart vacation resort in the 1950s and 1960s, but abandoned when the water level rose.
