The group fulfills an essential role within the travel club and online rental sectors of the industry

With the tourism industry on the rebound in many parts of North America, consumers returning to their shelved vacation plans are creating a new dynamic to the way they prepare their post-recession holidays. Shorter lead times for bookings, combined with adverse publicity for some international destinations and the effect of higher gas prices, have placed additional challenges on travel clubs and online rental outlets to move inventory and fulfill vacation requests.

This changing travel landscape has placed a greater emphasis on personal networking and the need for developing strategic alliances among businesses within the vacation ownership industry, resulting in a very successful spring conference for the Cooperative Association of Resorts Exchangers (CARE) in Deerfield Beach, FL, over May 14-17, 2011, at the Embassy Suites Resort.

An optimistic outlook for the industry spread among the estimated 120 delegates in attendance, but upbeat camaraderie is nothing new for the group according to CARE president Alain Carr of American Resorts International.

“We’re lucky that we really have a great group of people that are open and it’s a family here, open to share ideas with each other and we’re not afraid to discuss our business plans with each other to help foster quality throughout the industry,” said Carr.

That exchange of ideas and emphasis on building business relationships is what draws companies like SellMyTimeshareNow.com to these events. “A very big part of our business is dealing with consumer timeshare rentals,” said Jason Tremblay, CEO, SellMyTimeshareNow. com. “We’re here largely to network and get contacts for inventory and I’ve met a number of people here at this conference where they have incredible inventory and we have all this demand, so it’s a match made in heaven.”

Jeanette Bunn, president, Travel to Go, has been in the travel club business for over 20 years and says “I consider many of the people at this conference as my second family … everybody here is a very close knit group. We build relationships and we’ve been doing business with each other for so many years that you just become really good friends.” Bunn has seen the impact of the difficult publicity surrounding some destinations and how the current economic realities have altered consumer requests for destinations. “I would say it is definitely more of a domestic (U.S.) request that is going through our system. Members are wanting to stay more local … and they are preferring drive-to (destinations) to save on the airfare,” said Bunn.

The conference began with a welcome dinner which included a live and silent auction of donated items from the membership that raised over $13,500 to offset conference costs. Day one saw keynote speaker Bill Repp from Selling Smart facilitate workshops geared toward developing better relationship-building skills which are essential towards maintaining high satisfaction levels among consumers. Repp explained that with the growth of technology has come a need to be more proactive with interpersonal relationships. “It’s almost a correlation between the growth of emails and texting and voicemails and messaging (and) to the extent we do that we don’t connect with people. The more the electronic stuff is used, the more we need to (make) contact with people, be kind to them and be positive with them,” Repp said.

The evening of day one focused on an awards dinner and the presentation of the group’s most prestigious individual honors. The Pinnacle Award recognizes excellent service and achievement within the vacation industry, with nominees required to have worked in the vacation industry a minimum of 15 years. The 2011 winner was Linda Mayhugh, Chief Operating Officer of Advantage Travel / Accommodations Unlimited. The Richard Gallardo Award spotlights a CARE volunteer who has consistently given their time, above and beyond, to the CARE organization and the 2011 recipient was Tina Stafford, Exchange and Wholesale Coordinator with Advantage Travel /Accommodations Unlimited.

The highlight of day two was a presentation by Howard Nusbaum, president, American Resort Development Association, who gave an update on the state of the vacation ownership industry and ARDA’s role in building alliances with groups such as CARE. “The people at CARE are kind of the glue. They’re the ones that really deliver on the dream by making this work and I believe that there are so many things that ARDA and CARE can do together in terms of education, in terms of making sure that the consumer gets what they pay for, working together on our Travel Club Task Force, working with the AIF on the research area,” said Nusbaum. “At the end of the day, it’s about the consumer. It’s about better vacationing and timeshare is going through a new evolution, a new iteration and there’s going to be more term product out there and I have huge respect for what the members of CARE do and I want them to see ARDA as a resource.”

“I think developers can learn a lot from CARE because in the old days it was all about lead generation and hook tours. Today, robust rentals are a way to introduce a new generation of potential timeshare owners in a softer, more retail way. And I think that robust rental programs are the future, and understanding how to package that right, and I think CARE is ahead of ARDA on that,” Nusbaum added.

The Travel Advantage Network’s Spring Break Bash 2011 brought day two to a
rousing conclusion and included an off-site dinner and dancing event with live reggae music in Ft. Lauderdale. The conference finished the next day with the CARE Gives Back event as about 25 members visited the NE Focal Point Senior Center in Deerfield Beach. They spent the morning volunteering in the various day care facilities  which cater to special needs adults, child care and care for people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Some volunteers  participated in crafts, sing-alongs and reading sessions while others worked in the thrift shop and on the grounds doing landscaping and painting jobs.

“I think CARE is a great place to keep some good, grounded values that we have to have; that we take care of our clients. It’s not a situation where we want to sell something and send someone down the road with something that they can’t use, can’t afford or are unhappy with. This group of people is a major contributing factor as to why people are satisfied in the industry,” Carr said. [/member]

Tags: CARE, consumers, Cooperative of Resorts Exchangers, Deerfield Beach, Embassy Suites Resort, North America, Rental, tourism, travel club, vacation