Industry professionals from across America gather to strategize and build consensus for 2012

Talk of the stalled U.S. economy and a fractured national political process wasn’t enough to dampen optimism during the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) Fall Conference, held November 9-11, 2011 at The Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.

About 400 professionals from the vacation ownership industry met to discuss association projects that are in the works for 2012 as well as issues concerning the secondary market and prospects for the approaching U.S. Presidential election.

“I was really pleased. This was our best attendance in five or six years,” said ARDA president and CEO Howard Nusbaum. “During the meltdown from the financial debacle, many ARDA members had a lot of layoffs, were going through a lot of change and turmoil and the attendance at both our big convention and fall conference was compromised because of that. To see us have numbers that are the best, I think, since ’05 or ’06 tells me that the industry is healthier again and that people are eager to come together.”

The Secondary Market
ARDA released statistics indicating the significant impact of resales on the overall sales process as 43 percent of consumers they surveyed had bought an interval through a non-developer avenue at some time over the last two years. According to the survey, the median price of a timeshare on the resale market is $8,000.

The rest of this article is for registered users only.
Login now or Register Free Here for full access to all articles, groups and forums.

Tags: American Resort Development Association, ARDA Fall, economy, US