Articles

Being able to show current and prospective owners that their timeshare purchase will give them the ability to vacation in multiple places every year for many years to come isn’t always enough to convert anymore. These days, buyers want enduring value and affordability from their purchase and will often actively look elsewhere if there isn’t real depth to what is on offer. One company that understands this better than most is Dial An Exchange (DAE).

HSI’s Craig Morganson is working to dispel myths and repair damage to Mexican Tourism and its impact on travel companies

GNEX 2012 comes to one of Cancun’s premier oceanfront resorts, the Ritz Carlton Cancun, where delegates will have three days to make the most of this absolute must-attend event.

2012 marks the 10th Anniversary of the Christel House Golf international tournament, and this year the European venue will be Badgemore Park Golf Club in Henley-on-Thames.

Teeing off at the local golf course on a Saturday morning is one thing. Teeing off at the Christel House Open charity match is another. It was a memorable day out at Ealing Golf Club, for all the right reasons, on what turned out to be one of the sunniest days of the year…

Cosmopolitan, convenient and chic, city fractionals make sense… so why are they still an untapped market, and which cities offer maximum potential? Fiona Klonarides finds out.

The world-class facilities of Emirates Grand Hotel in Dubai provide Emirates Vacation Club with an innovative concept in residential club membership, specially designed for frequent business and leisure travelers alike.

Opening a new sales office or department? Or just revamping your existing business processes? Whenever a new entity is formed or an existing resort company’s office is retooled to accommodate a revision in the way a product or service is sold, the purchase of software naturally comes into play.

Fiona Klonarides speaks to some of the leading players in the shared ownership industry in Europe and the Middle East about what they are doing – or doing differently – to survive and thrive in the current economy.

Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket are Europe’s leading timeshare resale company with over 30 years’ experience – but that doesn’t mean they are ready to coast along in the same ruts, doing the same things over and over.

You don’t thrive in a particular business for 35 years without being an innovator and leader. And if you’re talking about the shared ownership industry and Interval International, you’re looking at a visionary company that has dramatically enhanced timeshare’s core product for three-and-ahalf decades.

Winner of this year’s Perspective Magazine “Best Newcomer Award”, Karma Spa, the brainchild of Karma Royal Group Chairman John Spence, has received international acclaim for its innovative concept of providing a holistic health and wellness program to the shared ownership market.

More than one hundred delegates, including some of the biggest names in the industry, made their way to
Stretton, near Warrington to attend the annual TATOC conference and annual meeting.

Integrity is one of the pillars of self-esteem. It is an equally essential pillar of effective leadership. An intimate relationship exists between integrity and the ability to inspire trust.

Northern Europe’s most popular holiday club is going places. Following exceptional demand for its weeks (up over 10% last year), Finland’s original shared ownership brand has just injected a new blast of sunshine into its portfolio.

Europe’s must-not-miss shared ownership event, RDO2 Conference ‘Mapping the Journey’ returns to Marbella on 26-28th September 2011

If you have spent any time at all in European timesharing, you will be familiar with the iconic name Anfi. Founded in 1988 by Norwegian entrepreneur Björn Lyng, today the Anfi Group is jointly owned by Anfi International BV and Grupo Santana Cazorla.

The Resort Television Product Allows Resorts To Market Directly To Guests In New Ways To Generate Onsite Revenue And Boost Interval Sales.

Perspective Magazine teamed up with Customer Count® to survey timeshare industry professionals about their feelings
of the current sales process, where they see room for change or improvement and how upfront resorts should be about their unit prices.

Thirty-four accolades were awarded to timeshare and fractional ownership industry companies and professionals during a lavish six course gala dinner that marked the end of the inaugural Global Networking Expo in The Bahamas.

The Networking-Rich Meeting of the Shared-Ownership Industry’s Key Players Fills an Important Niche; Participants Laud Content, Format and Venue

Australia’s Gold Coast continues to unveil extraordinary elements of a collective, billion dollar facelift which is sure to excite Middle Eastern visitors who holiday in the City during 2011 and beyond.

Interval Leisure Group (ILG) is a leading global provider of membership and leisure services to the vacation industry, and has more than 2,800 employees worlwide. But as Nash reflects on the 35th anniversary of ILG’s principal business, Interval International, he credits much of the company’s success to its staff.

Silverpoint Group Holding, led by Chairman Markus Deutsch, was formed with the primary purpose of locating and
developing leisure hospitality assets in growth markets. In late 2010, Silverpoint Group Holding did just that – in a big way – by completing the purchase of assets from Resort Properties Group to create Silverpoint Leisure.

While boutique is a buzz word in the hospitality industry, delivering a truly unique and sensitive atmosphere is not easily obtained – or common. Through the years, we have seentrends move from “tone on tone” to “sea foam” to “black and more black” as a national phenomenon.

Located on 83,000 square meters of land in one of the most beautiful parts of the Northern side of the Island of Malta, The Oasis at Golden Sands is one of the most ambitious and creative developments to come to the market in recent years. The Oasis is set to become Malta’s main landmark and one of the most prestigious addresses within the Mediterranean region.

The Karma Royal Group, led by its entrepreneurial chairman, John Spence, has purchased the Alpen Club from its previous owner, Diamond Resorts, and has acquired Royal Himalayan Club at Shimla, India.

The cloud finally makes cutting edge technology affordable, accessible and easy to use for all resorts whatever their size. Merlin Software for Vacation Ownership, leaders in the development of cloud computing software, is the only resort software you will ever need.

The Hideaways Club comprise two leading international property investment funds which offer members the opportunity to invest in and exclusively enjoy world-class accommodation across the globe.

The American Affluence Research Center is releasing its latest data in conjunction with the Global Networking Expo (GNEX) 2011. The data unveiled at the Bahamas event is the latest in a continuing series of twice-yearly surveys that focus on the 11.4 million households that represent the wealthiest 10% of all U.S. households.

When the doors to Marrakech’s best new address open next spring, Baglioni Hotels will showcase their signature five-star style in Morocco for the very first time. Behind the doors, luxury awaits.

As sales professionals we like to think that we understand the role of emotion in sales. After all, isn’t one of our most basic tenets that clients need to be in an emotional state of mind to make a buying decision? Every sales manager we ever had taught us that…

I can just about walk again after my gruelling charity walk/climb to the very top of the majestic Mount Teide. The conditions were appalling with temperatures dropping to around minus 14 on the day we climbed to the summit!

From sales rep to recently appointed Project Director (PD), Paul Rosen is a perfect example of working the career ladder at Club La Costa Resorts & Hotels.

Established in Australia in 1997, Dial An Exchange has been in business in the European market since 1999 as a relatively new addition to the exchange space globally.

Michael Hobbs of Italian fractional developer Appassionata is a busy man. His demanding schedule consists of the running and maintenance of his luxury and boutique company Appassionata in Le Marche, Italy, with the help of his wife, interior designer Dawn Cavanagh-Hobbs as well as their daughter India and her fiancé Charlie.

As the brand new EU Timeshare Directive comes into force across 27 countries, Fiona Klonarides looks at the positive implications for both the timeshare and fractional industries, and why the new rules promise to be a breath of fresh air for consumers.

Protecting assets and creating opportunities, Citadel Trustees Ltd has been in business for a quarter of a century. As the leisure and property industries turn to the fractional model as the way forward, expertise in fractional structuring is more in demand than ever before.

All of us can think of somebody worthy of the description ‘excellent,’ somebody whose performance is so far above that of their peers it takes our breath away.

Resort TV provides guests with an information portal where they can get everything they need to plan their day, their stay and perhaps even make the decision to buy that interval before heading down the sales office.

Perspective TV, as the platform will be known, will include a number of channels which are to be launched periodically over the next 24 months starting with a currently unnamed channel aimed at consumers and available via the Owners Perspective Magazine website which is on schedule to be launched as a Beta version by the end of Q1 and fully operational by end of Q2.

Resales has been a hotly debated topic for nearly as long as the existence of the timeshare industry itself. Whether it’s the need for a healthy resale industry, the process itself or the need to strengthen consumer protection, resales continues to be a lightning rod for the shared ownership industry.

The first annual conference under RDO’s new name turned out to be a first for a number of reasons. Fractional ownership and social media were high on the agenda for the first time ever and the “new” setting was the five-star Don Carlos Resort in Marbella.

Today, four generations populate the workplace and the marketplace: Matures (born before 1946), Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964), Generation X (born between 1965 and 1979), and Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000).

The one day event in London brought together international delegates, developers, suppliers and marketers – with financing, branding and consumer understanding among the hot topics on a full fractional-focused agenda

The Teide Walk is in aid of Ingane Yami, a charity close to Dougie’s heart; that exists to rescue orphaned and abandoned children trapped in vulnerable circumstances and raise them in a loving family environment in order to restore their life.

While the UK is lapping up one of its best years ever for tourist numbers, one company that has found the sweet spot on the British and Irish holiday front is Natural Retreats. Fiona Klonarides meets founder Matthew Spence, the man behind a brand that is going places – from “best of British” to global in the not too distant future.

Destination resorts have come a long way since the first purpose-built complexes of the ‘60s. In those days, timeshares were about “same place, same time, next year”.

On 11 – 12 November, the Russian Summit will take place at Moscow’s World Trade Centre. The Russian Summit is the only conference and exhibition dedicated to helping international property developers and real estate agents do business in Russia.

Tackling one of shared ownership’s hottest buttons, Perspective Magazine’s Matt McDaniel talks with Worldwide Timeshare Hypermarket Managing Director Phil Watson about why some companies resist being more transparent and how such a move may ultimately doom an operation.