When traveling to popular beach destinations in Mexico, such as the Riviera Maya, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos, return visitors often switch their commonplace style hotel stay to a more permanent investment, such as that offered by long term vacation ownership plans

With the meltdown of the financial markets in 2008, the residual carnage has been widespread and painfully felt by all of us. Many developers, management companies and service providers have closed down or for the foreseeable future, put on hold or severely curtailed plans for new resorts and project developments.

Plantation Resort at Myrtle Beach, a Premier South Carolina Vacation Destination, recently contracted to install the entire TimeShareWare Enterprise suite. Plantation Resort also contracted with TimeShareWare to interface with its credit card and PBX systems.

Liberty’s Resort Finance lending correspondent, Wellington Financial, says the bank closed timeshare loans in February for Grand Timber Lodge and Grand Lodge at Peak 7 projects.

Lennon Communications Group has announced the launch of its new corporate website. The new site, www.lennoncommunications.com, has been crafted to describe the 25-year old company’s primary services of public relations (PR), marketing and advertising with a specialty in the timeshare industry.

Jim Danz RRP and Bill Tsao, Managing Partners of Trident Business Management, have recently selected two new Advisory Partners for their organization, joining other respected executives within the lodging and timeshare sectors of the leisure industry.

Christel House International today announced that Geoff Ballotti, CEO of RCI, the global leader in vacation exchange and one of the Wyndham Worldwide family of brands (NYSE: WYN), has been appointed to the Christel House International Board of Directors.

SPI Software, creators of timeshare software used for marketing, sales, mortgage and maintenance fee servicing, central reservations, property management and operations, is pleased to announce the appointment of Gordon McClendon, vice president of client services, to serve on the Federal Issues Committee of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA).

If you’ve spent any time at ARDA events, you probably have seen Rob Webb. And, chances are, you’ve seen him smiling. That’s for two reasons: (a) he is genuinely friendly, and (b) he loves what he does.

Despite the fact that 2009 was one of the most challenging years for the overall economy, RCI, the world’s largest vacation exchange company and part of the Wyndham Worldwide family of brands, demonstrated that vacation exchange remains a bright spot in the travel industry. By continuing to provide value-added services to assist its developers, RCI attracted several notable new affiliates and grew its membership base in 2009.