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Timeshare: Where is the industry headed? (Part II)
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The Timeshare Examiner has been responding to an inquiry from a reader, in the industry, who recently sent me a very interesting question.
"Mark, do you have a sense of where the timeshare industry is headed in general?....."
Rather than answer, I've turned the question over to a number of people inside the industry, for their take. Today we hear from Piers Brown, editor of Fractional Life, in England; Piers will be hosting the 3rd Annual Fractional Life Expo this coming week.
Piers responds:
"In Europe, it’s generally a gloomy picture but it could over time improve. The Press stories are generally negative and there’s lots of inherent distrust amongst consumers despite Resort Developer Organisation’s best efforts.
There is however a lot of positive work being done by quality timeshare operators moving into the fractional ownership space with genuine ‘equity based’ offerings. In the current downturn the savvy operators are being successful simply upselling their timeshare owners to a higher priced fractional offering.
The recent RDO consumer fractional and timeshare website launches (www.gofractional.org www.gotimeshare.org) will help timeshare’s reputation over the long term
I believe www.FSOTA.org’s recent decision to sit inside RDO will also benefit both markets moving forward."
I think Piers is correct on many of his conjectures. Historically, timeshare in Europe has not enjoyed the same degree of name recognition that it has here in the states. On the other hand, in ignorance, there is bliss. It doesn't carry the same negative connotations that the industry is still recovering from due to early missteps in the United States. I think this relatively quiet time in the apparent growth of the industry will allow for the industry, globally to reposition itself, have fractional and traditional timeshare come to better grips about how they can work together more effectively, both from a legislative stand point and a marketing standpoint, to better serve related, though different markets.
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