Delegate registration is open now for the first annual Global Networking Expo & Perspective Magazine Awards Gala. It may seem a bit early to be thinking about a vacation ownership and timeshare industry event that doesn’t occur until May of 2011, but perhaps not when you consider how special this one promises to be. The venue is the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas and as Perspective Magazine explains, this global expo and gala promises to bring together, “…industry leaders from North America, Europe & Middle East, Asia Pacific and South Africa for two days of exciting sessions and workshops, products and services expo and to honor the very best in the timeshare and fractional industry…”

Delegate registration is now open for GNEX 2011 with an amazing early bird discount of sixty percent off on-site accommodations at the Atlantis Resort. Rooms for the early registrants are blocked at $159 per night at this Paradise Island resort in Nassau, Bahamas.

Click here for more information and to register

And more information about the fabulous Atlantis Resort for planning this trip and many others is available at:

Atlantis Timeshare Resales

Atlantis Timeshare Rentals

Harborside Timeshare Resales

Harborside Timeshare Rentals

Earlier this month, the Festiva Hospitality Group – Resorts Blog posted a comprehensive rundown of what you need to know about timeshare exchange as a Festiva timeshare owner. Here are some of the highlights and be sure to read: Exchanging Your Festiva Week for more information.

Festiva timeshare owners, as members of Festiva Hospitality Group, have the opportunity to exchange timeshare through either RCI Exchange (Resort Condominiums International) or II (Interval International). When you use your Festiva timeshare as a timeshare exchange, you first need to bank or deposit your existing timeshare. This can be done as far in advance as 12 months or as close as 14 days from your timeshare use date.

You’ll want to know whether you own a fixed week or a floating week as the process for deposit varies slightly. If you do not know, contact Festiva’s Owners Services Department. The exchange company (either RCI or II) will also want to know your resort code; unit size; check-in date; unit number and confirmation number. If your timeshare is at a Festiva Hospitality Group managed resort, the reservation specialist will likely handle these details for you and then provide you with a confirmation number for your deposited timeshare unit or interval.

Deposit Your Timeshare Exchange and Let the Adventure Begin

Once your deposit is confirmed, you now essentially have “money in the bank” for exchanging. When it comes to timeshare exchange, there are two important keys to consider: Deposit as early as possible and be flexible. Adhering to the first key provides you the maximum opportunity to get the timeshare exchange date or destination you most desire. But following the second key opens the door to endless possibilities for adventure, exploration, and perhaps the vacation you might never have thought of without the inspiration of timeshare exchange.

Don’t fall for the misinformation that says timeshare exchange is difficult… instead, gain the full, life-enriching potential of timeshare ownership by using your Festiva timeshare for timeshare exchange. Contact the Festiva Hospitality Group’s Owner Services Department at 866-933-7848 or by email at ownerservices@festiva.travel and let the fun and adventure begin!

Eleven leaders of the travel, tourism, hotel and timeshare industry have been appointed by U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to serve on the Board of Directors for the Corporation for Travel Promotion.

The CTP, is the newly established non-profit corporation developed to promote tourism and travel to the United States; it was created through the Travel Promotion Act of 2009. (Read more here: Travel Promotion Act Signed. What Does it Mean to Tourism, Timeshares, and the US Economy? Travel Promotion Act Could Bring Mega Dollars to Campgrounds, Timeshare Parks, and RV Parks)

Over 8 million US jobs hinge on the travel and tourism industries in America along with $1.3 trillion of our economy. Roughly one in every sixteen Americans works in some aspect of travel and tourism. The need for a united focus on tourism was critical. With the flow of international tourists already in decline over the last decade, as the US economy began to tank, there was simply no acceptable margin for additional loss.

While other countries have long operated ministries of tourism, proactively seeking to market their country as an international vacation destination, the US casually relied on its ‘drawing power’ to sustain if not grow tourism. But add safety concerns following September 11, 2001, to the growing cost of travel and the increasing development of tourism markets in other countries, and international tourism to the US fell into a steady downturn.

Make no mistake about it; this industry is vital to our national and ultimately global economies. The eleven individuals serving on the Board of Directors carry incredible responsibility.

The Timeshare Industry Represented

New Board appointee, Stephen J. Cloobeck, is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Resorts International® timeshare. With more than 25 years of experience in development, construction, management, operations, marketing and sales of timeshares, vacation ownership resorts, hotels, and retail shopping centers, he is uniquely qualified to serve on the Board of Directors for the CTP.

Three years ago, Stephan Cloobeck acquired Sunterra Corporation, bringing the publicly traded timeshare sales and development company into a privately-held operating entity that came to be Diamond Resorts International timeshare.

Today Diamond resorts includes more than 150 branded and affiliated resorts located throughout North America, the Caribbean, Asia, Europe, Australia and South Africa. With nearly 400,000 member/ owners, Diamond Resorts International is thriving brand and a tribute to Cloobeck’s vision and leadership.

In addition to Cloobeck, the CTP Board Members are:

• Al Weiss, President, Worldwide Operations, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Orlando, Florida
• Caroline Beteta, President and CEO, California Travel & Tourism Commission, Sacramento, California
• Daniel Halpern, President and CEO, Jackmont Hospitality, Inc., Atlanta, Georgia
• Diane Shober, Tourism Director, State of Wyoming, Cheyenne, Wyoming
• George Fertitta, CEO, NYC & Company, New York, New York
• David Lim, Chief Marketing Officer, Amtrak, Washington, D.C.
• Roy Yamaguchi, Owner and Founder, Roy’s Restaurant, Newport Beach, California
• Lynda S. Zengerle, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP, Washington, D.C.
• Mark Schwab, Senior Vice President-Alliances, International and Regulatory Affairs, United Airlines, Chicago, Illinois
• Tom Klein, President, Sabre Holdings, Southlake, Texas

Follow this link to learn more about the Travel Promotion Act: http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/about/Travel_Promotion_Act.html

Diamond Resorts® and Diamond Resorts International® are registered trademarks of Diamond Resorts Holdings, LLC. SellMyTimeshareNOW, LLC is not affiliated with Diamond Resorts Holdings, LLC in any way.

Once again, a timeshare company earns honors as a top employer. This time the kudos go to Wyndham Worldwide, the parent company of Wyndham Hotels and Wyndham Vacation Ownership, for making the Working Mother Magazine 100 Best Companies List.

Employing nearly 17,000 people, 54 percent of the Wyndham workforce is female. Mary Falvey, Chief Human Resource Officer and Executive Vice President of Wyndham Worldwide, explains the company’s mindset like this, “As a mother myself, I can personally attest to Wyndham Worldwide’s passion to make our company a great place for women, especially moms, to work and pursue their careers. Securing a spot on Working Mother’s list is particularly exciting for us because we continually look to introduce new programs, opportunities and resources for all of our associates. We fully admire and support our company’s moms and their desire and ability to balance the rewarding yet demanding job of being a mother with their professional goals and responsibilities.”

Companies making the prestigious list were evaluated based on a 600-question survey. The questionnaire looked at workforce issues, childcare, compensation, flexibility, leave policies, and other criteria that simply set some employers apart from the rest. In this year’s evaluation, a special emphasis was given to flexibility, benefits, and paternal leave policies.

Here are some of the perks and benefits that helped Wyndham earn this recognition:

• Associated receive large discounts at thousands of luxury resorts.
• Employees working in timeshare exchange and Wyndham timeshare rentals earn a free seven-day resort stay each year.
• Flex time is the norm, with many associates telecommuting, compressing their work weeks or adjusting their days around their children’s schedule.
• Wyndham timeshare’s At-Home Agent program allows customer service representatives to work full-time from home. (Curious how well this works? Studies have shown that the performance of At-Home Agents meets or exceeds that of their peers in the office.)
• The Wyndham headquarters offers employees use of a 6,300 square foot fitness center that is open from 6:30 AM to 7:30 PM.

When you think about it, a timeshare company really should have a special understanding of the physical and psychological benefits of rest, relaxation, and leave time. And you have to think that all those well-vacationed Wyndham timeshare employees are relaxed, focused, and enthusiastic to help their timeshare owners and future owners enjoy all that Wyndham timeshare has to offer.

The 2010 (ARDA) American Resort Development Association Fall Conference will be here before you know it with early bird registration ending on October 1. You can register online or by downloading a registration form and faxing it to (202) 289-8544.

This timeshare industry event will take place on November 10-12 and be hosted at The Fairmont in Washington, DC. The conference will begin with registration, committee meetings, a VIP Longue sponsored by ResortCom International, and the Opening Night Reception, sponsored by RCI. The Trustee Foundation Dinner, sponsored by Wells Fargo Capital Advisors, will be hosted at the United States Chamber of Commerce, just steps away from the White House.

Thursday’s schedule will include the VIP Longue, committee meetings, the legislative luncheon, and the general session with Keynote Speaker. That evening, the closing night reception, sponsored by Interval International, will be hosted at The Westin Grande.

Friday’s breakfast sessions feature speaker Mark Halperin. Halperin is the co-author of the bestselling book, Game Change, and is Senior Political Analyst for Time Magazine and MSNBC.

A Vibrant Future for Timesharing and Timeshare Owners

Although the Fall ARDA Conference is typically not as large as the springtime annual event, this is a critical meeting for all involved in the timeshare industry. Never has the need been greater for timeshare developers, management companies, and timeshare resales companies to work together collectively to ensure a vibrant future for the product, the millions of timeshare owners across the US, and all of the individuals who rely on the timeshare industry for their livelihood.

Where are you going tomorrow?

I hope your answer includes a few days at your timeshare, plus a National Park or one of the 1400 museums nationwide that are participating in Museum Day. With so many timeshare resorts offering the flexibility of one, two, or three-day vacations and the opportunity to pair it with free entertainment, you can wind up with a mini-vacation that’s very kind to the wallet.

Museum Day is a one-day event, started some six years ago, that originated when the Smithsonian Magazine began publicizing it to their readership, an average of roughly 7 million people monthly. Created as a time of free admission to museums across the country, Museum Day generates visibility and enthusiasm for museums that often operate on limited marketing budgets.

You can find the full list of participating museums at the Smithsonian Magazine website. Register on the site to download and print a free admission ticket at your selected museum. You’ll find the list, organized by state, in a drop-down menu on the online registration form.

If your idea of fun is more outdoor-bound than a day at the museum, tomorrow, September 25, happens to also be Public Lands Day in all of the US National Parks, providing free park admission. This is one of five times this year that the National Parks system opens its doors to the public offering free admission. National Park Week, in April, provided a full week of free park admission; June and August each a free weekend; and Veterans Day (November 11) will also be a free park admission day across the country.

Short-Stay Timeshare Vacations

With just a little planning, you can do yourself and your family a lot of good in a very short amount of time. Maybe your busy schedule or your tight budget didn’t permit you to take that vacation abroad you’ve always dreamed about. Perhaps you can’t even remember your last trip to the beach or your favorite ski resort.

But just because you can’t go grand scale, remember the value of even a short vacation or timeshare holiday. Today’s opportunities to break up your usual timeshare week into shorter stays or to rent timeshare for that much-needed getaway, make it possible for you to indulge in some well-deserved down time.

News sources across South Carolina and within the timeshare industry itself have been abuzz over a proposal to the South Carolina Tax Realignment Commission. The proposal, drafted by a subcommittee of the state’s Tourism Alliance and the state’s Chamber of Commerce Tourism Committee, calls for adding South Carolina’s existing accommodations tax to timeshare maintenance fees statewide. It’s a move that some critics say looks suspiciously like an attempt to squeeze more money out of those who already do so much to support the state’s tourism economy.

Ironically, the South Carolina Tax Realignment Commission is a state legislature-appointed committee tasked with, “…maintaining and enhancing the state as an optimum competitor in the effort to attract business and individuals to locate, live, work, and invest in the state.” Yet a proposal to tax South Carolina timeshare owners through both the taxes they already pay by way of their annual maintenance fees and again as a tourist tax added to these same fees serves not as an attraction, but as a serious deterrent.

Accommodations taxes (also called tourist or bed taxes) are an add-on tax to hotel and motel rooms, and in many states to any short-term apartment or vacation home rental. Presently, South Carolina timeshare owners do not pay this tax, but they do pay other taxes that benefit state revenues. Through their annual maintenance fees, timeshare owners pay the property or real estate taxes at their home resort– properties often assessed as high-dollar developments built on prime real estate.

Additionally, the annual fee paid by timeshare owners provides the funds for the timeshare’s HOA to pay the payroll taxes on the resort staff as well as sales taxes on any items purchased by the resort, such as cleaning supplies or building materials. Annual fees, which are paid whether or not an owner uses the timeshare, also pay utility taxes on the resort’s use of phone, water, cable, satellite, electricity, and gas.

And it doesn’t stop here…

If a residential property owner in South Carolina rents his property to someone else for a short-term stay, the property owner is responsible to pay the accommodations tax on his rental income. Likewise, when South Carolina timeshare owners use their timeshare as a rental, they currently pay both their maintenance fee to the resort (which goes in part to pay property taxes) and the accommodations tax on the money received by renting. In other words, they follow the same rules all other South Carolina homeowners follow.

Jason Gamel, vice president of state government affairs for the American Resort Development Association, reinforces the position that timeshare owners are already South Carolina taxpayers in the form of property taxes, and describes the premise on which this new proposal is based as faulty. “A timeshare owner,” Gamel explains, “is a real property owner in the state of South Carolina. It’s no different than someone owning a second home.”

As individual consumers, timeshare owners in South Carolina (and other states) make a rock-solid contribution to local economies through the taxes they pay on the goods and services used during their holidays and by the economic influx of the actual dollars they spend while on vacation. Earlier this month ARDA released a study developed in conjunction with Ernst & Young, which shows that for 2009, the economic impact of the timeshare industry on the U.S. economy was $68 billion, with $8.4 billion of that coming in the form of taxes.

Perhaps the handful of South Carolina hoteliers who are behind this double-taxation proposal haven’t fully considered that today’s economy has already turned ‘walking away from’ into an option many homeowners and timeshare owners consider viable if faced with a mortgage they are struggling to pay. As the federal government works to find ways to help homeowners save their ownership, how inappropriate is it for a state government to attempt to implement standards that make it more difficult than ever for real property owners in the form of timeshare owners to hang on to their ownership?

Since 1969, ARDA has been working to support the needs of timeshare owners, strengthen the industry, and help effect legislation that protects and preserves the rights and privilege of timeshare. They have promised to “put up fierce opposition” to this tax and all us who make up the timeshare industry should stand with them in support of South Carolina timeshare owners and the future of the timeshare industry there.

Mexico timeshare is trying very hard to hammer out new guidelines. In fact, the rules that govern the sale of non-deeded Mexico timeshare have been undergoing a revision process that now moves into its third year.

Currently operating under administrative regulations called “Norma Oficial Mexicana NOM-029-SCFI-1998” (sometimes referred to as NOM), these rules were first set in place in 1999. The Mexico timeshare sales impacted by the current rules and by the new standards, which are part of the legally mandated updating process, are called: servicio de tiempo compartido. Loosely translated this means: time sharing service.

The new regulations are scheduled to take effect mid-October of this year. But if you own Mexico timeshare, or are considering selling it or wish to buy Mexico timeshare in the future, these new rules may affect you. Moreover, many timeshare owners, along with others in the Mexico timeshare industry, may think they understand the changes without realizing that the changes themselves have changed, with significant provisions included in a May 17, 2010 re-draft.

And it is because of the ongoing confusion about what exactly is being implemented that the Ministry of the Economy has opened a second comment period, which expends until September 27, 2010. If the new revisions are accepted, some of the important changes will include:

• Sales contracts must be further augmented to include an explanation of how assessments will be calculated and paid. Developers are also expressly obligated to notify purchasers of any changes in those provisions.
• A purchaser’s rescission right can be exercised by mail, but not by e-mail as contemplated in the initial drafts of the Proposed NOM.
• Termination of a timeshare plan will no longer require the advance permission of administrative authorities.

Speak Out on the Proposed Mexico Timeshare Guidelines

You can make your comments heard on the issues noted here or any other part of the Proposed NOM. The comment period ends on September 27, 2010, and any comments submitted must be in Spanish. You can submit your comments by mail, fax or email to the following address:

Comité Consultivo Nacional de Normalización de Seguridad al Usuario

Información Comercial y Prácticas de Comercio

Avenida Puente de Tecamachalco #6

Colonia Lomas de Tecamachalco

Sección Fuentes

Naucalpan de Juárez

53950, Estado de México

Facsimile: 55 20 97 15

To view the current NOM and the proposed changes, visit: http://dof.gob.mx (This site is in Spanish)

We’ve run into this list before. So it is no surprise that yesterday on “The Early Show“, when CBS News Business and Economic Correspondent Rebecca Jarvis made a list of items that are better to buy new and items that are best bought used, timeshare made the list.

Care to guess which side of the list—new or used—timeshare falls under? Right, that’s easy. Along with jewelry, office furniture, DVDs, books, and sports equipment, you will find timeshares, all identified as items that are you are smarter to purchase used rather than new.

But the article makes a critical point: buying timeshare (new or as a resale) isn’t right for everyone. However, you may be like millions of timeshare owners worldwide, for whom timeshare is an excellent way to enjoy a life time of vacations. As CBS News explains, “On average, (by buying timeshare resales) you’ll save 67 percent on the price for a comparable new timeshare.”

Besides buying timeshare resale, the news story also offers another suggestion, “If you’re new to timeshare ownership, give it a test run first by renting short term.” This too is sound advice. Renting timeshare helps you understand more about the lifestyle and the opportunities of timesharing. Renting timeshare is a great way to experience a particular resort firsthand, sizing it up for service, cleanliness, and amenities before you buy. And when you rent timeshare, you often have an excellent opportunity to talk to other vacationers who are current owners at the resort, hearing from them the positives and any negatives about their experience as timeshare owners.

The Russia Summit is a new event designed to welcome fractional and timeshare real estate developers to the vacation ownership market in Russia. Scheduled for November 11 and 12, at Moscow’s World Trade Center, the conference describes itself as the only such event, “dedicated to helping international property developers and real estate agents do business in Russia.”

Among the speakers and panelists will be:

• Elena Yurgeneva, Head of Residential, Knight Frank, who will speak on Selling international property to the Russian investor market.
• Paul Riley, Managing Director, Unique Developments; branded as YooBulgaria and known for successfully raising prices in the midst of an economic downturn and even yielding more sales.
• Nick Turner, The Registry Collection’s Vice President and Head of Business Development for Europe. Turner will be part of a panel discussion on “Selling Fractionals to Russian Buyers”.

In the world of timeshare, vacation ownership, and fractionals, Russia may not be the first venue that comes to mind, yet clearly it is an emerging market. When you go to Google.ru (Google’s Russian search engine) and type the word “timeshare” in your browser, the very first organic listings that come up in your search engine results will include Wikipedia, for a definition of the timeshare, and then multiple web pages for Sell My Timeshare NOW. You may even find The Timeshare Authority blog, right there on page 1.

When you buy, rent, or sell timeshare or fractional properties, the marketplace is truly global.

To learn more about The Russia Summit, go to www.RussianSummit.com or call +7 495 253 81 58