Just before the holidays, Marriott Vacation Club timeshare associates in Aruba were celebrated for their professionalism and performance with a gala event. Honoring the success of those working in the timeshare industry is important, but it also serves as a way for timeshare owners, buyers, and renters to identify resorts where service and standards are likely to be outstanding.

Project Director Bettina Gonzalez, who heads Marriott Sales & Marketing Department, points out, “The Aruba team consistently ranks among the top rated departments within the entire Marriott Vacation Club International network. It is evidence not only of the quality of our tourism professionals, but the successful relationship Marriott holds with Aruba. The synergy of associate support and the skills of sales and marketing staff have yielded excellent results.”

Gonzalez credits much of the tremendous growth in vacation ownership at Aruba Marriott Surf Club, Ocean Club and increases in MVC’s Destinations program enrollment to Aruba’s success.

Leading by Example, at Marriott Timeshare

The list of honorees was long and included the announcement of the J. Willard Marriott Award of Excellence recipient along with ‘Sapphire’ top producer awards.

The J. Willard Marriott Award of Excellence was the highest form of associate recognition presented and was awarded to Marketing Executive Gisela Sa, for, “… her efforts in consistently exceeding expectations, leading by example and enhancing the lives of her co-workers, customers and neighbors with her commitment to service excellence.”

Good job Marriott Aruba timeshare team! When you excel, everyone who is a timeshare owner or timeshare renter at the Marriott Vacation Club Aruba is a winner.

A recent poll conducted by the Bank of Montreal found that the majority of Canadians who are planning a winter vacation, are weary of the staycation concept and plan to actually leave home and head for a vacation destination—typically a warmer climate.

Forty-five percent of Canadians surveyed were traveling over the holiday season and more than half of them were planning a warm and sunny vacation. Overall, the number of Canadians who have the flexibility to travel this winter yet are electing to stay home instead is down to only six percent compared this past summer when the staycationers accounted for forty-three percent.

BMO deputy chief economist Doug Porter looks at these numbers as a sign of a hopeful economy. Porter explains, “Consumer confidence is up since the summer lull and significantly higher than levels seen during the recession. While we haven’t yet returned to pre-recession levels, the latest trend is nonetheless encouraging.”

US Timeshare and Canada Timeshare Buyer Opportunities

Today’s value of the Canadian loonie is nearly the same as that of the US dollar and while that doesn’t sound very encouraging for the US economy, there are benefits. Never before has it made such great economic sense for Canadian vacationers to visit the US and for them to buy US timeshare resales and US timeshare rentals. (And of course it has always been a good idea to take advantage of the great deals on Canada timeshare resales.)

Vacationing Canadians will likely mean a strong and much appreciated boast to the US travel economy during the winter months. This influx will also mean an expanded opportunity for timeshare owners who want to sell their US timeshare to Canadians that are looking to make the most of the current currency exchange rates.

Economic note: On Wednesday December 29, 2010, the Canadian dollar (the loonie) was trading at a greater value than the US dollar (as high as $1.0025 US at about 3:25 a.m. ET) but dropped to just under the US dollar later in the day. The loonie last reached parity with the US dollar on November 10 of this year.

Source: The Toronto Sun

Feeling the winter chill yet in your neighborhood? Too much shoveling and plowing needed to uncover the street where you live? Or perhaps you just need a break from the gloves, boots, and parkas that are dripping small, icy puddles in your entryway…

Time for some sun, sand and a timeshare rental. Do these pictures do it for you?

Yes, you could have on your shorts and your flip-flops; be sitting poolside or on the beach; and even be sipping a coconut drink as you listen to the wind in the palms and the waves on the shore. It’s as easy as a timeshare rental. It’s as affordable as a timeshare rental.And it’s waiting for you as soon as you book a timeshare rental.

Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort & Spa

While there’s hundreds—thousands—of places you may choose to go to thaw out for a little while, none is any more tempting that the Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort and Spa in Castries, St. Lucia.

Located in the Caribbean West Indies, this tropical paradise was voted Number 1 Honeymoon Destination for 2010.

At the Windjammer Landing Villas timeshare rentals, you will find one-bedroom retreats, each with a large living room and kitchen, a private terrace and dining area, plus a spacious bedroom. For family vacations, you can select a two or three bedroom villa, many with private plunge pools.

Timeshare rental is easy and affordable. And with the weather much of the country is experiencing lately, there will never be a better time.

Explore opportunities to buy timeshare or rent timeshare at this and other beautiful Caribbean timeshare resorts.

Executive Quest, Inc., assists Sage Marketing Group Works in placing two key personnel hires at Trophy Run’s Lakefront Resort (fractional) in Branson, Missouri.

Sage Marketing Group, Inc, specializes in direct marketing and sales strategy. By partnering with Executive Quest, Inc, a firm known for placing executives in the timeshare, fractional and vacation ownership industries, two key positions were filled at Trophy Run’s Lakefront Resort In Branson, Missouri.

This 340-unit luxury fractional community is waterfront, with Adirondack-style cabins and 900’ of shoreline on scenic Lake Taneycomo in Branson; it is affiliated with Interval International. Offering both fractional ownership and whole ownership, the secluded community is ‘Energy Star Certified’ making it one-of-a-kind for the Branson area.

In filling the Director of Sales and the Director of Marketing positions, Ron Roberts, President and CEO of Sage Marketing Group, Inc. said, “I’ve known Keith Trowbridge (President of Executive Quest) for some thirty years … when the opportunity arises in our projects, we never hesitate to work through Keith and his Executive Quest, Inc. executive search firm for key personnel in the fractional/vacation ownership industry.

“We were quite pleased with EQI’s applicant base and found a number of excellent professionals for the Trophy Run project, its Director of Marketing and its Director of Fractional Sales. The main problem is that ALL the candidates were so qualified and appropriate for the positions that I needed to fill, that I had a hard time deciding on the final applicants.”

Click here for more on Branson vacation ownership opportunities.

More from The Timeshare Authority on Executive Quest.

Timeshare Industry in Modest Recovery Says Timeshare Industry Expert

More Timeshare and Fractional News from the CRDA Annual Conference

Wrapping up our week of The Timeshare Authority blog posts about good deeds and goodwill spread by the timeshare, tourism, and hospitality industry this season is our congratulations to the Festiva Hospitality Group for a job well done at their 7th Annual Holiday Charity Auction. Held at Festiva timeshare’s headquarters in Asheville, North Carolina, in this year’s event, Festiva employees managed to raise a record-breaking $15,000 despite having fewer items to auction than in previous years.

Sabrina Green, Festiva’s Contracts Supervisor and head of the auction committee, says, “We’re so thrilled that we can help more families than ever this year. This event is always heartwarming as it shows how willing our employees are to help those in need, and we are especially blessed that we can do so while the economy is difficult for many.”

Added to the $15,000 raised by the Festiva timeshare employees will be a matching $15,000 donated by the Festiva company. Several months of planning go into organizing the auction, with employees in the corporate offices donating items which include gift baskets and hand-crafted items; Festiva travel products; and gift certificates gathered provided by area businesses. Employees as some of Festiva resorts also participate.

Festiva Timeshare Gives and Families Benefit

Because of the efforts to make the auction a success, 18 families were sponsored this year with the proceeds being administered by the Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Ministries through Festiva’s Secret Santa Single Parent Project. Additional funds raised through the auction were distributed by the ministry program to other families in need this holiday season.

Good job Festiva; you made the holidays merry for some deserving families and some very happy children.

Over the past twelve months, just as we’ve been doing for seven years, Sell My Timeshare NOW has helped thousands of people buy a timeshare resale or rent timeshare at an affordable price. We’ve also helped thousands of people sell timeshare they no longer wish to own. Whether we assist someone in scheduling one vacation, launch a family into many years of enjoyable vacationing, or help someone eliminate an expense from their household budget, our work is meaningful.

And although there are times when working in timeshare feels like a thankless job with too many critics, one has only to look at the stacks of emails and thank-you letters we receive to realize that helping people with their vacation ownership is a very good thing to be doing.

But in reflecting on this, it occurs to me that there are many vocations in which hard-working people do the very best they can without receiving much in the ways of praise, accolades, or thanks. So in this special season of celebration, I propose that all of us remember to celebrate ourselves and the millions of other unsung heroes of life who keep our transportation systems running, our factories humming, our economies moving, and yes, even our timeshares selling. Whatever our vocation, whatever our role in life, let us remember that each of us is an important piece of a much larger picture.

All of us at Sell My Timeshare NOW, Timeshare Broker Services, and The Timeshare Authority blog join together to wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

No, this isn’t a Christmas eve story about ‘no room in the inn.’ This is an update on the record increase in visitors and tourism in Bethlehem and the 4,500 area hotel rooms that have been booked there for this holiday season.

The West Bank Holy City of Bethlehem has already seen nearly a million and a half visitors this year and expects roughly 100,000 more by year’s end. All hotels in the area are fully booked for Christmas week. Samir Hazboun of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce attributes the influx in tourism to a more stable and improving economy. Others say the improving security and relative calm in the area is the reason for the boom in tourism.

Abdel Fattah Hamayel, Bethlehem’s governor, explains that the city has been busy decorating Bethlehem’s main streets with Christmas and New Year’s trimmings, and preparing for the religious rituals and official receptions. The governor also observed that the city had been involved in, “…gardening of trees in the main streets and at the entrances to the city, organizing traffic in the roads, where convoys will drive through and receiving the official guests, tourists and pilgrims.”

On Christmas Eve, tens of thousands of residents and visitors are expected to be in Manger Square in front of the Church of the Nativity to celebrate Christmas.

A New Face for Bethlehem Tourism

Perhaps above all else, the City of Bethlehem is trying to send two important messages to the world: they are prepared to accommodate their visitors in a standard the city considers to be of an “international level,” and they are prepared to keep their visitors safe. Regretting that in past years, visitors have come for the religious services but not remained to holiday, Hamayel says, “…we want to prove this year that we can make a good tourism and prepare for the best tourism for the future … tourism is flourishing now thanks to the new developments in hotels and other travel facilities.”

Follow this link to learn more about opportunities in Israel timeshare resales and rentals.

Last weekend, the residents and vacationers at Marco Island, Florida celebrated the holidays with the first annual Marco Island Beach Music Festival. The itinerary for the weekend’s festivities included music performances; skim boarding instruction followed by a competition; sandcastle building instruction and a contest featuring world-renowned sand sculptor John Gowdy; a sailing clinic, a burger competition and a Christmas ‘island-style’ boat parade.

Most importantly, when all the fun was over, the event’s sponsor, Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort, was able to distribute $40,000 to four charities. The Marco Island Family YMCA, the Friends of Rookery Bay, the American Cancer Society and the Children’s Miracle Network each received a check for $10,000.

Kudos to the Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort for sponsoring this fun event for such worthy causes. And if you think some sugar white sand between your toes and balmy breezes in your hair sounds like a great way to kick off the Christmas season, then next year you might want to plan to be part of the second annual Marco Island Beach Music Festival. You’ll know that good causes are benefiting while you reap the rewards of some Jimmy Buffet-style beach time.

Marco Island, Florida Timeshare Resales and Timeshare Rentals

Marco Island offers excellent opportunities in timeshare resales and timeshare rentals, including Marriott’s Crystal Shores; the Hilton Grand Vacations Club – Eagle’s Nest Beach Resort; and Sunset Cove Resort and Suites. You may never know how much you like the idea of hanging your Christmas decorations on a palm tree until you try it.

Clean the World is a non-profit association with a simple and powerful message we have shared with you before, here on The Timeshare Authority blog. And it all starts with the power of soap.

At one time or another, every one of us has wondered what happens to the partially used soap, body wash, and shampoo we leave behind in hotels and timeshare resorts. Apparently, the founders of the Clean The World Foundation thought about it too.

Recognizing that every day in North America alone, thousand of hotels and timeshares were tossing out millions of pounds of soap and shampoo, Clean The World developed and implemented an amazingly logical and effective idea. Instead of allowing these products to be discarded, adding to our landfills and seeping into fragile groundwater systems, Clean The World collects, sterilizes, repackages and distributes the soap to people who desperately need it.

With the recycled soap, they provide appropriate educational materials, both to third world populations and to homeless shelters in the US and Canada. With the availability of soap to impoverished people, the rate of illness from communicable diseases drops significantly.

What Happens to the Used Soap from Hotels and Timeshares

Working with their hospitality partners, Clean the World provides collection bins to housekeeping staffs at hotels and resorts along with training videos and instruction posters. Each week they collect the bins from the hotel and timeshare properties. Hotels and timeshares are relieved of disposing of the soap and soap products and in many cases, they are eligible to claim part of their contribution as a donation to charity.

At their Soap Recycling plant, Clean the World uses one of two methods for reprocessing the soap. An independent agency, Tri-Tech Laboratories, has tested the soap ensuring that it is sanitary and free from pathogens after processing.

Already creating jobs, Clean the World projects that in the next few years they will create between 400 and 500 more green jobs across the US at their Recycling Operational Centers. They have also partnered with two established organizations, Central Care Mission and Open Homes Regeneration for help in operating Clean The World’s 12,000 square-foot recycling center in Orlando, enabling formerly addicted and homeless men in recovery programs to assist at the soap sterilization plant, where workers process soap, shampoo, conditioner, and bath gel as part of their vocational programs.

In Nevada, Clean The World has partnered with the Las Vegas Rescue Mission where homeless, addicted, and those in need on the road to recovery run the soap recycling center there. And in Canada, Mission Possible has a similar program that provides manpower for the Vancouver soap recycling center.

Participating Hotels and Timeshares

The number of hotels, bed and breakfasts, and timeshares that already participate in Clean The World is extensive, and you can see the full list here: Participating Resorts. You’ll find many of your favorite Disney Vacation Club, Sheraton, Hilton, and Westgate timeshare properties on the list.

You can get involved in this wonderful program by making donations of cash or soap; setting up a soap donation drive at your work or school (the collection area will smell wonderful as the bars of soap accumulate); and encouraging your timeshare and any hotels you frequent to participate in Clean The World.

Past reports from The Timeshare Authority blog on Clean The World:

Timeshares and Resorts, Helping “Clean Up” Haiti

With many of us preparing to celebrate the holidays with family and friends, it seems the right time for both thoughtful reflections and the sharing of accolades. Look for all of the posts this week on The Timeshare Authority blog to acknowledge those who are stepping up, going the extra mile and spreading goodwill and good deeds.(For more good news stories from the timeshare industry, see: Wyndham Hotel and Wyndham Timeshare Support the Spirit of the Season through Facebook Campaign)

Since 2005, The Institute of Travel & Tourism has been a supporter of the non-profit association, “Just a Drop.” The charity was launched some 12 years ago during the World Travel Market, global event for the Travel Industry and works to create awareness and solutions for the millions of people worldwide who do not have safe drinking water.

Along with supporters from many other industries, the global travel and tourism industry continues to be a strong benefactor of Just a Drop. This year, through The Institute of Travel & Tourism’s Late Night Bar raffle and Gala Dinner auction during the Benidorm conference, money was raised to construct two safe water wells in Niger. These wells will help ensure the traditional way of life for the nomadic Tuareg tribe, the principle inhabitants of the interior Sahara Desert.

Also during this year’s Institute of Travel and Tourism Conference, Thomas Cook and TUI Travel signed a three-year partnership with the charity pledging to donate £150,000 over the next three years to Just a Drop’s water sanitation and sustainable water projects.

What You May Not Know about Water in the World Today

Sometime in the upcoming days, you will likely find yourself choosing whether you prefer to drink holiday eggnog, a good wine, a sparkling party drink, or even just choosing from a selection of sodas and bottled water. Here are a few thoughts of significance:

At this moment, over a billion people in the world do not have safe, clean water to drink.

Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water-borne disease carried by unsafe drinking water.

Nearly 3 million people die from diseases every year because of unsafe water.

To find out more about Just a Drop, go to: www.justadrop.org Just a Drop has undertaken more than 65 water aid projects while helping over 1 million children and their families in nearly 30 countries around the world.