If you can’t take a full week of vacation, is it really worth taking any time off at all?

This question plagues busy workers—especially American workers—who struggle with the challenge of fitting vacation time into their overloaded schedules. Most people find that between the demands of their job, perhaps those of their spouse’s job, too; their children’s schedules; and all the details of their daily grind; taking vacation time becomes harder and harder for them to do.

Timeshares Used to Be Part of the Problem

With the limitations on timeshare stays having previously been restricted to one- or two-week intervals only, timeshares used to be part of the problem, actually making this aspect of vacationing harder rather than easier for timeshare owners. But this is no longer the case.

Gone are the days when your timeshare vacation could only be enjoyed  in week-long intervals. Today most resorts permit a timeshare owner to break up his interval or points into vacations as brief as one night at a time. And timeshare exchange companies, like Interval International, that offer ShortStay Exchange® for its Interval Gold, Club Interval Gold, and Interval Platinum members, have added the single night option.

According to the article, “One-Day ShortStay, When Less is More,” published in Vacation Industry Review, “Study after study shows that vacationers—especially those in the United States—are increasingly taking days off one and two days at a time … Interval members, too, struggle with ‘time famine.’ ShortStay Exchange allows upgraded members to break their travel down into one-night increments.”

The more flexible timeshare ownership becomes, the stronger and more popular a product it will be. Because the simple truth is this: any time off any of us can work into our lives—even if it’s only for 24 hours at a time—is  better than taking no vacation at all.

Festiva Hospitality Group (Festiva timeshare) has donated $50,000 in support of the 20202 Vision plan of the Western North Carolina Nature Center, Asheville Wildlife Park.

The donation, coordinated by Friends of the WNCNC, supports the center’s long-term vision to turn the Nature Center into a regional showplace in the Asheville, North Carolina area. The donation from Festiva timeshare will be used specifically to help transform a historic and iconic red barn on the center’s property into the park’s new main entrance.

Butch Patrick, president and co-founder of Festiva Hospitality Group says, “We are very excited to be involved with the Nature Center’s improvements and future expansion. We feel that the center is a wonderful attraction for visitors as well as local families here in Asheville, and we are proud to support the expansion and improvement of the center’s education and conservation efforts.”

Patrick adds, “Since Festiva will be bringing visitors to Asheville through our recent management contract with Festiva Biltmore Village and with nearly 100 employees in Asheville who can enjoy the center with their families for years to come, our partnership with the Nature Center is a natural fit.”

Festiva Hospitality Group, which includes Festiva timeshare, is a privately owned hospitality company based in Asheville, North Carolina.  Festiva timeshare began with only one resort and 500 members but today owns markets, and manages 24 hotels and timeshare resorts throughout the Southeast, Midwest, Northeast and Caribbean, and includes nearly 70,000 members and a fleet of luxury catamaran yachts. Festiva timeshare employs approximately over 1000 people nationwide.

Last month, Interval International timeshare exchange and vacation services provider launched Interval HD, an online video channel featuring some 50 timeshare vacation destination and resort videos.

Available to Interval International members, this dynamic vacation planning tool makes it easier than ever for II members to visualize vacation settings, understand the types of accommodations available at each resort, and make their vacation planning decisions.

Interval International Timeshare Destinations

Interval HD videos currently include Interval International resort destinations in Cancun, Orlando, and Las Vegas—some of timeshare’s most popular vacation venues. Each video is one to three minutes in length and is available through the Interval International member landing page of Interval’s website. Members can choose the destination overviews the wish to see or view the Resort Directory for an overview. By year end, Interval International timeshare exchange plans to have added at least an additional 30 videos to the collection.

Interval’s Senior Vice President of Consumer Marketing, Sharon Freed, explains, “We’ve created this enhanced content to assist our members in making vacation plans when using any of our programs. But we also feel it will help resort clients using multimedia presentations at their sales tables to bring to life the benefits of exchanging to a broad range of locations.”

As Interval understands, “When making their vacation plans, Interval members want as much information about the resort and destination as they can find.” And why not? Vacation time is precious and hard to come by for most busy families.

You want your vacation days to be the best they can possibly be and suit the way you and your family like to vacation. Knowing more details, having them readily available to you via quality, high definition video, makes that easier.

Interval International calls this taking information access to the next level. Clearly it’s one more effort by Interval to make your vacation ownership experience the best it can possibly be.

Bluegreen Vacations has been awarded the 2012 Bronze Telly® Award in the category of Film/Video for its Shenandoah Crossing Resort Story video.

The narrated video looks at Bluegreen timeshare’s beautiful Shenandoah Crossing Resort, located in Gordonsville, Virginia, with its many attractive features and diversity of accommodations. The resort, located approximately two hours from Washington, DC, offers vacation accommodations that range from luxury private cabins to yurts, which are tent-like structures that combine modern conveniences with the best features of camping (glamping), to RV parking.

Izzy Pycher, Vice President of Corporate Marketing for Bluegreen Timeshare, says, “We are honored to receive this Telly Award. This is not an easy award to receive, and we worked hard to capture the true essence of Shenandoah Crossing in that video. It’s a true testament to the talent we have here at Bluegreen.”

More than 500 industry professionals serve on the Telly Awards judging panel, each of whom is a past winner of a Silver Telly themselves and a member of The Silver Telly Council.

Linda Day, Executive Director of the Telly Awards explains, “The Telly Awards has a mission to honor the very best in film and video. Bluegreen’s accomplishment illustrates their creativity, skill, and dedication to their craft and serves as a testament to great film and video production.”

Did you know that the beaches of Orange Lake Resorts have gotten bigger?

Last month, Orange Lake Resorts timeshare, which already operates eight popular properties, officially closed on a transaction which will allow two new resorts to become part of the Orange Lake timeshare family.

In a deal with Cooper Industries, Inc., Orange Lake Resorts is adding the Tropical Breeze Resort in Panama City Beach, Florida, and Galveston on the Gulf Resort in Galveston, Texas to its brand.

Tropical Breeze Resort offers 37 timeshare units, including one- and two-bedroom timeshare villas—every one with a view of the Gulf of Mexico from a private patio (first floor units) or balcony (upper floors) for enjoying ocean breezes and spectacular sunsets.

With direct beach access, an outdoor heated swimming pool, kiddie swim area, hot tub and fitness center, and other great amenities, Tropical Breeze Resort will make a wonderful addition to the Holiday Inn Club Vacations family of Florida timeshare resorts.

Galveston on the Gulf Resort is located on Galveston’s barrier island on the Gulf of Mexico, off the Texas coastline. This 78 timeshare unit resort offers one- and two-bedroom timeshare villas, including timeshare lock-off units.

Each villa at Galveston on the Gulf Resort offers a private patio or balcony and beautiful views of the Gulf . The resort also includes direct beach access, a  outdoor, heated infinity-edge swimming pool, kiddie swim area, fitness center, hot tub and complimentary Wi-Fi Internet service.

(Jason C. Gamel Vice President of State Government Affairs, ARDA)

Yesterday’s ARDA Insights Blog carried an update written by Jason Gamel, Vice President of State Government Affairs for the American Resort Development Association.

Titled, “The State of Florida: Working Hard for Timeshare Consumers,” the update included insights on what the Florida Office of the Attorney General, Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS) are both doing to deal with issues of Florida timeshare resale fraud.

Here is some of the State of Florida is working on to make the timeshare industry stronger and better while protecting the interests of consumers:

· Accomplished the passage of landmark timeshare resales legislation for   Florida

· Made dozens of arrests related to timeshare resale scams

· Spearheaded educational efforts to inform consumers about their rights as timeshare owners

Florida Timeshare Changes

As the state of Florida is home to more timeshare units, more timeshare resorts, and more timeshare company headquarters than any other state in the US, one would expect Florida’s legislative efforts to become a motivator of change if not a template adopted by many other state governments. Already we are seeing indications that this is happening in Colorado and elsewhere.

While these changes tighten down the vacation ownership industry, may increase operational costs for many timeshare companies, and could even deter timeshare sales in the short term, they are beneficial, necessary and long overdue.

Please go to ARDA Insights Blog to read the full article.

Related posts on The Timeshare Authority Blog:

Timeshare Resale Accountability Act

For Timeshare Legislation, March Roars in Like a Lion

Timeshare resales: History will keep repeating itself until we finally get it right

ARDA Supports the Proposed Florida Timeshare Resale Accountability Act

Important Timeshare Resale Industry Legislative Changes in Florida

When timeshare owners buy their vacation ownership points or property, they should be buying that timeshare to use and enjoy it, fully understanding that they are buying into a vacation product. Just like the dollars and cents they spend over the years on hotel and motel rooms for vacations, or renting a beach house, cabin or other type of home away from home, they should not be expecting to make money when they eventually do resell their timeshare.
[Read more...]

(The Dive Inn Resort, Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt)

Hard hit by civil and political unrest in the Middle East, tourism in Egypt has struggled as lingering domestic upheaval, post Arab Spring, deterred vacationers and travelers.

In a country where the tourism industry employs approximately one in eight workers, the problem of job decline leading to unrest leading to tourism decline leading to more job loss is cyclical and frustrating for all. While challenges in this economic sector are only a part of the puzzle Egypt isworking to piece together, it is one that Egypt’s Minister of Tourism, Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour is determined to resolve.

During a recent press conference in Dubai, Minister Abdel Nour told reporters, “My aim for this year is to see the number of tourists to Egypt this year rise to 2010 levels.”

Through April, tourist arrivals in Egypt have increased by roughly 40 percent over the same period in 2011. If the country reaches its goal of 14.5 million tourists in 2012, it will be near its pre-revolution 2010 count of 14.7 million visitors.

Speaking during the Arabian Travel Market, Abdel Nour stressed that the images the world has seen of revolution in Tahrir Square do not accurately reflect Egypt as a whole. The website 7DaysinDubai quotes Minister Abdel Nour as saying, “… there is a great majority who live their life normally … The farmers grow, the people who work in the factories produce and the hotel managers run their resorts – everybody is doing his job smoothly.”

How a Changing Political Climate could Impact Egypt Timeshare and Tourism

Tourism is rebounding first, Abdel Nour says, in the Red Sea beach areas of Sharm el-Sheikh, where the popular Dive Inn Resort, the Grand Sharm Resort, and the Gardenia Plaza Resort are located and in Hurghada, home of the Dana Beach Resort Hotel.

Concern has been that with Islamists now dominating the Egyptian parliament, laws could be enacted to restrict alcohol sales, perhaps ban modern-day swimwear, or implement other guidelines that would change the relaxed resort atmosphere of Egypt’s vacation and tourism destinations.

In a recent article published by the Washington Post (“Egyptian tourism minister predicts return of tourists to near pre-uprising levels this year,” April 30, 2012) Minister Abdel Nour disputed these concerns, saying, “… the tourism industry is ‘doing everything in the book’ to woo visitors again. For example, it is trying to attract more charter airlines and discount carriers, and rolling out new offerings like longer Nile cruises.”

With the election of an Egyptian President not scheduled until later this month (with a run-off in June, should it be necessary), immediate answers about Egypt’s future remain unclear. But what is clear is that global tourists and Egyptian family vacationers seeking to enjoy the timeless sun, sand, and shoreline of an Egypt timeshare vacation are currently faced with excellent opportunities to buy or rent Egypt timeshare at highly competitive prices.

For many Egypt nationals now living abroad and others with Egyptian heritage, buying Egypt timeshare is an ideal way to plan annual visits to family and friends still living there. For vacationers from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe, who have always  flocked to Egypt’s sunshine and beaches, now would seem  an opportune time to vacation in Egypt while yesterday’s uncertainties are passing and today’s red carpet and competitive pricing for accommodations, dining, and attractions remain strong.

Yesterday, the Bluegreen Corporation announced it has completed the sale of its Bluegreen Communities business to Southstar Development Partners, Inc. The reported purchase price was $29 million and what was described by Bluegreen as “certain other contingent consideration.”

Note that this sale does not involve the Bluegreen timeshare resorts or the timeshare sales, marketing and resort management of the company. In completing this transaction, Bluegreen satisfied Bluegreen Communities debt obligations which were primarily associated with its H4BG Communities Facility.

Family Friendly Bluegreen Vacation Club Timeshare

Bluegreen Vacation Club timeshare offers flexible, points-based, deeded vacation ownership plans. Currently there are over 160,000 Bluegreen timeshare owners and more than 59 owned or managed resorts across the US, in the Caribbean and Hawaii, located at all your favorite places to vacation. Additionally, Bluegreen Vacation Club members have access to a network of 4,000+ resorts worldwide.

To learn more about Bluegreen Corporation, visit their website at: www.bluegreencorp.com You can also read the company’s official media release on the sale on the Wall Street Journal’s Marketwatch

And to find out more about what makes Bluegreen timeshare so popular read: Bluegreen Timeshare, Using Social Media to Serve Owners

It’s hard to tell the story of what Disney Vacation Club membership can mean to a family better than the Sayers family tells it. Their fifteen years of vacation ownership at Disney’s Old Key West Resort in Orlando is a joy they have shared with four generations, creating lifelong memories and family ties that span the years.

To hear more timeshare owners tell their stories visit VacationBetter.org or follow the links below.

More than a Caribbean Timeshare Vacation at Lifestyle Holidays Vacation Club

10 Reasons Bluegreen Owners Love Bluegreen Timeshare

VacationBetter.Org Unveils New Look for Timeshare Vacations Website

Raging Fans and the Truth about Timeshare

ARDA Timeshare Owner Testimonial Focuses on Wyndham Vacation Ownership

Timeshare Owner Testimonials Continue with Marriott Vacation Club Owners