India Increases Commitment to Tourism and Timeshare Development

India’s government is serious about expanding their already-growing tourism industry.

The November 19, 2005, edition of Business Line, (the financial daily from Hindu Group Publications) quoted B.S. Rathor, Chairman and Principal Advisor of the All India Resort Development Association (AIRDA), who said that timeshare in India has entered a new growth phase. Between 2002 and 2005, the compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of India timeshares reached nearly 20 percent. Rathor, and other industry experts, believe government guidelines permitting the mixed-use of resort properties as both timeshares and hotels has been a positive factor in this growth.

Expect to see marketing offices for one of India’s largest timeshare developers, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Ltd., opening in the US by April. New Jersey, Washington DC, and Maryland are planned locations.

According to Ramesh Ramanathan, Managing Director of Mahindra Holidays, the company’s US offices will be targeting US residents of Indian heritage. They will market their resort properties by focusing on timeshares as a way for those with relatives in India to visit and maintain ties with their culture and their families. India has used the timeshare industry of the US as a role model for their own business, including new interest in India fractionals based on the success fractionals have enjoyed in the US.

Just how serious is India about expanding their tourism market? In February of this year, India’s Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram announced the nation’s intent to support the new or furthered development of 15 tourist destinations, establish 4 new institutes of hotel management in the States of Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand and Uttaranchal, as well as develop programs to better identify and market village crafts and products to the tourist market.

India’s economists and national leaders obviously recognize that now is the right time for India timeshares.