Global Perspective on the Timeshare Vacation Marketplace

India tourism and timeshare industry is serious about plans for growth.

India is one of many countries beginning to realize the importance timeshare resorts and timeshare vacations could mean to their economy. In a recent panel discussion that included representatives from RCI Global Vacation Network, Fraser Serviced Residences, Samara Capital, and Portman Holdings, several significant points about the timeshare vacation industry both globally and specifically in India were raised.

Event moderator Sachin Shah described the alternate hospitality market (meaning condo-hotels, fractionals, vacation ownership homes, and timeshare resorts) as still in its nascent (or emerging) stages. Express Hospitality (www.expresshospitality.com) quoted Bupesh Yadav, Regional Director of Fraser Serviced Residences, as saying, “After the SARS epidemic, terrorist attacks in different parts of the world, people started looking for low-risk vicinity which is less populated and alternate hospitality like condos and service apartments are almost like second homes.”

In general, the group assessed timeshares and vacation ownership projects as a popular alternative to buying a second home, and an idea that is quickly growing in metropolitan markets all over the world. While India is seen as a “late entrant” to the market for fractional and vacation ownerships, it is identified as, “making steady progress.”

Ministry of Tourism is promoting an international marketing campaign called, “Incredible India.” Tourism and development leaders in India recognize that, for a country with over a billion people, India had only 4.5 million tourists in 2006. By comparison, Dubai, with a population of only 1.3 million, was host to 6 million tourists during the same period. India’s long and short term plans to grow tourism and recognition of India as a vacation destination include both marketing and enriching the country’s infrastructure, which includes items like highways and public transportation.

If the idea of owning a timeshare resale in a country that stretches from the beaches along the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea, to the snow and ice of the Himalayan Mountains appeals to you, you might want to peruse this interesting collection of Incredible India microsites for a little India “site-seeing”. Besides the obvious attraction of the Taj Mahal, Buddhists temples, and a rich heritage of art and history, visitors travel to India for other reasons. Both the US and the UK have large segments of their populations with cultural or familiar ties to India who represent an enthusiastic market for owning India timeshares and India timeshare resales.

Many US and European companies are either outsourcing work projects and services to India, or relocating divisions of their corporation there. India is also a recognized center for medical research and has one of the largest pharmaceutical industries in the world. People travel to India from many countries to take advantage of India’s cutting edge medical technology and age-old wisdom of alternative medicine.

With all of these evolving factors in play, India represents an interesting market when it comes to buying timeshare resales and timeshare rentals.