At Sell My Timeshare NOW, we are excited about our acquisition of the clients and primary assets of the Canada timeshare website, Rapid Resale, Ltd. Their customer base is loyal; the website, established in September of 2004, has a proven track record of helping Canadian owners buy and sell timeshare in the secondary market. This move strengthens our position in the Canada timeshare market by expanding our brand and visibility. And as Jay Bade, Vice President, Business Development for Sell My Timeshare NOW, stated to the media, “We are honored that April Cummins entrusted her customers to Sell My Timeshare NOW and excited to be able to expand visibility, marketing, and timeshare sales services for her clients.”

Now if only the mainstream media will share this positive, timeshare industry business growth and development with its audience. Will the story be buried behind accounts of shady timeshare resellers and sluggish quarterly profit reports from timeshare developers and resort companies?

Perhaps the timeshare industry story that gets “buried” most of all is the simple and astounding fact that a high percentage (consistently year-in-and-year out greater than 80 percent) of timeshare owners report that they use and enjoy their timeshare and are satisfied with timeshare ownership. 23.5 percent of timeshare owners rank their ownership experience as excellent; 37.4 percent rank it as very good; and 23.9 percent rank it as good … which adds up to a whopping 84.8 percent ranking it good or better than good. (Source: Vacation Timeshare Owners Report, 2008 edition. Prepared by Synovate for AIF in a study that surveyed a national sample of 4009 current timeshare owners between May 30 and June 10, 2008.)

Timeshare really is a good news story, even though that is not always the message consumers hear. If you would like to read Sell My Timeshare NOW’s “good news” media release, click here: Sell My Timeshare NOW Acquires Top Canadian Timeshare Resales Website

Sell My Timeshare NOW, announced yesterday, the acquisition of the primary assets and customers of the Canadian timeshare website, Rapid Resale. (Read the full media release at: http://www.sellmytimesharenow.com/media/index/content/release08-05-10/)

RapidResale.ca is the domain name for Secondary Solutions Group, an Ontario-based Canadian timeshare resales company with an excellent reputation for customer service, satisfaction, and timeshare resales success. When April Cummins, founder of the six-year-old Canadian timeshare company, began looking to change the direction of her demanding career, her first priority was what she would do to ensure that her current clients continued to receive the top-quality levels of service that Rapid Resale had always provided.

April Cummings found her solution in Sell My Timeshare NOW and Timeshare Broker Services. Ross Perlmutter, President/CEO of the Canadian Resort Development Association (CRDA) sees this as a win-win, saying, “With more than 180 shared ownership resorts and nearly 350,000 owners in Canada, we welcome the expanded presence of SellMyTimeshareNow. They are a leading international timeshare reseller that can potentially bring great benefits to timeshare buyers and sellers on both sides of the border.”

Canada Timeshare Opportunities

For current clients of Rapid Resale, this change means greater exposure through the powerful, targeted websites of Sell My Timeshare. And for current and future clients of Sell My Timeshare NOW, it means the company’s brand and websites will have a stronger than ever presence in the Canada timeshare market.

And for everyone who has so enjoyed working with April, the news here is good too. April is not leaving the timeshare industry; instead, she will be working for Canada timeshare developers in sales and marketing.

Taking a similar path to timeshare sales and timeshare resales legislation being negotiated by concerned governments worldwide, Alberta Canada timeshare laws are getting more stringent. In an effort to offer Canada timeshare owners more protection, the government of Alberta is revising its current timeshare laws and regulations that originally were enacted more than a decade ago.

Effective November 2010, the new regulations will require everyone in the timeshare industry in Alberta to obtain a license from the provincial government and to disclose their business terms and conditions. Amending the Time Share Contracts and Points-based Regulation, under the Fair Trading Act, all timeshare sales and timeshare related businesses will be required to pay $200 to obtain a license and also to post security. The terms of the security are still under negotiation.

Chris Wein, President of multifamily operations at Calgary’s UBG says the government in Alberta Canada is playing “catch-up in terms of business and legal trends.” He adds that he sees this effort as providing greater protections for Canada timeshare owners, buyers, and sellers.

Buying trends in Canada timeshare have recently indicated increasing popularity in fractional ownership real estate, away from consumer purchases of traditional timeshare. If this pattern sustains, it could result in greater numbers of timeshare sales on the secondary market as owners transition from timeshares to longer-term fractional ownership.

Follow this link to find current Canada Time Share regulations

In the past 12 months, internet patterns have changed dramatically in China. Where travel destinations were once only researched online, a growing percentage of today’s residents of mainland China both research and buy travel online.

Until recently, Chinese internet technology made e-commerce for travel difficult for Chinese web surfers, plus cultural traditions lingered, creating a preference for face-to-face interactions. But China is presently experiencing the same phenomena that has occurred in North America and Europe… once people begin to gain even the slightest comfort level with booking hotels, timeshare rentals, and air travel online, use escalates rapidly.

The Chinese Powder Keg for Buying Travel, Timeshares, and Timeshare Rentals Online

China already has over 400 million internet users, and many believe the numbers are far higher claiming that young adults relying solely on cell phones (and one of the strongest demographics for internet use) are overlooked in this headcount. With this in mind, the numbers quickly begin to add up to a powdered keg ready for explosion:

1. The Chinese yuan has recent seen substantial appreciation again the US dollar.
2. Chinese travel visas are becoming easier and easier to obtain worldwide.
3. Online search and ecommerce technology in China are quickly catching up with other parts of the world.
4. The Beijing Olympics exposed many Chinese to the global face of travel in a new and exciting way.
5. The China National Tourism Administration expects year-over-year to see an increase in outbound travel of not less than 7 percent.
6. Between January and May of 2010, China’s number of tourists for outbound travel already has increased by 19 percent over the same period in 2009.
7. iResearch estimates that revenue from the online travel service market (in China) will more than triple between 2009 and 2013.

We’ve seen it happen here in the US. As a culture of people become internet savvy and internet confident to book travel services online, comfort spreads by osmosis to buying timeshare resales and booking of timeshare rentals from a web-based resource. And for timeshare owners looking to resell timeshare, these changes ultimately add up to a larger—vastly larger—pool of potential timeshare buyers and renters.

More insight on travel in China from the National Tourism Administration of the People’s Republic of China.