In our September 6 blog post, titled, “Planning Your Orlando Timeshare Vacation”, I noted that Disney had banned their guests from using the two-wheeled, battery-powered individual people transporters, known as Segways. Disney, and other Orlando theme parks permit Segways, as does the City of Orlando, but use is restricted to authorized personnel, and not available to their paying customers.

In the October 14 edition of the Orlando Sentinel, an article stated that, “Advocates for the disabled are pushing Walt Disney World and SeaWorld Orlando to lift a ban on the use of Segways in the theme parks.”

The Disability Rights Advocates for Technology, known as DRAFT, is an organization that raises money to donate Segways to disabled US military veterans. As the article explained, many people with prosthetics, as well as people with disabilities that permit them to stand but not walk, benefit from the mobility Segways provide. An estimated 5,000 disabled people now use Segways to increase their mobility options.

In one further note, the Sentinel article stated that Disney runs paid, guided Segway tours of Epcot and the Fort Wilderness campground, however in response to our phone call, we were again told by a Disney customer service representative, that those tours have been suspended.

The Timeshare Owners Blog will keep you posted on the status of the Segway at Orlando theme parks.

Here are a few suggestions for enjoying Orlando timeshares on your next Florida vacation:

• Disney’s Beach Club Villas Resales
• Disney’s BoardWalk Villas Resales
• Disney’s Old Key West Resort Resales
• Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa Resales
• Disney’s Villas at Wilderness Lodge Resales
• Magic Tree Resort Resales
• Marriott’s Cypress Harbour Resales
• Marriott’s Grande Vista Resales
• Marriott’s Horizons of Orlando Resales
• Marriott’s Imperial Palm Villas Resales
• Marriott’s Royal Palms Resales
• Marriott’s Sabal Palms Resales
• Mystic Dunes Resort and Golf Club Resales

And here’s a You Tube video of Segways in use at Walt Disney World.

Could China be the next hot spot that timeshare developers target? It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see there is enormous business interest in China, and that China is obviously trying very hard to redefine its place in the world market.

For the moment, forget about China’s problems with quality control in exported goods. When you look at the big picture, you can’t ignore the fact that China’s foreign exchange reserves, (those are liquid assets held in reserve by a central bank for a country’s use in the international market) are some of, if not the world’s largest. Whether China’s possibly excessive exchange reserves have been established as a way to potentially manipulate the exchange rate, or this is simply an effort by the Chinese to create a type of insurance against an economic crisis, the result has been to attract even more foreign trade dollars to China and increase the globalization of China’s market.

And among the many types of business eyeing the 1.3 billion Chinese as a vast, almost untapped market, are big names in the hotel and leisure industry. Read Bill Marriott’s blog and you will see that he has just returned from China. Marriott Hotels and Resorts designated their new JW Marriott at China Central Place as their 3,000th hotel.

Marriott plans to have 11 hotels in Beijing in time for the 2008 Olympics and some 50 in all, throughout China within only a few years. Last month, Marriott also announced they were expanding their Quan Spas in China and Asia, opening 12 new spas within the next 2 years. This schedule calls for 6 spas in China, 2 in Indonesia, and 4 in India.

Jumeirah, a Dubai-based luxury hotelier, announced last week that it will debut its first flagship hotel in the Asia-Pacific region, with their Shanghai hotel, scheduled to open in August 2008. Starwood Hotels and Timeshare Resorts has already launched SPG Moments for Asia Pacific through its Starwood Preferred Guest program. Marriott, Jumeirah, Crowne Plaza, Hyatt and Langham, are only some of the big names making announcements about their China hotel and resort expansion. (China Hospitality News is a good resource if you want to learn even more about which resorts have China on their growth projections).

Clearly, with hotels and casinos under construction in China in record numbers, timeshare resorts won’t be far behind.

Here’s more evidence that China is near the top of many growth plans:

• • China has 300 million people who play basketball, and over a billion more potential basketball fans. The NBA can’t overlook numbers like this, which is why they have developed NBA China as a subsidiary company. China is already the NBA’s largest market outside the US. Three NBA pre-season games are scheduled in China within the next few days. The Cleveland Cavaliers play the Orlando Magic in Shanghai tonight. Tomorrow, the Orlando Magic will face a China all-star team in Macau and on Saturday, the Cleveland Cavaliers will play the Magic in Macau.
  But the NBA’s plans for China go beyond exhibition games, as they try to finalize their plans for expansion there. Timothy Chen, who resigned from Microsoft last month, will head up the NBA’s venture into China. The Harvard School of Business is using the NBA as a case study for how to build business in China.
• • In 1994, NIKE’s revenue in China was $8 million. Next year, NIKE projects business will reach $1 billion.
• • On October 12, the US Department of Transportation announced the award of a new direct route flight to China to United Airlines. The flight, between San Francisco and Guangzhou, marks the first US airline to offer daily, nonstop service between the US and China.

While Sell My Timeshare NOW doesn’t currently have timeshare resales and timeshare rentals available in China, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them in our inventory soon. In the meantime, here are some other interesting timeshare destinations for the Asia Pacific area, and the Pacific Rim:

• Malaysia timeshare resale
• India timeshare resale
• Indonesia timeshare resale
• Thailand timeshare resale

In my last two blog postings, I have talked about timeshare vacation property as a regulated industry, and also about upfront fees in the timeshare industry, and what those fees really mean.

Let’s look at one more topic that sometimes confuses both timeshare owners and people who are new to the world of timeshare: the many different ways to own timeshare.

Timeshare owned as “right to use” property means just what it sounds like it means. You don’t own any portion of the property, but you do own the right to use that property. When you buy right to use timeshare, you purchase the right to use the property (usually a specific unit) for a predetermined period of time, or for a predetermined number of uses.

Right to use timeshare does not provide the timeshare buyer with a deed or any ownership of a percentage of the resort, nor does it create any percentage of ownership of an individual timeshare unit. Most vacation club memberships are examples of right to use timeshare ownership.

Leasehold timeshare is similar to right to use, except it is actually “owned” (without a deed) for a stated period. In other words, leasehold is defined by the number of years you hold the lease. When the lease ends, so do your rights to use the timeshare. Leasehold timeshare is common for Hawaii timeshares, and in other geographic areas where leasehold ownership is frequently used by the real estate market in general.

Timeshare can also be held as a right to use property with no limitations on how long the timeshare owner can use the property. In other words, a timeshare can be a right to use ownership, where the rights extend into perpetuity (forever).

Many timeshares, especially in the US, are owned as fee simple real estate. Fee simple ownership is deeded timeshare ownership, and is typically structured very much like the way most people own their personal residences. Often, similar to the way people own condominium properties, a fee simple deed includes a date, on which the individual timeshare owners, stop being individual owners and become tenants in common. When that date is reached, the tenants vote on whether or not to continue the structure of individual ownership. For example, they may decide by majority vote, to sell the timeshare resort as a total property, in which case, each timeshare owner will receive his or her appropriate percentage of the total sale.

Don’t be overwhelmed because there are different options for timeshare ownership. The diversity of ways you can take advantage of vacation ownership is exactly what makes timesharing so attractive.

Before you buy timeshare from a developer or take advantage of the opportunities in timeshare resales, I recommend that you get in touch with people who know and understand the different ways to buy timeshare and sell timeshare, like the timeshare resale and timeshare rental specialists at Sell My Timeshare NOW. Ask lots of questions up front, so that you become an informed timeshare buyer or timeshare seller.

The bottom line is simply this: timesharing works and works well for a lot of satisfied owners. Research prepared for the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) shows that timeshare owners report high satisfaction rates with their timeshare purchase, and over three quarters of all timeshare owners say that owning a timeshare has increased how much they look forward to vacations.

You can become one of the satisfied majority, enjoying vacation planning ease, luxurious resorts, incredible flexibility, and all the benefits timesharing has to offer. And Sell My Timeshare NOW is the perfect place to start.

Continuing with answers to frequently asked questions, I want to respond to an issue about timeshare resales that readers of the Timeshare Owners Blog have heard me address before, but it bears repeating.

Q. When I sell timeshare, is it ever safe to pay an upfront fee?

A. YES. Just be sure you know what you are getting for your money.

Life changes and people sell timeshare for any number of reasons. Sometimes they find they are no longer using the timeshare. Sometimes the fees and annual expenses have become a burden. Maybe there is a death in the family, a divorce, a cross-country move, or oftentimes people sell timeshare because they want to buy something new or different in vacation ownership.

When timeshare owners are ready to sell timeshare they can try to market and sell it on their own; they can let a broker or timeshare reseller try to sell it for them at a fee; or they can turn to a timeshare advertising and marketing company like Sell My Timeshare NOW.

Working with Sell My Timeshare NOW is an excellent example of a situation in which it makes sense to pay an upfront fee to sell timeshare. In 2006, our company brought over $233,864,650 in offers to buy timeshare or rent timeshare to the timeshare owners who advertise with us.

How much of that money went to Sell My Timeshare NOW? Good question and the answer surprises a lot of people.

In 2006, Sell My Timeshare brought over $233,864,650 in offers to buy or rent timeshare directly to the timeshare owner, which means that NONE of the money—that’s ZERO dollars—stayed in the hands of Sell My Timeshare NOW. We charge timeshare sellers an advertising fee and nothing more. No commissions and no fees after the sale.

We are a timeshare resale and timeshare rental advertising and marketing company. Our expertise is putting the timeshare you want to sell or rent in front of the largest global marketplace. Our job is to advertise your property to give you maximum exposure.

Along the way, if you need help with certain aspects of selling timeshare or renting timeshare, we will help you connect with people who can offer you further assistance, but many timeshare transactions are so simple timeshare buyers and timeshare sellers can easily handle them on their own. With Sell My Timeshare NOW, you pay only for the advertising and marketing services you provide and when you sell your timeshare, that money is your money.

No one solution is right for all timeshare buyers or timeshare sellers. When you are ready to sell timeshare, consider all your options before you make a decision on what is best for your situation.

In the next Timeshare Owners Blog, I am going to talk about the different ways people own timeshare and what vacation clubs are all about.