Vacation

Timeshare and industry leader Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific is currently offering a cash prize to one lucky winner of their bucket list competition.

The first recorded bucket list was created over 70 years ago by John Goddard. The American boy was just 15 years old at the time, but had a creative imagination. On Goddard’s bucket list, he included 127 goals to complete during his lifetime. Activities on the list included kayaking in the Nile River, visiting the moon, learning to fly, and visiting every country in the world.

Inspired by John Goddard’s imagination and courage, Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific has created the Win a Bucket List contest for travelers in Australia and New Zealand.

The lucky winner will receive a cash prize of $20,000 to check off some of the destinations on their own bucket list. To enter, contestants simply fill out the form at www.winabucketlist.com. A winner will be chosen randomly from the pool of applicants to receive a Travel by Wyndham voucher for $20,000 AUD (Australian Dollars) or cashier’s check. Travelers can also enter for smaller prizes including gas gift cards and resort certificates.

To be eligible for prizes, contestants must fill out the entire entry- form. Only one entry per-person will be counted.

CEO and Managing Director of WVR Asia Pacific, Barry Robinson said, “It is Wyndham’s vision to make holiday dreams come true, so we are really excited to be able to offer this unforgettable prize. We strive to provide people with incredible holiday memories, and this prize will certainly offer that for the lucky winner.”

What’s on your bucket list? Do you want to go on an Africa safari or visit the Great Wall of China? As the New Year approaches, consider what you would like to achieve in 2014. Start checking off your bucket list today!

Recently, Melia Hotels introduced the first twitter interactive hotel, Sol Wave House. Located in Majorca, Spain, the hotel has been remodeled with social media hubs and twitter #hashtags throughout the resort. The Melia Hotel brand is the first to incorporate social media on this level, an innovative idea that is sure to spread.

The resort is built to cater to the most active “tweeters”, adults ages 18-29. The building is designed so that beachfront rooms and balconies are stadium style, allowing guests to overlook the action down below on the beach.

@SolWaveHouse

The most talked about feature is reserved for those guests staying in the new “Party Suites”. Besides the VIP treatment, the suites also come with a Twitter Concierge. This concierge can be reached by tweeting any and all requests during your stay. Guest can use hashtags such as #FillMyFridge to refill the minibar or ask for #moretowels while getting dressed for the day’s activities. This interactive feature brings the concept of personal service to a whole new level.

Around the resort, there are specific hashtag hubs where you can tweet or instagram using provided handles. For example, your party suite may feature a mustache decal on the mirror with the hashtag – #Howdoyoulikemynewlook and #Mustache. The resort’s impressive pool area allows you to tweet while you relax in their “Bali” sunbeds, by tweeting to another bed – “#balibed4, how’s it going?”

The Sol Wave House is named for its live action wave machines: The FlowBarrelTen and Double Flowrider. While some may have experienced a flowrider before, as the surf simulator is popular in many travel destinations, the FlowBarrelTen is brand new. The first to be used in Europe, this revolutionary wave machine shoots water at 13 miles a second to generate a picture-perfect tube wave. Anyone want to #hangten?

Sol Melia Vacation Club

Many in the timeshare industry are familiar with Melia Hotels International and the Melia Vacation Club. The corporation owns over 350 resorts in 35 countries worldwide. Timeshare Ownership with Melia features a points-based system, in which you have the flexibility to travel to multiple resorts – including the Sol Wave House for select members. To learn more about timeshare ownership with Melia, visit their website.

Is the term “Ultra-Travel” new to you? You might guess that it refers to some new category for flying first class or perhaps luxurious upgraded hotel and timeshare resort accommodations. Actually, ultra travel and the ultra travelers who can claim this title are more like ultra marathoners … and if the thought of that doesn’t give you pause, it should.

Hardly a new concept, the Traveler’s Century Club was founded in 1954. To be a member you need a minimum of 100 country stamps on your passport. It used to be listed in the Guinness Book of Records to distinguish the “world’s most traveled person.” And then the competition got too ugly for that.

Which countries counted as countries and how long did you have to stay in a country for it to count as a visit—was an airport layover sufficient?

Today there are four affiliate groups of the Travelers’ Century Club and 20 regional chapters, totaling some 2,000 members. Klaus Billep, chairman of Travelers’ Century Club describes the group as social. The webpage for the group describes it as, “… a nonprofit social organization representing world travelers who have visited 100 or more of the world’s countries and territories.”

The current record holder for reaching all 321 countries and territories on the Travelers’ Century Club’s list is 37-year-old Charles Veley. And while the Traveler’s Century Club recognizes 321 countries and territories, MostTraveledPeople.com says there are technically 873 places to visit on this earth. Since the United Nations recognizes only 193 countries, clearly other lists can be pretty granular.

No Bouvet Island Timeshare Resorts

With this type of travel, inherently come challenges. John Clause, an attorney from Indiana and a decade-long record holder of “world’s most traveled man,” claims his passion for travel (and attaining the travel record) cost him six marriages.

Despite all the conveniences of modern travel, accessibility can be more of a challenge than you might expect. Take Bouvet Island, for example. Wikipedia enlightens us that it is, “an uninhabited subantarctic volcanic island and dependency of Norway located in the South Atlantic Ocean.” And we can attest that there are no Bouvet Island timeshare resorts. But for those trying to cross it off their travel lists, weeks can be spent along with thousands and thousands of dollars hoping to be in the right place at the right time when the icebergs are sufficiently manageable for ships to break through and reach the island.

Although there are obvious pitfalls, if reading about ultra travelers makes you feel like a real “stay at home,” you might find a comfortable middle ground just by making the effort to incorporate travel into your life in a more consistent and meaningful way.

As Veley explains, “The more you travel, the more regional perspective you get. It helps you relate to different types of people, and the world becomes more beautiful because of it. It helps you understand the chaos.”

And who wouldn’t benefit from a more beautiful world and more understanding of chaos?

Last week, after over a year of extensive research on the buying patterns, motivators, and social values of Chinese consumers, Ritz-Carlton hotelier has launched a new Chinese website and has a page on Sina Weibo, the first Mandarin language social media channel. Later this year, Ritz-Carlton plans also to launch a Chinese mobile site.

Ed French, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer, The Ritz-Carlton, explains:

“To thrive in China, a brand needs to go beyond the data and immerse itself in the culture to develop relevant marketing. The research process in China not only helped us to understand the needs of a Chinese consumer in the digital space, but also the way in which they have come to know The Ritz-Carlton. It also helped us to make subtle changes to design that would resonate. We learned that the color blue is associated with immortality and wisdom, and so the shade of blue used was chosen for its richness and is sampled from the blue found in Chinese porcelain,” added French. “Another significant finding of the research was the high level of customer’s appreciation for The Ritz-Carlton traditions, history, and heritage. There was great desire for our digital channels to reflect that tradition, while also demonstrating that we understand the online preferences in China, and that we are speaking to the audience in a way that is culturally relevant.”

To reach this level of understanding. Ritz-Carlton company conducted two sets of research, each a six-month process.

• The first study was an online pathways project to understand how affluent Chinese consumers felt about Ritz-Carlton digital presence, and that of its competitors.
• The second study focused on website designs, content structure, website navigation, digital assets, photographs, page layouts, and social conversation.

Why is China Important to Ritz-Carlton and to the Hospitality Industry as a Whole

For Ritz-Carlton, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marriott International, China is already one its largest growing markets. In response to this, the company will double its inventory of Ritz-Carlton hotels in China to a total of 16 over the next three years.

• According to projections by China Outbound Tourism Research Institute, China will become the world’s largest outbound tourist market, with a projected 90 million people expected to travel overseas in 2013 alone.
• Chinese tourists have surpassed Americans and Germans in terms of expenditures, spending a record-breaking US $102 billion last year.
• According to the Bain & Company’s 2012 Luxury Goods Worldwide Market Study, global luxury sales were estimated to reach US $278 billion in 2012, up by 10% year-over-year, of which, luxury goods sales in China were projected to reach almost US $20 billion in 2012. It is estimated that overseas consumption of luxury goods accounted for around 60% of the total Chinese luxury spending in 2012.

Social media is a powerful communication tool in China. Sina Weibo is a leading micro-blogging website and is one of the most popular social media websites in China, with more than 30 percent of China’s web users (some 500 million registered users) subscribing to Sina Weibo. Using Sina Weibo, Ritz-Carlton can essentially customize content into many of the dialects of China, making it regionally and culturally relevant.

Read Ritz-Carlton’s full media release here:

• Legendary Luxury Hotel Company Takes China by Digital Storm with Launch of Chinese Website and Presence on Sina Weibo

Other Ritz-Carlton News

• Former Ritz-Carlton Hawaii Timeshare Resort Sold for $100M
• Marriott Timeshare and Ritz Carlton Timeshare Hosting PGA and LPGA Golf Events
• Happy Birthday to Timeshare’s Elegant Ten-Year-Old – The Ritz-Carlton Destination Club