LETTER FROM CHAIRMAN

April 2012

Recently, RCI organized the Shared Ownership Conference in Mumbai to unravel the hidden layers of the Indian timeshare market and get a perspective on local and global growth trends. The conference drew some of the biggest minds and professionals in the industry from all over the globe – world leaders who came together to explore the new horizons in a dynamic, fast-growing market.

Participants at the conference were exposed to the new directions our industry was taking and I saw pens flying across notepads - taking down facts, figures and updates that were shared by gurus making their presentations.

I’m sharing some of that here for all those who missed the conference.

• The first vacation ownership resort was in Switzerland in the 1960s. Today there are 7,638 vacation ownership resorts worldwide, with 9.3 million owners in 200 countries
• Timeshare has been present in India for close to 30 years now. The top states for timeshare development currently in India are Goa, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala.
• The demand for travel and tourism in the country is expected to grow by 8.2 per cent between 2010 and 2019. It’s a growth phase that will place India at a third position in the world.
• Capital investment in India's travel and tourism sector is expected to grow at 8.8 per cent between 2010 and 2019.
• At an average of four people per vacation, close to 7.52 lakh Indians used timeshare exchange for their vacations in 2011.
• While the timeshare market is developed to quite an extent, there still are a number of untapped destinations. Hotspots for the future could be around Coastal Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, the North East and Madhya Pradesh.
• More than half the number of timeshare owners have platinum credit cards, apart from a membership of a social club, including a holiday club. The level of affluence amongst owners is also visible through the large numbers of home owners. Vehicle ownership is also extremely high with close to 93 per cent owning cars.
  

These facts, figures and pointers were taken from the presentations made at the conference. I have taken the liberty to aggregate facts and figures under common threads.

From my vantage point at AIRDA, here’s what I can see in the upcoming future. I can see highly evolved resort profiles, with facilities and features not even visualized in the current context. I can see higher standards in customer service. I can see highly engaging and interactive presentation techniques for prospective customers.

I can also see the whole wide world in the canvas of my palm. The mobile will probably be the preferred tool to book your holiday, guide you along the way if you’re driving, to place your food orders at the resort, to plan your activities, take pictures and videos. And when the time is ripe, you may also be able to upload your holiday experience to the AIRDA website.

Yes, we’ll be ready for the future, when it happens.

B. S. Rathor
Chairman, AIRDA

Here’s a news report on the conference, if you’d like more information