Transfer Smart News: Latin American Timeshare Industry Shows Resiliency in Difficult Times

During these difficult economic times, it’s no wonder why most people cutback spending. Usually, things that are considered luxury are avoided by most people nowadays and one of these is their ways of vacationing. That’s why we often see many owners nowadays trying to get out of their timeshares. But despite this, the vacation ownership industry in some countries still shows resiliency. Take for example, Brazil and Venezuela which recorded a double-digit growth in interval sales in 2009 mainly due to their sales in the domestic market. Latin America as a whole showed signs of strength and continued to attract new players to its vacation ownership industry.

According to RCI’s Executive Summary of the Latin American and Caribbean Vacation Ownership Fact Book, there are 61 new vacation resorts which joined the region’s vacation exchange system in 2009, and Latin America closed the year with a total of more than 1,200 affiliated resorts.

RCI also notes that 97% of interval sales in Brazil were done by domestic buyers. Meanwhile, Results from Venezuela indicate that Venezuelans purchased 99% of the 12,700 weeks sold in the country. With these and other data gathered by RCI in the region, the estimated sales of vacation weeks in Latin American totaled 212,316 intervals which is a 12% decline from the previous year.

The Executive Summary also indicates that despite the tough economic environment of the previous year, some other markets showed promising growth signs like Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Colombia with new timeshare players came into the industry and introduced new resorts.

The challenges brought by the recent economic downturn made several owners want to get rid of their timeshares. This is a way of minimizing expenses to battle such difficult time. But in spite of this, the vacation ownership industry in some areas like in Latin America still showed a robust condition.