Timeshare Trends Blog

Westgate Resorts says it workforce has had a net gain of 800 people since the start of 2010. The Orlando based timeshare company is still far behind its peak employment period, which once employed over 11,000 people in the Orlando area. Early in 2009, Westgate Resorts had reduced its workforce to about 7,000. According to Westgate Resorts Chief Operating Officer, the company now employs 5,200 people. Westgate Resorts maintains eight properties alone in the Orlando area.

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The first international timeshare sales office for Disney Vacation Club will open in Tokyo with a 15,000 square foot sales center at the Ikspiari shopping complex. Disney also plans to add timeshare sales kiosks throughout the Tokyo Disney Resort. Disney Vacation Club timeshare preview centers are already located in Long Island, NY, and in Chicago, Illinois. The new timeshare sales center for Disney Vacation Club will include a full-size model of one of the two-bedroom timeshare units planned for the Disney Vacation Club Villas, Ko Olina, Hawaii.

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Disney Vacation Club has launched a new bonus strategy for its staff in a bid to boost the number of people that use its resorts. The timeshare club is adjusting its salary and bonus strategy to try to encourage members of its staff to help increase sales of Disney timeshare units.

Rena Langley, spokesperson for the Disney Vacation Club, explained that the pay structure among advance sales associates will enable them to provide more reward and recognition to top performers in the sales team. Disney timeshares have long been a popular option among European timeshare holders and new research shows that sales have been increasing among adults and couples without children.

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Still on schedule are 50 new units that will open later this year in Disneyland in Anaheim, California, along with three recently opened timeshare properties right in Disney World in central Florida. The ambitious growth in the Disney Vacation Club is coming at a time when sales at the Celebration, Florida based timeshare business fell during the last three months that ended on March 28. It is the first quarterly decline that Disney has recorded in its Disney Vacation Club timeshare arm in several years.

According to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, this has added more pressure at Disney’s worldwide them park division, which has relied on its vacation club to help fuel its profit growth in recent years. The new resorts in Disney World in Florida include the Kidani Village, Treehouse Villas, and Bay Lake Towers. In Anaheim, the Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is on schedule, the resort in Hawaii remains under construction and is scheduled to open in 2011. Finally, Disney has purchased 15 acres just outside Washington DC with plans to build a family resort and timeshare units.

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Group RCI, the global leader in vacation exchange, and Disney Vacation Club, one of the world’s fastest-growing brands in the vacation-ownership industry, announced the agreement, which now allows subscribing members access to an even broader array of vacation opportunities.

RCI now becomes the exclusive third-party exchange provider for Disney Vacation Club, enrolling Disney Vacation Club’s more than 135,000 member families into RCI’s global exchange network. RCI has one of the most expansive portfolios of high-end affiliated vacation resorts, as well as more choices in more countries than any other exchange network.

Disney Vacation Club Members will now be able to enjoy vacations at a variety of destinations across six continents and 25 countries and have access to a significantly broader range of resorts, including all-inclusive options, more nightly exchanges and a selection of luxurious, high-end fractional properties. Similarly, RCI’s more than 3.6 million members will now also enjoy the opportunity to exchange into Disney Vacation Club resorts throughout the year.

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Disney plans to open three new timeshare properties in Orlando and one in Anaheim later this year despite a tightening credit market and slower growth of their Disney Vacation Club timeshare program.

The Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort will open on August 4. The roughly 300-unit tower will be linked to the Contemporary Hotel by a fifth floor pedestrian bridge. It will be the first timeshare resort ever sold by Disney that will be within walking distance of the Magic Kingdom.

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The timeshare arm of the Walt Disney Company, is experiencing huge losses now that it has lost its access to a long standing line of credit it had been tapping to raise cash by selling bundles of its timeshare mortgages it issues to individual buyers.

Disney sold $17 million in Disney Vacation Club memberships in its last quarter compared to $41 million one year ago. With Disney being forced to carry the timeshare mortgages as opposed to cashing them out will end up slowing Disney Vacation Clubs earnings and growth.

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Disney Vacation Club continues unprecedented growth with two new development projects in Disney World.

Two highly anticipated resort developments announced today will expand the Disney World experience and continue the rapid growth of Disney Vacation Club, Disney’s vacation-ownership program. The 15-story Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2009, and the Treehouse Villas at Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, is scheduled to open in summer 2009.

Bay Lake Tower sales began in September 21 for Disney Vacation Club Members. Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa sales will begin at a later date.

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