My Ramblings on the Timeshare Business

It is with great pleasure and pride that I have accepted your Editor’s invitation to share my ramblings on our industry with you. Without the immense efforts of people like Alan, this industry would not have grown to the remarkable size it is today. Owners and industry professionals alike can now hold their heads high, having weathered the growing pains that this business has suffered over the years.

When I purchased my first week of “timeshare” in 1979 at “Little Hartley Farm” in the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney Australia, I had no idea that the concept would develop into the fastest growing sector of the travel and accommodation industries. Nor for that matter that in my twilight years that it would enable me to find a whole new carrier path spanning the globe, and leading to my eventual retirement hopefully next year at the ripe old age of 72! Allow me to share some exciting numbers recently released by our industry -

The June edition of the American Hotel and Motel Management magazine had an article on timesharing with some recent (2002) statistics released by The ARDA International Foundation.

476,100 full and part-time timesharing jobs
$15,900,000,000 (yes that’s billion$) in payroll and related expense
4,900,000 timeshare vacations taken in 2002
$1,784 average spent per vacation
$8,700,000,000 spent by timesharing owners while on vacation
$5,500,000,000 in new timeshare vacation sales
$3,000,000,000 in maintenance fees for taxes, payroll, utilities, goods, services
3.6 average people in vacation party
6.8 nights average stay in resort area

I have no doubt that ARDA’s European counterpart has similar figures to share!

Nothing has brought home to me the incredible growth of our Industry in a more dramatic way than the growth of the timeshare projects in one of my most beloved resort locations in the world. Malta! It was over 40 years ago that I arrived as Associated Press’s stringer on this troubled Island. For over 5 great years I lived on this Mediterranean paradise seeped in history and archeological wonders. I explored the catacombs at Rabat and Medina, Photographed the Neolithic temples, the Tarxien Spirals and the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum; Marveled at the beautiful paintings of Caravaggio.

And more recently, in the strangest quirk of Fate found myself seated beside Mary Anne Pule, Managing Director of Malta’s largest development company at an American Resort Development Association annual convention. But here is the real kicker! Mary Anne is the wife a prominent Maltese Magician, a profession I enjoyed for over 25 years! Who said it’s a small world! If you have yet to explore this historic gem, place Malta high on your travel plan list.

I can’t wait to re-explore the magic of Malta on a visit that I have planned for later this month (July 2004). Your comments and suggestions are always welcome to or via the links at World of Un explained Mysteries.com

Peter J. Shield

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Shield International Marketing Partners Ltd, 3205 #D Pinehurst Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89109 USA. Phone (702) 731 3660