Time-Share: Bonanza or Bugbear?

Point Blank

By Hugh & Colleen Gantzer

If we gave you 23,000 financially committed travellers every year, would you be sorry? And if we said 'hold it! That's just 23,000 families: but since each family consists of at least four people, that's at least 92,000 pax dedicated to an annual holiday, would you be depressed? Those are the sort of little known, but happy, figures that just one time-share company generates!

At which point, those who have been following our writings over the years, will ask: "But aren't you the people who blasted time-share on the editorial page of a national daily not so long ago?" Yes, we are. We slammed time-share when it first came to India because it was a racket then. Fly-by-night operators enrolled themselves in time-share organisations even before they had a viable property. They took their gullible investors' money and fled into the darkness. But then, more ethical people stepped in and cleared up the time-share act. Which is not to say that there aren't any bad eggs left. There are scammers in all professions. But you can avoid them if you check the antecedents of the promoters and opt for the soundest. An organisation backed by a long-standing reputation in another business is not likely to soil its hands by messing around with shady time-share details: they have too much to lose.

So when an organisation like Mahindra & Mahindra stepped into time-share they brought with them the solid credibility they had built up as the leading manufacturers of jeeps and tractors. And this has paid rich dividends. Between 1997 and 2001, they acquired 9,800 members. Between last year and this, their member base had rise to 23,000 plus. Enough said: We just wanted to tell you why we, who once led the pack against time-share, are now all in favour of it. (No, we are not members of any time-share scheme only because we don't need to be: our destination-accommodation comes with the job!)

So how does all this affect you, as a travel industry person? That's easy. Mahindra Holidays, alone has got over 23,000 families to put down a fairly substantial, one-time, investment, in taking a week's holiday every year for 25 years. In other words, at a conservative estimate, there are 23,000 x 4 = 92,000 people who will, with reasonable certainly, take a holiday every twelve months in one of the eleven Mahindra holiday resorts and villas, or in any of the 4,000 associated resorts in over 90 countries. But though this time-share scheme offers its members a week's holiday accommodation in any of the resorts on its panel, getting there and getting around is not part of its package. Which is where the rest of the travel industry comes in.

Travel agents, tour operators, ground handlers, guides, restaurateurs (yes, that spelling is correct) and the rest of the wide range of entrepreneurs involved in tourism, have a captive clientele ready, willing and able to spend. All those 92,000 people are on holiday, and most folk on vacation spend not wisely but too well particularly if they are with their families and are enjoying themselves. We also learnt that Mahindra Holidays, as a matter of policy, encourages families to join their time-share, not singles.

Thus, not only have these happy families been pre-screened and conditioned to take a holiday every year, year after year, but thanks to word-of-mouth publicity ("We are so happy that we will definitely get our friends to join" said both the owner of a fleet of transports from Maharashtra and a Gujarati diamond merchant) the ranks of such lifetime holiday makers registered a 15 per cent plus CAGR since 1998.

"But what's in it for hoteliers?" mine hosts might ask, "Aren't time-share properties unfair competition?" Well, to start with, business hotels, with their emphasis on down town locations do not cater to the same segment of guests as time-share who are located in unwinding leisure destinations. Those establishments who depend on charter and group traffic, also, need have no fear of time-share, which is family-oriented not series-attuned. Then, the page three patrons of glitzy watering holes are not likely to feel comfortable in time-share places, which are, essentially, meant for people with a comfortably centrist frame of mind. Consequently, while the same people may, at one time, patronise a time-share property and then a five-star hotel, their motives for choosing these disparate hostelries are as mutually exclusive as when they opt to wear a formal suit on one occasion and tees and jeans on another.

But, regardless of motivation, every one of the growing ranks of time-share members has been infected with the travel bug. And that is a win-win situation for the industry.