Timeshare in 2010
Thursday 22nd July 2010
Industry experts in the UK and the US have given their insights into the ever-changing perception of Timeshare. In the first of a two-part study for RCI Ventures magazine, Sue McNicol, head of operations for the Resort Development Organisation (RDO), gives her interpretation of how timeshare is viewed in 2010.
|
| Timeshare 2010 |
The industry is still dogged by the reputation it gained during the supposed high-pressure selling days of the 1980's and 1990's, says McNicol. While there are many people who have only positive experiences to relate, she says, it would appear that it does not occur to many others that things in the industry may have changed.
The image of super-slick salesmen ambushing holidaymakers and effectively holding them to ransom, keeping them until they have signed legally binding contracts that they cannot get out of, is an image that some still believe today, suggests McNicol. She believes that people are not aware of the measures in place to stop exactly that kind of thing happening. She argues that people "are not aware that legislation was adopted to protect consumers at the end of the 1990s, nor are they aware that there is a pan European industry trade body, RDO, that enforces its own code of conduct."
For McNicol there is no surprise that people have seen Timeshare as something to be avoided, especially with the part the media have played in the perception of the industry. The old adage that "bad news sells newspapers" still holds true and many "old-time" journalists, as McNicol calls them, are unable to accept that the industry has changed.
McNicol admits that there are improvements in the media attention, especially amongst younger journalists who seem more interested in producing objective articles, saying "there have been one or two wonderful articles of late, both of which came as a result of PR work carried out by the exchange companies."
The Timeshare industry is still working tirelessly to improve its image with the RDO and the consumer body TATOC (The Timeshare Association), looking at ways to promote the image of Timeshare at the same time as raising awareness of both organisations.
