Page 18 - ATA

A14 LOCAL
Tuesday 6 March 2018
Time Share Tourism Significant Social Value for Aruba

Continued from Page 13

New, fast-growing markets
in the time share industry
would be Mexico/Latin
America, Asia and big cit-
ies. The latter is a very new
development in the market
where tourists buy a room/
apartment for time share
in a big city like New York,
Paris, Singapore etc. Anoth-
er remarkable point is that
the membership programs
are upcoming where you
can interchange your time
share in Aruba Marriott with
a Marriott in New York for
example. Or even more
adventurous: a trip in na-
ture or a cruise vacation.

Who is the Time Share Own-
er?
It was stated during the
conference that it is a mis-
interpretation that all time destination market when They also consider the Ca- convince the visitor to buy pass it on to their children.
share owners are of older it comes to time share. For ribbean safer than Europe, time share, but more focus The memories and bonding
age. Time share owners go decades the region is dom- moreover because of the on the details of the time with the island make them
as far as 19 years of age, inating, especially for the terrorism threat. share itself in the sense of loyal to the destination.
but the majority are families American buyers as the Eu- value and points programs. They consider it their sec-
and people of 55 years old ropeans target South Euro- Competition Airbnb So in that sense a time ond home.
and up. The average time pean countries like France The competition of Airbnb share can offer the same
share owner has a higher and Spain. Several speak- and other similar accom- flexibility as alternative ac- Sustainability
education level and is an ers during the conference modations for the hotels commodations, with the Neil Kolton, Director of Re-
affluent traveler. The aver- marked the Caribbean as and resorts is bigger in the membership programs you sort Sales & Marketing and
age income is $93,000 per one of the most attractive last few years. Time share can change destinations colleague Samy Gonzalez,
year, the type of visitor the regions in the world. “There feels this competition too, as desired. Region Manager Resort
Aruba Tourism Authority has are even a lot of Americans it was said during the con- Sales & Service for Inter-
characterized as their tar- who prefer the Caribbean ference. There were no For Aruba we can see a val International, talked
get market. over their own country, like clear answers or solutions loyal time share owner that to Aruba Today about the
for example Miami. This is expressed by the speakers likes to stick to the desti- developments within the
The Caribbean is the largest largely for safety reasons. of the conference how to nation and in the end will Caribbean region, specifi-
cally the time share in small
islands like Aruba. The im-
pact on tourism in general
came to the table: more
construction of time share
resorts, more traffic, more
pressure on our beaches
and nature, public health
and the import of foreign
labor to be able to of-
fer the requested services
in the industry. Both ac-
knowledged the fact that
there are limitations to the
growth of time share on
small islands, but at the
same time they stress the
fact that time share own-
ers bring another kind of
sustainability to the islands
like for example what hap-
pened in St. Maarten. “The
time share owners may be
considered as temporar-
ily local and that makes
them conscious of the envi-
ronment and the effect of
tourism on the island.”q