Australians with timeshare take more holidays
While many Australians are tightening their holiday purse strings, recent figures show Australian timeshare owners continue to take frequent holidays.
Timeshare today has evolved from the traditional model of people owning a weekly share in one apartment. These days, timeshare owners (also known as vacation owners) can access multiple resorts, accommodation types and experiences. Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific has 24 resorts in its WorldMark South Pacific Club by Wyndham and also offers its owners, through exchange programs and affiliate memberships, the chance to use their timeshare to holiday in thousands of resorts all over the globe.
“The great thing about timeshare is that no matter what is happening with the economy, if you have pre-paid for something, there is more likelihood you are going to use it, said Barry Robinson, CEO and managing director of Australian based timeshare company, Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific.
This attitude helped Australian timeshare resorts achieve an impressive 90.4% occupancy in 2012, compared to all hotels and resorts who had average occupancies of 70.9%, according to the Economic Contribution of Australian Time share and Holiday Ownership Industry – 2012 report by Australian Timeshare Holiday Ownership Council. That is because pre-paying timeshare owners feel they have more money in their wallets because they won’t get a huge hotel bill at the end of their holiday. That feeling of wealth, not felt in the general economy in years, has encouraged spending of $211.6 million by timeshare owners and their guests while holidaying using timeshare in Australia in 2012. This equates to an average expenditure of $1954 per travel party per trip.
According to ATHOC, this represented an increase in total guest/ owner expenditure while holidaying using timeshare of 11% compared to 2009. By comparison, total tourist expenditure in Australia increased by just 1% between 2008-09 and 2011-12, from $94.4 billion to $95.4 billion.
Timeshare’s status as an unheralded engine room of Australia’s tourism has been confirmed in new research that calculates the industry’s 2012 economic output at $616.5 million. The data, compiled by research firm AEC group, illustrates a tourism sector outstripping the broader industry on key growth metrics including occupancy, visitor spend and satisfaction and domestic visitation.
The industry’s 2012 economic output grew 22.3% from 2009 and includes an incredible 48.4% growth in gross value add, timeshare’s ‘bottom line’ economic injection.
Other key timeshare industry facts include:
• Timeshare occupancy for 2012 was 90.4%, ahead of the industry average 70.9%
• The number of Australian timeshare owners holidaying domestically grew 17% from 2009, far ahead of the national domestic tourism growth of 9%
• An annual visitor spend of $211.6 million (from an average spend of $1,954 per party per trip) 11% growth from 2009, while average spend industry-wide grew only 1%
• 90% of timeshare owners reported satisfaction with their most recent timeshare accommodation and 77% believed their ownership had already saved them money or would do so in the future.
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