Is the Vacation Ownership industry immune from the downturn?
Howard Nusbaum, President of ARDA, recently addressed the state of the timeshare industry in this turbulent economy. In his open letter for September/October 2008, entitled “Timeshare, Recession Resilient?” Mr. Nusbaum observed that while the entire hospitality industry may be negatively affected by the economic downturn, there are a number of reasons why timeshares in general should be better situated than other real estate product, and even hotels. But in his November/December open letter, Mr. Nussbaum was less optimistic. He said, “I don’t have to tell you that our vacation ownership industry is feeling the pain from this credit market crisis, but only as victims and not as part of its cause. And remember that during previous downturns, our resort occupancies have outperformed hotels and our sales have outperformed traditional second home and condo sales–and we can work toward that same outcome this time, too.” Other than a near-term shortage of receivables financing, all other fac
