Resort Condominiums International, a global player in timeshare, will be coming out with affordable domestic properties at around 10 locations catering to the middle class.
Raju Shahani, managing director of the company, said: "One of the our developers is scouting for locations for the project and we are also negotiating with other prominent builders such as Rahejas and Ansals. This would be in the range of Rs 75,000 to Rs 1 lakh for holidays for a week every year for 33 years, catering to the middle class."
Recently, the company has launched an urbanshare program, The Luxury Club, in Mumbai in collaboration with Le Royal Meridien.
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"We have also started a reward programme in which a customer can exchange every week in a year, every resort based on the points value of that resort at that time. The customer can exchange the points for airline tickets, a cruise etc," Shahani said. The product is mainly targetted at the corporates and non-resident Indians.
The company is also planning to introduce the product for its resort timeshare some time next year. "We are evaluating the points of each resort based on the cost of land, location, climate and demand of destination," Shahani said.
Commenting on the industry position, post September 11, he said, "Contrary to the reports, this is one industry which is doing well. This is mainly because timeshare is a long-term product. And, according to one of our major clients, Mahindras, they have done better this September than last year. I feel we will record a growth rate of 20 per cent next year. Last year it was 18 per cent."
Resort Condominiums has recently opened an office and a call center in Mumbai and is planning to open another office and call center in New Delhi. The company has also started its travel company, RCI TRavels Pvt Ltd.
Highlighting the trends in the tourism industry, Shahani said, "Now, people want flexibility. They want more short breaks away from home. There is also a clear movement away from travel to the US and Europe. Indians are becoming more adventurous and are preferring South-East Asia and new locations such as New Zealand."
Timeshare business in the country has been plagued by the fly-by-night operators, Shahani said and added, "We have taken various measures to check this. We have thrown out resorts that have not been performing out of the system and also improved our customer services. We are propagating onsite selling so that the consumer is not duped. Onsite selling has had a success rate of 33 per cent."