Business Day Financial Times
February 22, 2000
THE timeshare industry in SA has not always enjoyed a popular reception from a public repelled by its hardsell
promotional techniques.
However, the industry has evolved to where the major players now offer customers a variety of ways in which to
accumulate points towards an affordable vacation in one of a selection of resorts.
The Holiday Club, which commands a 50% share of the R300m timeshare market in SA, has released results which confirm
the success of the more flexible format. The company, formed in 1993, offers its members a share in a portfolio
of resorts as opposed to ownership of single timeshare weeks.
The company showed a record growth in turnover in its last financial year. MD John Beekman said Holiday Club turnover
grew to R148m in the year to December 1999 from R128m in 1998 a 15,6% increase.
With the 65% forecast growth for domestic tourism this year, more people will turn to holiday ownership in the
leisure industry to ensure that they continue to enjoy affordable holidays locally and internationally at highly
rated resorts, said Beekman.
The company is very liquid. Our debtors are in excess of R150m and all the stock purchased during the last two
years was cash. He said the company would soon pay off bonds incurred in previous years.
The Holiday Club holds property assets of R490m which include holiday units and resorts throughout SA and Zimbabwe.
New developments included upgrading Formosa Bay Villas at Plettenberg Bay in the Eastern Cape at a cost of R2m,
and building an additional 30 units at Waterberg Game Reserve in the Northern Province at a cost of R8m.
Jeremy Thomas Business Day 1st Edition
© BDFM Publishers 2000