Moving in. Why are more time-share companies locating here?
The reasons range from the business-friendly environment to the quality of life.

ANGELA PETERSON/THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
Time-share businesses follow their customers

Published in The Orlando Sentinel on July 26, 1999

By Tim Barker
of The Sentinel Staff

When Fairfield Communities decided recently to move its corporate office from Arkansas to Orlando, the company effectively ended any debate about Central Florida's position in the time-share industry.

The area lacks a catchy moniker, but make no mistake: If there is a Silicon Valley of time sharing, it's in Mickey Mouse's back yard.

Nowhere else in the world is found such a dense gathering of chief executive officers and corporate headquarters bent on selling tourists the same pieces of real estate over and over and over.

In time sharing, or vacation ownership as many industry people prefer to call it, consumers generally buy the use of a resort unit for a week each year. It's sort of like paying for a piece of an apartment, with developers selling each unit 50 times. Two weeks each year must be set aside for maintenance.

The industry has come a long way since its early years, when questionable sales practices and deceptive operators gave it a shady image. Time sharing's reputation has improved in recent years because of new regulations and the fact that respected companies such as Disney and Marriott have joined the business.

Last year, the top seven Orlando-based time-share companies -- with resorts scattered around the country -- were responsible for nearly two-thirds of the estimated $3 billion in domestic sales.

Fairfield's move from its longtime home in Little Rock merely added to a neighborhood already crowded with industry heavyweights such as Marriott Vacation Club International, Sunterra Corp., Westgate Resorts and Disney Vacation Club.

Why have the titans of time sharing set up shop in Orlando? It's a combination of evolution, coincidence and plain old luck of the draw.

Among Central Florida's attributes: The area is a favorite for resort developers; there is a large pool of hospitality workers and managers; and the city is in what is considered a business-friendly state.

"You add those things together, and it's not a real far stretch to say: 'Why don't I just locate my headquarters there?'" said Rob Webb, hospitality industry team leader for Baker & Hostetler, a national law firm specializing in time-share issues.

Homegrown operations Westgate and Vistana Inc. have grown largely through their close ties to Orlando's thriving tourism market.

Most large time-share companies have at least one resort in Central Florida, where 20 percent of 1998's domestic time-share sales occurred, according to industry studies.

"Tens of millions of people flow through there every year with the intent of coming back," creating a fertile sales environment, said Bryan Maher, analyst for Credit Lyonnais. "Your aren't in the business if you don't have a big hub in Orlando."

Vistana -- which agreed last week to be bought by lodging giant Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide -- and David Siegel's Westgate have drawn much of their strength from large Orlando operations. It would seem silly for either to be based anywhere else.

The same can't be said for Marriott Vacation Club International and Hilton Grand Vacations Co., which have the bulk of their resorts outside Orlando.

Both companies are tied to Central Florida because of their links to industry pioneer and local resident Ed McMullen Sr..

Marriott bought McMullen's Lakeland-based American Resorts Group in 1984 and has based its time-share operations in the area ever since. Marriott operates five area resorts and recently launched a sixth, Horizons by Marriott Vacation Club, targeting the moderate-priced market.

Seven years after Marriott bought his first company, McMullen started a second time-share operation that drew Hilton into one of the lodging industry's hottest segments.

McMullen -- managing partner for a third time-share company, Northbrook, Ill.-based Shell Vacations -- sees Orlando's evolution as the world's time-share capital as a natural occurrence.

"As Orlando has grown, so has the industry,'' said McMullen, who lists the area's airport and quality of life among the reasons for its popularity.

Indeed, Orlando International Airport provides ready access to cities around the world, a factor that helped Sunterra Corp. choose Central Florida over other locations last year.

With 89 resorts spread around the globe and executive officers living in different cities, the company wanted to consolidate its headquarters.

"Florida, as funny as it sounds, is as central as we were ever going to get,'' said Gigi Giannoni, senior vice president for Sunterra.

It also helped that Orlando was already home to several of Sunterra's corporate functions.

"Our choice was to pick up everybody and move somewhere, or go where we already had a strong presence,'' Giannoni said.

It was Orlando's reputation as a nice place to live that helped draw Fairfield away from Little Rock, where the company maintains a strong corporate presence.

"Arkansas doesn't have the image -- the perceived quality of life that Orlando does,'' said John McConnell, Fairfield's chief executive officer. ``It's just easier to recruit people nationally to come to Orlando than it is to other areas of the country.''