Week of Oct. 30 - Nov. 4, 2004
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Street Talk International Archives |
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| Street Talk is a compendium of tips, facts, gossip, rumors, speculation and editorial comment provided by The Timeshare Beat as an outlet for the free expression of its readers
and for their entertainment. The Timeshare Beat makes no assertion as to the veracity of the items contained herein.
If erroneous information is inadvertently
included and a correction to this information is subsequently sent to The Timeshare Beat, the correction will be
prominently published. Opinions published within Street
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" The theory of a free press is that truth will emerge from free discussion, not that it will be presented perfectly and instantly in any one account." -- Walter Lippmann Street Talk is a compendium of tips, facts, gossip, rumors, speculation
and editorial comment.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Pam Golding International and Golding Hotel Investment Consultants (GHIC), both members of the global Pam Golding Property group, have formed a new joint venture, Pam Golding Leisure (Pty) Ltd, which will be the first real estate company in Africa to specialise in the multi-ownership concept in a serviced hospitality and leisure environment. They have now launched the Pam Golding Private Residence Club, spearheaded by international hotelier, Jose Ventura as managing director, with Renette McKenzie, well known in the hotel and travel industry, as marketing director. A typical member of our club will pay a once-off amount between R400 000 and R550 000 for the annual usage, which is on average 28 days, of a superior apartment, lodge or villa serviced in a five star deluxe environment. Annual costs associated with the ownership amount to an average of approximately R12 000. For location, they have opted for a limited number of only eight properties to form the initial core of the Club. Over a four-year period, this will grow to 25 special and unique applications incorporating urban (Cape Town, Johannesburg and London), beach (South Africa, Mozambique, Mauritius, Seychelles and Italy), golf, game and mountains (South Africa). The initial membership will be open to 4 000, which is envisaged to increase to a maximum of 12 500 in four years’ time. E-mail street@thetimesharebeat.com
The Jin Qiao International Apartments, a luxury development project, is located within the second ring road, just blocks away from Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Its hotel services and amenities include a Chinese seafood restaurant, Western restaurant and bar with live entertainment, supermarket, beauty salon, fully equipped gymnasium and a range of boutique shops. The Absolute Private Residence Club will offer fully serviced one, two and three bedroom units. Jin Lu Xiang's Project Director is Jim Douglas, formerly of Westgate Resorts in Las Vegas, who is heading up the huge sales and marketing drive. They are now seeing around 1,000 quality families a month at the property. Soon to be starting on-site owner referrals and owner upgrades for this expanding project, the future is looking bright at this first ever resort affiliation for Interval in Beijing. MALAYSIA: Berjaya Group Berhad is a Malaysian conglomerate publicly listed on the Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (formerly known as Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange) with core business ventures in consumer marketing and direct selling, financial services, vacation timeshare, hotels, resorts and recreational development, property investment and development, industrial, gaming and lottery management and investment holding. Now they're expanding into the book selling business. They've
signed a memorandum of understanding with Borders Inc., a subsidiary of global book, music and movie retailer Borders Group
Inc. The first of what is expected to be multiple Borders stores in Malaysia will be located in Kuala Lumpur at
Berjaya Times Square,
the country's largest shopping mall, and is expected to open in April 2005. Upon execution, it will be the first
ever franchise arrangement for Borders.
E-mail street@thetimesharebeat.com CARIBBEAN
E-mail street@thetimesharebeat.com The UK & EUROPE
ENGLAND: If you're in the biz in the UK and on the Continent, it's probably safe to say that you've heard of Jack Petchey. His is a rags to riches story: Born IN 1925 in the East End of London, he rose from office boy at 14 in the accounts department of a legal stationers in the City of London to motor trade and property tycoon. With offices in Ilford, Essex, his company encompasses property investment & development timeshare management and the Jack Petchey Foundation, a charity supporting youth in Jack Petchey's birthplace and home, East London & West Essex. The timeshare resort Clube Praia da Oura in Portugal is Jack's baby. We only bring this all up because it was recently in the news that he has taken a secret 1.6% stake in £ 258m property company Helical Bar. This has nothing to do with timeshare, but the market watchers in the UK have noticed it with some surprise. (Petchey has a formidable reputation as a property investor and for his meticulous research and low failure rate. On occasions, he has sparked takeovers.) And here's a life lesson for you: In 1945 at the end of the World War II, Jack Petchey left the navy and became a clerk. He was told by the personnel officer of his firm: " You'll never make a businessman" . Uh huh... SCOTLAND: As was the case
in the USA in early times, the word timeshare got a bad bad reputation throughout the UK and the Continent, due
to shady sales tactics and outright fraud. Europe finally got its act together and passed a comprehensive set of
laws to protect consumers in all participating countries, and timesharing is getting respectable. BUT, it's that
word... In the USA the industry tried to overcome the sleaze perception by changing the name to " vacation
ownership" , with dubious success. In Scotland they're now calling it " seasonal
ownership" , whether it's a week or a fractional,
and that seems to be working. It has a nice sound to it, don't you think? But of course, it's all still timeshare...
Now, if they can just get some laws passed to protect consumers
from all those bogus " holiday clubs" the fraudsters have dreamed up to sidestep the timeshare laws... Though still the #1 destination, Spain is the hardest hit in
terms of cuts to vacation packages. Thomson and Thomas
Cook, two of Britain’s biggest travel firms, have axed
more than a quarter of a million Spanish holidays from next year’s brochures. The cuts mean that Spain will account
for 60 per cent of the firms’ six million summer holidays for next year - down from 70 per cent this year. If this trend continues, y'all are going to have to compensate somehow for a serious drop in tour numbers... There is a very comprehensive article about all this in The
Scotsman, which is where we got this information. You might want to take a look at it... Sun is setting on appeal of the Costas
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| Street Talk is a compendium of tips, facts, gossip, rumors, speculation and editorial comment
provided by The Timeshare Beat as an outlet for the free expression of its readers and for their entertainment.
The Timeshare Beat makes no assertion as to the veracity of the items contained herein. If erroneous information is inadvertently included and a correction to this information
is subsequently sent to The Timeshare Beat, the correction will be prominently published. Opinions published within Street Talk are the opinions of the authors thereof and are
not necessarily the opinions of The Timeshare Beat. THIS COLUMN CONTAINS OPINIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, STATEMENTS AND INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THIRD PARTIES. THE TIMESHARE BEAT DOES NOT REPRESENT, ENDORSE OR GUARANTEE THE TRUTHFULNESS, ACCURACY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY OF SUCH CONTENT POSTED BY SUCH THIRD PARTIES, OR ENDORSE ANY OPINIONS OR RECOMMENDATIONS EXPRESSED BY SUCH THIRD PARTIES. ANY RELIANCE ON CONTENT POSTED BY THIRD PARTIES WILL BE AT YOUR OWN RISK. CHANGES ARE PERIODICALLY MADE TO THIS COLUMN AND MAY BE MADE AT ANY TIME. See our Terms and Conditions |
