Top Ten Timeshare Stories of 2008

It's been an interesting year for the country, and timeshare is not immune to the issues that have impacted all of us. I'm joining my examiner.com associates with a look at some of the significant stories that have impacted timeshare and timeshare owners this year.

In no particular order:

Disney leaves Interval for RCI - years ago Disney entered the world of timeshare, affiliating its resorts with RCI, the exchange giant. In the nineties, they some waves when they shifted to exchange rival Interval International. And now they've gone back to RCI, which offers more resorts.

Interval International Breakup -A few years ago vertical integration was all the corporate rage. Owning companies that provided top to bottom synergies seemed to make sense. So Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp owned Cheap Tickets for airlines, Hotels.com and Interval International. But today's strategy seems to favor focusing on core skill sets leading IAC to break up, so Interval is divorcing from corporate cousins including Lending Tree and Ticketmaster.

Disney Vacation Club breaks ground for its first Hawaiian resort on the Island of Oahu -

Save for the one Resort at Hilton Head, Disney Vacation Club properties were all in Florida, with most of them part of the Disney World mega property in Orlando.

Hawaii sees occupancy rates increase- Even as the decline in traditional tourism hits tourism as well as the rest of the world, dropping hotel occupancy to the 60% range, timeshare resorts report rates continuing into the 90's.

The Financial Crisis - puts brakes on double digit growth for first time in years, future impact will be considerably less new product in the development pipeline

Ongoing growth and diversification of fractional product - although the current economic downturn will have some impact, and some of the super rich may drop down into the extremely rich" category instead, the fractionals and PRCs, still in their relative infancy, will continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace. More properties in diverse locales will be developed. Increased flexibility on product usage, including the ability to exchange, will occur. And even more mainstream, lower priced product will enter the fractional marketplace

Growth of urban timeshare - Between Fractionals and traditional programs, timeshare continues to penetrate the urban markets including growth in places like Seattle, San Diego and San Francisco. This is due to a combination of factors, including the increased level of respectability the industry has gained as well as the fact that the cities are one of the few under-represented segments of the timeshare market.

Hertz and shared cars - While not true timeshare, in the sense that clients do not receive an ownership stake in the short term use cars available to the membership, it does represent growth in the ongoing acceptance of the concept. Already cars, jets and yachts are just some of the non-traditional products timeshared.

Layoffs by Bluegreen, Wyndham, Westgate and others- As the financial crisis impacts the entire country, timeshare developers are certainly not immune. Most of the cuts, approaching as many as one in four employees, so far seem to be in the areas of sales and new resort development.

Timeshare on television - advertising on television, whether for the secondary market, featured as part of other corporate image spots or timeshare specific is growing as a method of marketing. Granted, this is also an outgrowth of increasing restrictions on telemarketing, but it sure beats the guy in the alley with an overcoat saying "psst, wanna buy a timeshare?"

And a bonus #11 - My column returning- indulge me