Consumers Put Peddle to the Metal for Summer Vacations

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SEATTLE (PRWEB) July 21, 2005 —-Holiday Resales, a member of the Seattle-based Holiday Group of companies, reports an unprecedented demand for drive-to destinations for mini-vacations close to home. “We’re hearing it from our customers, and we’re seeing it in the web analytics tracking the click-through path of our visitors to our gallery of timeshares,” says David Skinner, President and CEO of Holiday Resales.

Since 1992, over 20,000 customers have purchased “used timeshares” from Holiday. “As opposed to our earlier years in the business, the trend today is ‘vacation local’” says Skinner. “People want a hassle-free vacation experience. And airports are anything but hassle-free.”

Skinner reasons this is due to the following: heightened security measures, keeping lines long; money-saving cut-backs from airlines, reducing staff and service levels; crowded planes, flying at passenger capacity to increase revenue. And now, rising airfares--just in time for summer vacations.

“Sure, gas is going up too,” Skinner acknowledges. “But, taking your car with you alleviates another line to wait in as well as the expense of paying at the rental car agency desk.”

But money and aggravation aside, there is another reason for the increase in demand for drive-to destinations: Americans are time-starved.

“The people who can most afford a vacation are those who can least afford the time to take a full week off from work,” states Skinner. Their solution is to take several long weekends every quarter: tacking a Monday/Friday onto a weekend for a quick getaway. And who wants to spend their precious time in an airport?

“Even a regional airline that flies you point-to-point in less than two hours becomes a 5 hour commitment each way, by the time you calculate delays for checking in, security screening, waiting for luggage and renting a car,” explains Skinner. “Not to mention the hassle factor. With a drive-to destination, the vacation begins as soon as you leave the driveway—the cooler is between the seats, your favorite CDs are playing, and the kids are watching a movie on the pop-down TV or a laptop.”

Does this trend signal a rebirth of the road trip? “Well, yes and no,” says Wendy Knudson, a Vacation Concierge for Holiday Timeshare Resales, one of the Holiday Group companies. “The traditional road trip in the 60’s involved days of driving spread out over a week or more. Today, my customers are looking for a shorter road trip—-both in driving time and length of stay. They want to get to the resort within 3 hours of leaving home, and stay no more than four nights.”

The mini-road trip is a trend the timesharing industry (and Skinner) has responded to with a more flexible timeshare product: the Resort Condominiums International (RCI) Points program.

“Simply put, RCI Points give the flexibility to vacation where you want, when you want, for however long you want--for 1 day up to 30 days--at over 3700 RCI affiliated resorts near and far. And because RCI Points are accepted by hundreds of travel and leisure services, you can use them like cash to pay for lift tickets, admission to theme parks and more,” says Skinner.

While they’ve only recently begun to offer RCI Points, Holiday Resales is already the industry’s largest reseller of these points. Buying the points in volume at a discount allows Holiday Resales to pass the savings directly on to their customers.

“Our customers are savvy travelers. They know a great value when they see one. RCI Points deliver a great value, and we deliver them for less,” Skinner states. “RCI Points are a second-generation timeshare product that offers a natural fit to the American lifestyle—-on-the-go, on-a-budget, and on-demand.”

About Holiday
Holiday’s online timeshare business connects thousands of vacation buyers with discount timeshares every year. Founded in 1992, Holiday was one of the first timeshare companies to host a comprehensive Web site. Holiday is headquartered in sunny Seattle. For more information, visit http://www.holidaygroup.com.

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