Stay at a quaint house amidst endless stretches of greens or a family apartment where you can sink into lazy conversations while enjoying the sunset – with the concept of vacation evolving, many prefer the idea of ‘home away from home’ or ‘vacation ownership’ to relax.

With Indians taking to travel like never before (domestic tourism growing at 13.8 per cent), more and more travellers are adopting vacation ownership. One can buy a vacation accommodation around the world for many years, by making a one-time payment.

Vacation ownership or ‘Timeshare’, as a concept, is growing at the rate of 18 per cent year on year. The growth of the industry has prompted vacation exchange company RCI to expand its portfolio to newer regions in India.

This year, RCI plans to add three resorts in Madhya Pradesh and also expand its offerings in West Bengal, the North-East and enter Jammu and Kashmir region, according to Radhika Sastry, Managing Director, RCI - India.

About 4,500 resorts across the world are affiliated to RCI. And nearly 100 of them are in India with 4,800 total units and an annual turnover of Rs 700 crore.

Major players in the Timeshare space are Club Mahindra, Sterling Holidays, Holiday Inn Vacations and Royal Resorts.

“We are also looking at expanding our resort affiliations in Kerala, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra, given that these States have established tourist markets and a large domestic traffic which is one of the primary demand drivers of Timeshare. Our plan is to add 10 to 15 resorts every year,” Sastry added.

At a time when margin pressures continue to impact the hospitality industry, the Timeshare industry stands insulated. As a result, many hotels and resorts are looking to maximise their revenue potential from available inventory and international hospitality brands such as Hilton, Starwood, Hyatt and Disney and have introduced the Timeshare element in their product mix.

“This model builds resilience into the business and evens out the occupancy crests and troughs, particularly for leisure properties. We do expect hotel brands in India to look toward this as a lucrative model,” Sastry said.

From the consumer’s point of view, with air fares going up, holidayers are left with little option but to look for more drive-to destinations. It seems to be a growing trend, where the duration of the holiday may be shorter, but frequency of such holidays is higher.

“Accordingly, we have customised our product which allows for members to split their vacation week across destinations. We have increased our footprint in leisure destinations closer to major cities. Spiritual tourism, which has been a fundamental part of our domestic tourism industry for long, has gained far greater proportions,” Sastry added.

RCI is in talks with resorts in Puri, Rishikesh and Rameshwaram to tap this segment of the market.

> nivedita.ganguly@thehindu.co.in

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