Wyndham to launch timeshare business in SEA

Sydney

WYNDHAM Worldwide Corp, parent of the world's biggest hotel operator, plans to introduce its timeshare business in South-east Asia by the end of this year.

The company is in talks to buy properties in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia and expects to close on at least one by Christmas, said Barry Robinson, managing director for South-east Asia and the Pacific Rim at Wyndham's vacation resorts and hotel divisions. The Parsippany, New Jersey-based company will also open an office in Singapore by year-end to headquarter its South-east Asian timeshare and hotels businesses, he said.

"There's a huge opportunity in Asia for the vacation ownership business, which hasn't really been tapped yet," Gold Coast, Queensland-based Mr Robinson said by phone. With nearly a billion people in South-east Asia and the Pacific Rim, excluding China, "the opportunity is probably two to three times the size of the US, where we have over a million owners".

International visitor arrivals rose 8 per cent for Indonesia over the first nine months of 2014 from a year earlier, and 10 per cent for Malaysia in January through July from the previous corresponding period. While political upheaval weighed on Thai tourism this year, arrivals are expected to rebound as stability returns, broker Jones Lang LaSalle Inc said in an October report. Growth of low-cost carriers and the lure of tourist destinations including Bali and Phuket will also support hotel and resort occupancies, according to the report.

Wyndham has developed or acquired about 185 timeshare properties globally, 26 of them in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, according to company figures. It earned US$1.1 billion from timeshare interest sales in the nine months through September, from US$995 million a year earlier, filings show.

Timeshares, also called vacation ownership, give owners the right to use the accommodation for a set period of time each year. Wyndham gives owners annual credits allowing them to stay at any of its resorts in the region, according to its website.

Among operators already in South-east Asia are Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott International Inc, which manages three timeshares in Thailand and one in Indonesia; Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, which runs four resorts in both nations; and Paris-based Accor SA, which manages two complexes, in Bali and Phuket, according to their websites.

Wyndham is the world's biggest hotel group by number of properties, according to a June ranking by Paris-based industry analysis firm MKG Group.

Wyndham shares have risen 8.2 per cent this year, compared with a 10 per cent gain in the benchmark S&P 500 index. BLOOMBERG