SHARING VIEW |
In the era of Internet
By Jesús de Avila - April 2006 - Leer en Español
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The response of our readers to last month’s article has been overwhelming. I have received tens of messages and the majority says that they definitively agree that the welcome or reception center located in front of the international arrival area at the airport, which is operated by representatives of the time share business working as promoters, does not help at all to cause a good first impression.
First of all thank you very much to all those readers that took the time to read and to comment on the subject. I would like to mention that the decision on keeping or removing this great center of prospecting depends on several factors, and of course due to the different interests involved any solution will take time. While the possibility in favor of transmitting an excellent first impression is discussed, I would like to tell you that thanks to the Internet every day there are more and more future visitors of our destination that can be informed about this matter and then upon their arrival at our airport, they can decide if they want to be approached by a time-share representative or not.
As I have mentioned in previous articles, being an owner of one or several time-share weeks has many advantages. As a matter of fact some of my best friends in the United States and Canada visit our port every year without fail because they are owners of a time share. However this does not mean that they can escape being approached and being invited to listen to a new sales presentation so that they may purchase more weeks. In spite of this, they truly take advantage of being vacation owners and they enjoy it. And they have accepted the custom of prospecting couples on the streets, in restaurants and at the airport as an activity that –even though it may not always be pleasant– is essential for the time-share industry.
When I was talking to my friends about this, I asked them whether the continuous attempts of the promoters to invite them to a new presentation did not bother them, one of them gave the following answer that I consider worthy of sharing: "Well, Jesus, time-share is a very old vacation concept that originated in Europe. There many years ago various families purchased houses or villas in holiday regions, dividing amongst them the use by months. It was us, the American people that saw an opportunity to commercialize the concept by using weeks,a concept which was first introduced in Hawaii,  thus giving birth to the time-share industry in the USA. The time-share business arrived in Mexico after Hawaii and Florida, amongst other holiday destinations in the USA. What has happened is an evolution and because of a high degree of competitiveness in Mexico it has generated a war, a war of prospecting as many families as possible in the least time possible. However I am aware that it was us, the Americans that introduced the country to the original concept. If I look at it this way it is easier to cope with the fact of the existence of promoters and their methods to get my attention“. Very interesting comment!
In order to cause an excellent first impression in all our visitors, I would like to comment that I am certain that in a not too distant future the prospecting methods will become less aggressive thanks to the custom –developed by the majority of international travelers– of investigating a destination on the Internet. I am sure that very soon the travelers ―especially those interested in looking at the possibility of becoming vacation owners– will have the opportunity from the comfort of their homes or offices to pick out those time-share developments that they would like to visit during their vacation. It is to be taken into account of course that when this begins to happen, the tempting invitation to listen to a time-share sales presentation will continue to exist, because it is obvious that not everybody will go to a time-share resort on their own initiative in order to ask how to purchase a time-share week.
After seeing the movie Sea biscuit again, watching the scene where the owner of the horse decides not to fire the jockey even though he had just lost the derby race of Santa Anita due to a deficiency in his left eye, I pondered on the problems existing in our city with regards to the great number of time-share promoters and the following question appeared in my mind: “Is the instance of one deficiency enough for our visitors to disqualify Puerto Vallarta"?... Of course I would say no, yet travelers should be informed and this can be done via the Internet sharing this type of information. Unquestionably one of the deficiencies of the time-share industry lies in the methods of approach and prospecting. However this does not mean that either the whole industry or Puerto Vallarta is undesirable or mistaken.
Don’t forget that at the end of the day nobody can force you to attend a time-share presentation, much less force you to purchase a week if you are not interested in becoming a vacation owner or if you do not have the money that is required to make the investment.
See you next time.
Jesús de Avila – Publisher & Editor
E-mail: editor@pvmirror.com
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