Today, there are 1,641 resorts in the U.S., with 4.7 million timeshare owners, and timeshare resorts in over 100 countries. When you make the decision to either own a timeshare or rent a timeshare for your vacation needs, you are joining the timeshare community. This means that you also become a partner with the American Resort Development Association (ARDA). And just what is the ARDA?
The ARDA, based in Washington, D.C., was established over 40 years ago to represent the vacation ownership and resort development industries. Today the ARDA has over 1,000 members, including timeshare owner associations and resort management companies. Almost 1 million timeshare owners are represented through the ARDA Resort Owners Coalition (ARDA-ROC). Through ARDA-ROC owners “can be part of an effective grassroots lobbying coalition of timeshare unit owners dedicated to preserving, protecting, and enhancing vacation ownership.”
The mission of the ARDA is to promote the growth and development of the timeshare industry. This is accomplished by several means, including all-important Advocacy: “ARDA actively engages in lobbying efforts focused on the establishment of a legislative environment that fosters industry growth and that further enhances consumer confidence and protection.” ARDA also serves its members through such things as education and ethics enforcement.
The 2010 annual ARDA Convention for industry leaders is slated to take place March 14-18 in Las Vegas. This year the convention will focus on such subjects as understanding the consumer-generated changes in the industry brought about by word-of-mouth marketing movements such as Twitter and Facebook.
“Attendees will walk away from this year’s convention with a renewed sense of enthusiasm and energy for this terrific vacation product called timeshare,” said Howard Nusbaum, ARDA president and