2016: Time to
Celebrate!
By Howard Nusbaum, President and CEO, ARDA
This year marks two huge
anniversaries for two companies that have made an outstanding impact in the
timeshare industry. There are a few milestone markers around
the industry this year but none as auspicious as that of Wyndham Vacation
Ownership (WVO) marking its 50th anniversary and Interval
International, celebrating its 40th anniversary.
WVO is a company that
truly represents the pioneer spirit of the early days. WVO’s President & CEO, Franz Hanning says: “Anytime you look back
over 50 years, you’re going to see peaks and valleys—it’s not always been a
smooth path or an easy road. But to be where we are now looking back from this
vantage point, it’s pretty overwhelming. Our company
has changed people’s lives—the lives of our owners, our associates, and
probably my life more than anyone else’s. It’s been a total rewarding career
for me, built on relationships and friends—core people who have been critical
to our overall success.”
But WVO isn’t the only one celebrating this
year…so is Interval International. The Miami, Florida-based industry pioneer
remains an innovator in serving the vacation ownership market, and today its
exchange network comprises approximately 3,000 resorts in more than 80 nations.
Through offices in 16 countries, Interval offers high-quality products and
benefits to resort clients and approximately two million families who are
enrolled in its membership programs. That’s quite an achievement for a company
that started with just three employees and one affiliated resort.
The timeshare
industry would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for these two different
companies and what they each have done over the previous decades. We want to be
one of the first to wish each of these two companies a happy anniversary this
year—thank you for building our industry into what it is today! To learn more
about them, read
our entire articles about Interval International and Wyndham Vacation Ownership in this month's Developments magazine.