Australia’s vacation ownership regulatory board, ATHOC (short for ‘Australian Timeshare Holiday Ownership Council’), has released good news about the industry. The report shows good growth plus very interesting trends of Australians finally leaning towards favouring holiday ownership concept and all of its accompanying benefits.

ATHOC based its report on a commissioned study which surveyed 78 property managements that participated in a survey.  The study also looked at data stemming from a similar survey back in 2005 and compared it with another survey conducted in 2009. Data shows 55 percent growth of the industry from 2005 to 2009 at $205.4 million.

The council also reports that there are about 152,000 families this year who own timeshare properties, an increase of 20 percent compared to figures back in 2005. Meanwhile, average occupancy rates remained steady since 2009 at an estimated 86 percent. Timeshare exchanges also showed immense popularity with a record-breaking 91 percent of owners availing services of timeshare exchange businesses such as RCI, ICE Asia Pacific, Interval International and Dial An Exchange.