By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

MIAMI, FL - The Bahamas' “restrictive” timeshare laws, which demand a 40 year “right to use”, have caused major brands to shy away from the country, the developer of a popular Cable Beach property telling Tribune Business that such companies were more inclined to target jurisdictions where deeds were the norm.

Speaking with Tribune Business at the 2013 Shared Ownership Conference in Miami, Bert Blicher, president of Cable Beach’s Blue Water Resort, said the Bahamas’ existing timeshare legislation needed to be updated.

“I’m probably the only timeshare developer in business in sales left, and there are no brands that have come over there,” he said.

“The reason is that the timeshare laws are restrictive. The timeshare laws basically call for a 40-year right to use. That’s the major issue. Someone who buys doesn’t get a deed; it’s a right to use for 40 years and that’s it.

“The industry, at least for the brands, is more inclined to go with a deeded propery. That’s where people get a deed. It’s in their estate and they can give it to their family. That is something that needs to change going forward.”

Harold Nusbaum, the American Resort Development Association’s (ARDA) president and chief executive, expressed similar sentiments, telling Tribune Business that while the Bahamas was among a short list of countries in the Caribbean with timeshare legislation, those laws could be “contemporised”.

“The vast majority of consumers who purchase timeshare products in the Bahamas are Americans, so how they perceive the product domestically is important because that is their definition of the product and they are going to be more comfortable knowing that the same bright lines are there,” Mr Nusbaum said.

“People want to know what the rules are. That’s why government and industry have to work together to come up with that balance. The good news is there is timeshare legislation in the Bahamas, which is something not every country in the Caribbean has.

“Could that legislation benefit from being contemporarised? Looking at the products of today, absolutely. It could always be better, but the good news is you already have tourism assets and timeshare law, so those are great pillars,” added Mr Nusbaum.

“We have an ARDA Caribbean group that is made up of a lot of developers from the Caribbean, and friends from the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA) and local Government officials.

“We have worked in the Bahamas before on legislation. The Bahamas has a lot of natural tourism assets. It has great weather, great spirit of hospitality, great hotels, gaming, restaurants and its proximity to south Florida.

“One of the most successful timeshare resorts is in the Bahamas, which is the Atlantis property. It has a timeshare component that is a partnership between Starwood Vacation Ownership and [Brookfield Hospitality]. It’s very successful. There are many successful small developers as well.

“We have worked several times with the Government to make sure that the laws create good consumer protection, as well as a good platform for developers. You want to have consumer protections because you don’t want to sell something that isn’t good for people,” said Mr Nusbaum.

Neil Kolton, Interval International’s director for Caribbean and Florida resort sales and service, said: “Most of what’s sold in the Caribbean is sort of a ‘right to use’ type of a product or long-term lease product.

“Most of the product has been sold without any significant regulatory framework. Fortunately that has worked just fine for over three decades in places like St Maarten, where you have tens of thousands of timeshare owners that continue to enjoy their timeshare vacations every year and pretty much have a contractual use right between them and the developer or the hotelier of the property they own.

“Certainly, a more robust kind of legal and regulatory framework in a lot of the islands and countries in the Caribbean would attract more of the major players in the industry, and the investors that would be doing some purpose built resort development.”