In honor of celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Timeshare Industry in Aruba, a report was commissioned by the Aruba Timeshare Association, ATSA, to provide an overview of the island’s timeshare landscape from data collected in 2017. The report was commissioned in collaboration with Aruba Tourism Authority, ATA, and prepared by the University of Aruba, UA.
The following is the fourth article in a series of six, summarizing the report.
In one of the section of the survey conducted in order to compile the report, respondents were to report on their satisfaction with their most recent timeshare usage in Aruba. Findings show that 62% of the respondents were extremely satisfied and 24% were very satisfied. The average timeshare owner has a very strong positive feeling of satisfaction about their last visit and usage of their timeshare here.
In order to explore in more detail, the answer to the research question noted above, respondents were asked to rate their personal experiences with timeshare on Aruba. The first question listed 19 attributes regarding timeshare and respondents were asked to compared their experience with their expectations.
All the perceptions of each of the individual attributes related to the quality of timeshare exceeded expectations. Among the attributes, climate and weather were ranked the highest.
Other highly rated attributes were: warmth and kindness of the people, quality of the beaches, and choice of restaurants. The lowest rated items, although still above the neutral rating were: sightseeing and tours, nightlife and entertainment, transport and traffic, and land and sea activities, which could be reflective of the age of the respondents.
Respondents were then asked to select the three most important terms when describing how they perceived the mood or atmosphere in Aruba during their most recent stay. Most people perceived the atmosphere in Aruba as a relaxing environment, happy, and friendly.
Respondents were also asked about their perceptions regarding the most distinctive or unique characteristics that they would associate with their vacation in Aruba and they could select three of the options listed. Most of the people think that the unique characteristics in an Aruba vacation are white beaches and turquoise ocean, tropical climate and sunny weather, friendly and happy people.
The least selected items were parties and dancing, golf, and exotic experiences, as these were all viewed as not distinctive or unique about Aruba.
The next question asked respondents to describe their current timeshare experiences here. The selections were 1=ecstatic and genuinely delightful, 2=very pleasant, 3=pleasant, 4=average, 5=unhappy, 6=awful and terrible.
The results showed that the average respondents rated their Aruba timeshare experiences as ecstatic and genuinely delightful. Only 11 respondents out of 2090 rated their experience as unhappy or awful and terrible (0.5%). This shows a high level of satisfaction and positive feelings related to the Aruba timeshare experience.
Moreover, most of the respondents think they will definitely or mostlikely return to the island, which makes sense since they are timeshare owners. The respondents also would recommend that others visit Aruba and that others purchase timeshare in Aruba. However, results show that it is very unlikely that respondents would repurchase another timeshare in the future in the same resort, or in another resort.
In summary, it appears that timeshare owners are very happy with the timeshare product, but there are a few items that did not completely exceed their expectations including, sightseeing and tours, nightlife and entertainment, transport and traffic. These items may be rated lower due to the amount of time the respondents have been to Aruba. They may have been on the tours and are not happy with the traffic here. Respondents relate relaxing, happy and friendly with the atmosphere in Aruba. They do not, however, find parties and dancing, golf or the exotic experience to be distinctive or unique on Aruba. These findings show that there are some focus areas that Aruba can use to increase its opportunity to continue to impress guests. The repeat intentions of guests and word of mouth to friends is very high, but the repurchase or recommendation of buying a timeshare could be improved.
SATISFACTION, RETURN INTENTIONS AND PERCEPTIONS
A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was also conducted on the three dependent variables — overall satisfaction, return intention, and perception of timeshare experience, in order to determine if there were any statistically significant differences between demographics including age, income, gender, and the number of visits to Aruba.
The results show that older respondents have stronger return intentions, but overall satisfaction and the perception of the timeshare experience decreases when compared to younger respondents. Higher income respondents have more positive feelings about Aruba and the timeshare experience. Regarding spending data, males spend more money than females in all categories but gambling where there are no significant differences. Younger respondents spend more money on watersports, and overall, higher income respondents spent more money than respondents with lower income, which should be expected.
