A message from Fractional and Shared Ownership Trade Association chairman Paul Gardner-Bougaard

It was good to meet so many of you involved in this young but growing European Market at the Fractional Summit recently. For those of you who did not attend the session at the end of Day One on the benefits of joining FSOTA (Fractional and Shared Ownership Trade Association), you may recall the questions to the Panel at the Q&A session at the end of Day Two, where a number of delegates asked what was being done to secure awareness of the industry in Europe and to secure consumer finance for the product. I did at that time point out that this is what a Trade Association needs to do and I hope you will understand if I just underscore the importance of that now:

·         FSOTA already has a B2C website “GoFractional”, which will be used to get the message out on the benefits and advantages of owning a fractional.
·         The site will be backed up by a programme of Blogs and Tweets that will be used to promote the industry to journalists to ensure they come to FSOTA and its members to find out about the product.
·         FSOTA and its parent RDO have as its members the trustees, exchange companies and finance brokers in this industry. It is through work with them that FSOTA will be able to present to the banks the opportunities available to them in financing future consumer buyers for fractional s going forward.
·         All FSOTA members will be required to sign up to the Code of Conduct, which will give both consumers and consumer financers a high degree of comfort.
·         FSOTA will monitor all up-coming legislation that will affect the fractional industry, including of course the Second Directive, due for implementation in 2011 and will be in position to advise members when the legislation will be in effect in particular Member States and the form the legislation is likely to take.
·         FSOTA will also be in a position to lobby to ensure Member States do not bring in wider legislation than is necessary that will adversely affect the fractional industry.
·         FSOTA will of course provide a forum for the exchange of views and business opportunities, innovative ideas and networking opportunities for members, particularly at the RDO Conference, which will be held this year in Marbella 4th – 6th October 2010.
FSOTA will speak as the authoritative voice of Fractionals in Europe.

The trade association is in a unique position in that RDO’s Board has agreed to let its Secretariat form the Secretariat for FSOTA, so that this trade association has no infra-structure costs and has the experience and reach of a well established trade association back office from day one.

Unless the industry speaks with one unified voice and gives the media a focus for its questions and queries on the product, it is doomed to remain as a fragmented niche product.

For a subscription that would cost your organisation about €23 a week (€1,216 a year), you could help to promote your industry and product and have a say in how the money is spent on PR for your industry in 2010.

You can email Nikkie de Waal who is responsible for FSOTA membership on info@fsota.org or call on +44 (0) 755 1307 133 for more details. Don’t delay if you want to help give fractionals a solid basis on< More news

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