Timeshare Industry Outraged by Sensationalist Daily Express

Timeshare industry leaders have expressed outrage at what they consider to be a sensationalist and unfair article printed in The Daily Express on 7th February 2006. Their question: “who exactly was: ‘CONNED, BULLIED AND KILLED FOR A HOME IN THE SUN”?

The piece in question, penned by Caroline Virr, focuses exclusively on the Timeshare industry and contends that “Britons searching for their dream homes [in Tenerife] have become victims of a new gangland turf war”. The feeling amongst senior industry figures is that it is just a cheap piece of journalism riding on the back of the John “Goldfinger” Palmer saga of some years ago. There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of any ‘gangland turf war!’

Speaking from Los Cristianos in the south of Tenerife one local journalist said: “again this is just a lazy member of the press applying the “gangster” angle to the Timeshare industry in order to manufacture a story and to sell more papers. Ms Virr has taken the testimony of two unhappy Timeshare buyers - overlooking her own assertion that “so popular is it that a million Britons now own a timeshare” - and has used their alleged dissatisfaction as a framework in which to fictionalise a world where innocent people are caught up in a world of villainy and danger. Whilst there may well be some organised crime in Spain and the Canary Islands, the gangland scenario which The Daily Express portrays simply isn’t true of the modern, regulated Timeshare industry”.

The idea that Ms Virr has added her own spin to a relatively mundane situation is certainly a notion that can’t be overlooked. Through the words of two disgruntled Timeshare owners she paints a picture liberally daubed with evocative imagery which is clearly calculated to show the timeshare industry in the worst possible light. In her illusion, the “corrupt and shadowy world of timeshare” is a “sinister” place, “rife with bribes, bullying and threats of violence”. “Victims” are routinely “plagued with menacing phone calls” that supposedly follow up the “unscrupulous sales practices” and Godfather like offers that they “literally could not refuse”.

However, according to Ms Virr it was not the quality or value for money that compelled her subjects to purchase timeshare, rather it was the sedative Rohypnol - the “date rape drug”. This idle speculation is perhaps the catalyst for the industry’s outrage.

As one prominent sales manager put it: “I’ve worked in the industry all of my working life; I know all the players and how they operate. To suggest that any company would even contemplate drugging a client is completely ridiculous. The fact that this journalist is suggesting that any Timeshare company would endanger someone’s health simply to get a sale just reflects on her own stupidity. The Timeshare product is good enough to be sold on its own merits– we don’t even allow alcohol in our sales offices!

“The whole article was ludicrous. In saying that people are “summoned to meetings” and drugged, The Daily Express insults the intelligence of everyone, including their own readers – many of who are happy Timeshare owners. The journalist has taken a couple of unhappy clients - every industry has them - and linked their story to the tragic deaths of a couple who had worked in the industry”.

And this link does appear to be tenuous at best. Ms Virr argues that the element that “makes this tale even more sinister is that it coincided with the murders of British couple Billy and Florence Robinson”.

This last claim is perhaps the most obvious ingredient that highlights the blatant opportunism underpinning Ms Virr’s article. Because the raw material of her story does not merit a double page spread in a national newspaper, she has gone for the easy option; riding piggy back on an old story that still has enough legs to command the attention of the paper’s readership.

Yes, two people were murdered in Tenerife earlier this year. Yes, they had at one time worked for the convicted fraudster John Palmer. But how these facts link up with the disgruntled moaning of two retired couples is anyone’s guess.

Another timeshare worker said of the article: “they [The Daily Express] have made Tenerife out to be some sort of Wild West place and said that ‘fear has been spreading like wildfire’. Most of the people I know who are involved with Timeshare live normal lives without any fear. Things just aren’t like the way the paper made them out”.

This sentiment seems to run throughout the expat community. Rather than living in the “closed world” described by Virr, most have assimilated into the local communities, starting families and living stable long term lives on the island they have chosen to call home.

The old image of Timeshare perpetuated by Ms Virr has largely disappeared with the emergence of trade bodies like the OTE, and the arrival of the big boys like Marriot, Disney and Hilton. There are still a few shady companies around, but most of them have now moved into products referred to as ‘holiday packs’. These new products are often confused with Timeshare as they are sold in a similar way. Some companies are definitely mis-selling these holiday packs and are already receiving serious scrutiny from the authorities in both the UK and Spain.

In essence the real thrust of people’s annoyance is with Caroline Virr’s vilification of Tenerife, portraying it as a dangerous hotbed of organised crime rather than the safe and civilised place where they live their daily lives. On behalf of the people who depend on the timeshare industry for their livelihood, including the thousands of locals employed in the sector, one local “tout” had this message for The Daily Express: “people like this journalist make me sick. They call us crooks and liars. Well maybe they should look in the mirror. No one has been conned, bullied and killed for a home in the sun. We are sick of idiots like this woman who comes here for five minutes and then writes a complete load of rubbish about the industry and the island”


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The Timeshare Forum
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Julian Marks
email: julianmarks@gmail.com

This release was published on openPR.