Marcoms chief, Peter Yesawich, to keynote at VOIC - region's leading timeshare forum

Yesawich, chairman and CEO of US-based Yesawich, Pepperdine Brown & Russell (YPBR), is the keynote speaker at the one-day event expected to be attended by more than 150 senior business executives representing the main players in the region's burgeoning timeshare and fractional ownership sector.

According to David Clifton, Interval's managing director EMEA and Asia, and a prime endorser of the conference, Yesawich will address emerging lifestyles and travel trends with implications for marketing regional destinations, such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

"Yesawich will provide insights on the changes that are being observed in the travel sector and their impact on the vacation ownership industry. This up-to-the minute information is geared to help business leaders looking at the timeshare sector to better understand how consumer behaviour and spending patterns can effect investment and bottom-line."

YPB&R is widely regarded as America's leading marketing, advertising and public relations agency serving travel, leisure and lifestyle clients. The agency represents clients in every category of the travel industry through six offices across the United States and Europe.

"Our Research and Brand Strategy Group is also regarded as one of the most respected sources of insights on the emerging travel habits, preferences and intentions and co-authors the widely-acclaimed National Travel Monitor™ survey with Yankelovich Inc..

"The timesharing business ranks among the fastest growing in the hospitality category in the Americas. I intend to share with VOIC delegates the reasons why, as well as why we think the timesharing business is poised for dramatic growth in the Middle East," said Yesawich.

Listed in Who's Who in America and dubbed as one of the most extraordinary minds in hospitality marketing, Yesawich is a frequent commentator on travel trends in such publications as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, Newsweek and Business Week, on the CNN, CNBC and MSNBC cable television networks, National Public Radio and BBC World. He is also a co-author of Marketing Leadership in Hospitality (Prentice Hall, 2006).

Turning back to the conference, VOIC is designed as an interactive forum that will afford action-packed dialogue to help drive strategic growth and business development initiatives. The programme is structured to ensure that delegates gain invaluable insight into the world of timeshare, vacation and fractional ownership with a case study-look at reasons for its continued incredible reaching double-digit for over two decades.

Clifton sees the potential for the Middle East to become one of the world's fastest growing regions in the vacation ownership industry, and mooted that it is likely to be fueled by the UAE once the announcement of long-awaited sector regulation is made. Clifton speculated that the regulation could be endorsed during this year.