Country Club, Royal Resorts Enter Strategic Alliance

EH&C Staff - Mumbai

Country Club India Limited (CCIL) have entered into a strategic alliance with Royal Resorts, the leading holiday ownership company in Asia with 14 luxury resorts spread over Goa in India, Lombok in Indonesia, Chiang Mai, Phuket in Thailand and Gold Coast in Australia, to form a holiday club called Royal Country Vacations International Holiday Club (RCVIHC). The holiday club will be jointly promoted and marketed by Royal Resorts from their resorts at Goa and Country Vacations, a division of Country Club India Ltd, from their clubs in Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Vizag and Bangalore.

RCVIHC will enable members of the club to holiday in India and abroad at over 25 destinations in India and over 80 luxury resorts worldwide without having to pay accommodation charges when the member takes the holiday. Members can choose the time of the year they wish to holiday, the type of accommodation, the number of days required for holiday, make all holiday arrangements, etc.

RCVIHC members can also opt to enroll with RCI, the world's largest holiday exchange organisation enabling them to request exchanges to any of RCI's 3800 resorts around the world.

Rajeev Reddy, chairman and managing director, CCIL, says, "As per the alliance, all existing 70,000 Country Club members will be enrolled free of cost as associate members of RCVIHC. Such a membership will entitle them to the full benefits of membership for a trial period. One such benefit is that they are entitled to a seven nights stay for four people in a self contained one bedroom suite at any one of the Royal Goan Beach Club resorts in Goa with no accommodation charges to pay (this is worth between Rs 35,000 to Rs 40,000) subject to a nominal booking fee. Everyone wins under this programme. Even those who decide the Club is not for them, have had the chance to enjoy a luxury holiday in Goa at a fraction of the price it otherwise would have cost them."

Esperanca Patricio, chief operating officer of Prestige Holiday Resorts Pvt Ltd and Royal Goan Beach Club Resorts, says they are developing RCVIHC so as to offer more varied holiday destinations. He says, "Programmes such as these ensure occupancy rates are kept to a minimum which obviously creates a saving in the cost of running the resorts and we can expect large numbers of new member enrollments which means that we can keep growing the size of the owner-base."

(Turn to page 24 for an exclusive with Rajeev Reddy, CMD, Country Club India Ltd)