AOCAP Ahead of the Curve

The Phuket Gazette.
PHUKET will host the Alternative Ownership Conference for Resorts and Hotels – Asia Pacific (AOCAP) 2010, the largest property event of the year, from October 10-12 at the Millennium Resort in Patong.
The event – in its second year – was well attended in 2009 by local, regional and international developers and leading industry experts.
The AOCAP conference pro vides a platform for industry specialists to discuss new market trends and products at a time when innovation is needed on the back of the world financial crisis.
While property sales in many parts of the world have sharply declined, consumers continue to become more sophisticated. In the age of Google, Facebook and Amazon, buyers have moved into new realms of consumerism. Keeping up is priority number one for tourism and property market leaders.
More and more buyers are demanding flexibility in their purchasing methods, value for money, and to some extent, alternative methods of ownership.
At the AOCAP conference, industry leaders will discuss these trends.
Alternative property ownership has a variety of options under its belt: private residence clubs, vacation ownerships and fractions, and destination clubs to name a few.
One perk of this kind of ownership is the variety it affords investors in terms of location, products, and of course, not being hampered by a lump sum investment.
Instead, alternative property ownership allows buyers to make bite-size entry investments. Buying what you need, and more importantly, what you want. The notion that market value only goes up and never down has been blown out of the water following the world financial crisis.
It seems things can, and do, go horribly wrong sometimes.
For many island business men and women who have blossomed over the years – brokers, consultants and developers – many hours have been spent rubbing the magic lamp and waiting for the genie to appear in the last few years.
For now, the best strategy is to look at alternatives, and AOCAP seems a good starting point in the information trail. There are rarely opportunities on the island to see this much expertise gathered at one venue, and such an array of international firms joining arms.
In Phuket, we have a number of large business players who have been successful in alternative ownership: Banyan Tree, Laguna Holiday Club, Marriott Vacation Club and Absolute World to name a few.
As we see more international events coming to the island, it's important to realize that for so many of those dealing with international property, our local brand continues to set gold standards in innovation.
Staying ahead of the curve remains a far greater challenge though. For more details on the event visit www.aocap.org.