Interval International, working with its Caribbean member resorts, has made a record-breaking donation to the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association Education Foundation (CHTAEF). David Gilbert, executive vice president of resort sales and marketing for Interval International, presented a $45,000 check, the largest contribution in the foundation’s history, to CHTAEF representatives at the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Investment Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

“Interval commends its resort affiliates for their commitment to this important initiative,” noted Gilbert. “We’re proud that the vacation ownership industry continues to support educational programs such as this one, which are critical to the long-term success of regional tourism.”

Over the past five years, Interval and its member resorts have donated US$120,000 to the foundation.

Participants in the 2009 scholarship fund include:

•    Antigua – Jolly Harbour Beach Resort, Tranquility Bay Antigua.

•    Aruba – La Cabana Beach & Racquet Club, Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club, Marriott’s Aruba Ocean Club, Paradise Beach Villas, Playa Linda Beach Resort, Renaissance Aruba Beach Resort & Hotel, The Aruban Resort and Casino at Eagle Beach.

•    Bahamas – Island Seas Resort, Ocean Reef Resort, Woodbourne Resort.

•    Cayman Islands – Ramada Grand Caymanian Resort.

•    Curaçao – The Royal Sea Aquarium Resort.

•    Dominican Republic – Barceló Punta Cana, Cayena Beach Club, Coral Costa Caribe Resort, Sun Village Resort and Spa.

•    Mexican Caribbean – The Royal Cancun.

•    Puerto Rico – Aquarius Vacation Club® at Boquerón Beach and Aquarius Vacation Club® Dorado del Mar Beach and Golf Resort, ESJ Towers, Hyatt Hacienda del Mar.

•    St. Lucia – Bay Gardens Beach Resort and Bay Gardens Hotel, Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort & Spa.

•    St. Maarten – Flamingo Beach Resort, Pelican Marina Residences.

•    U.S.V.I. – Westin St. John Resort and Villas.

“The foundation administers one of the largest scholarship programs in the Caribbean hospitality and tourism industry. Applications are received from young people all over the region and reflect a wide variety of interests and backgrounds,” said Tom Pas, the foundation’s chairman. “One of the primary goals of the CHTAEF is human resource development and these funds will definitely assist us in reaching that goal.”

The CHTAEF was established in 1987 as a non-profit organization to provide scholarships and special assistance to Caribbean hospitality industry personnel and students pursuing hospitality and tourism careers.

To date, the Education Foundation has awarded more than US$1 million dollars in scholarships and grants. The application requirements include being a Caribbean national, having a high school or equivalent secondary school degree, pursuing a tourism-related education degree, and demonstrated financial need.

As a strategic partner of the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association and a board member of the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s Education Foundation, Interval is committed to understanding the unique needs of the Caribbean region and providing products and programs tailored to this market.

Interval International operates membership programs for vacationers and provides value-added services to its developer clients worldwide. Based in Miami, Florida, the company has been a pioneer and innovator in serving the vacation ownership market for more than 34 years. Today, Interval has an exchange network of more than 2,500 resorts in over 75 nations. Through offices in 15 countries, Interval offers high-quality products and benefits to resort clients and approximately 2 million families who are enrolled in various membership programs. Interval is an operating segment of Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: IILG), a leading global provider of membership and leisure services to the vacation industry.

A number of positive trends that reinforce the appeal of the Caribbean market to both existing and potential vacation owners are being shared with delegates at the annual Caribbean Marketplace conference by Interval International, a leading global provider of vacation services.

First and foremost, members are visiting the region in increasing numbers and U.S. resident leisure travelers who have indicated an interest in purchasing some form of shared ownership in the next two years also chose this market as a top destination of interest.

“Member demand for vacation exchange and resort rentals in the Caribbean is strong and we continue to affiliate new projects throughout the region,” said David C. Gilbert, executive vice president of resort sales and marketing for Interval International. “In today’s environment, shared ownership offers resort developers a compelling business model with multiple profit centers and higher occupancy levels than hotels. In the case of mixed-use projects, it also provides the potential for cost-saving operating synergies and reduced marketing costs.”

Interval reported that bookings into the Caribbean increased approximately nine percent from January through November 2009, as compared to the same period in 2008. This is particularly encouraging in light of the global economic downturn that adversely affected overall arrivals to the Caribbean over the past year.
Additionally, interest in the region among U.S. resident leisure travelers considering a shared ownership purchase is significant. According to the Future Timeshare Buyers: 2009 Market Profile, the Caribbean is one of the preferred international destinations of choice among U.S. resident leisure travelers interested in purchasing vacation time in the next two years, as approximately eight in 10 (78 percent) indicate they want to vacation in the region.

In 2009, Interval expanded its resort network in the region through numerous affiliations, including Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort & Spa in St. Lucia, Gold Coast Aruba, Dawn Beach Club in St. Maarten, and Grand Laguna Beach and Los Altos in the Dominican Republic.

Los Altos, a residential resort located within Casa de Campo —a 7,000 acre mixed-use development considered one of the finest resort communities in the Caribbean — has affiliated with Preferred Residences™, Interval’s hospitality branded membership and exchange program for luxury shared ownership resorts.

Dawn Beach Club marked the entrance of Columbia Sussex Corporation, one of North America’s leading independent owners and operators of resorts and hotels, into the shared ownership industry.
Interval International is a longstanding supporter of the region through its strategic alliances with the Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association and the Caribbean Tourism Organization, as well as through its conference sponsorships, including the Caribbean Marketplace in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Interval International operates membership programs for vacation owners and provides value-added services to its developer clients worldwide. Based in Miami, Florida, the company has been a pioneer and innovator in serving the vacation ownership market for more than 33 years. Today, Interval has a network of approximately 2,500 resorts in more than 75 countries and offers its resort clients and about 2 million member families high-quality products and programs through offices in 26 cities in 16 countries. Interval is an operating segment of Interval Leisure Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: IILG), a leading global provider of membership and leisure services to the vacation industry.

An Interview with Denis Ebrill, executive vice president of Sol Meliá Vacation Club, about the company’s parent company, marketing in the United States, and what’s next for SMVC.

You’ve been at the helm of Sol Meliá Vacation Club (SMVC) for a year now. What has that experience been like?
Let me put that question into perspective. I started in this position on September 1, 2008. A week later it was announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be nationalized. Two weeks later Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on the same day that Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch. Before the end of that month AIG was bailed out by the Federal Reserve to prevent it from collapsing, all of which wreaked havoc on one of the key indicators for the vacation club industry – the consumer confidence index.

On a more personal level, I received a tremendous welcome from the Sol Meliá team and have enjoyed great support for our vacation club business from the parent company’s leadership. There were nuances to the nature of the business model that I had to learn along the way. But all in all, the structure and approach to the business was very similar to that with which I was familiar from prior experience. Probably the toughest aspect of the past year was having to cut back our operating costs, which meant losing some great employees. We went through some difficult decisions that resulted in some lay-offs within our organization. That is not only tough on those who are laid off, but also on those who remain, especially in a relatively small, closely knit team like ours. We had, and continue to have, a great team of professionals.

Hopefully as we climb out of the current economic slowdown we will be able to re-integrate back into our
team some of those that we were unable to keep.

How does SMVC benefit from being a part of such a large, well-known and long-lasting European hospitality company like Sol Meliá?
Our vacation club business at Sol Meliá benefits significantly not only from the brand awareness, but even more so from the credibility and trust that are associated with our company. It is a huge advantage in the
European and Latin American markets where the brand awareness is high, and those are essentially the continents in which we do most of our business. One of our goals as we grow into the future will be to increase the awareness of our brands in the United States and Canada, which continues to be where the
majority of our SMVC members reside.

On the operating level, our vacation clubs are fully integrated with our hotels and resorts, and share a common campus in every one of our current locations. One hundred percent of our SMVC resorts are mixed use, which allows us to consistently provide the full-service resort experience to our members regardless of
where they choose to stay within our network. While there are other hotel companies that also focus on the mixed-use model, they typically have a blend of standalone timeshare resorts and mixed-use hotel/vacation club resorts within their systems.

How does SMVC strengthen Sol Meliá’s global hospitality offering?
There are clear advantages to both the vacation club and hotel in the nature of the mixed-use structure that we have adopted. There are two examples that come immediately to mind as to how SMVC contributes to the success of Sol Meliá as a whole.

One, in tough times like those we are currently experiencing, the vacation club business as part of its in-house marketing initiatives can continue to provide personalized services through the concierge, guest service and activities staff while at the same time provide an opportunity for hotel guests to learn more about our vacation club products and facilities. These are the types of services that often end up suffering when hotel RevPAR [revenue per available room] starts to decline.

Two, the nature of the vacation club business is such that we strive to maintain a consistent flow of prospective buyers through our sales facilities. This means running lead generation programs that enhance hotel occupancy while providing tour flow to the sales and marketing teams. Even if the pricing of these hotel vacation packages is heavily discounted, it helps create more activity and atmosphere at the resorts and generates incremental spending at the hotels’ revenue-producing facilities. As you know, the vacation club business is highly intensive in the area of sales and marketing. We have great talent in our team and everything that they work on inevitably has a positive halo effect on the image of the brand and overall brand awareness, which clearly benefits the company as a whole.

What are SMVC’s strengths in weathering the economic situation affecting everyone in the industry right now?
Our strengths come from within Sol Meliá as a whole. The company has done business in international destinations for decades and as a result is accustomed to dealing with and responding to the economic volatility that comes with the territory. Sol Meliá is a solid, well-respected company with the know-how to confront the current challenges and a strong balance sheet to back that up. The hotel and vacation club teams work closely together to take advantage of synergies and to support each other’s initiatives whenever
possible.

As an example, we have worked with some of the traditional hotel suppliers to develop marketing programs that benefit the vacation club and at the same time increase hotel occupancy. We have been able to help specific hotels increase their market share by providing marketing support and by sponsoring events and activities that help build trust and credibility with the hotel guests, thereby supporting vacation club sales efforts.

SMVC is purely an international product. How does that make you different from other companies with U.S. based products and what they are experiencing right now?
We deal with most of the same issues as our competitors with U.S.-based resorts. In addition, however, we face a number of novel challenges as a result of the venues where we do business. These include, among others, a variety of different sets of labor legislation that has significant relevance to our operating costs, currency exchange volatility, different legislative jurisdictions and regulations relative to the vacation club industry, and an array of political and geographical considerations that can impact the public’s perception of the destination. Overall, our U.S.-based colleagues enjoy a higher degree of political and economic stability and for the most part have U.S. employees selling to U.S. customers. We have to develop multi-skilled teams that can handle a variety of cultures and languages. So finding the appropriate talent and ensuring that
the quality of the sales process is consistent with the brand image and the values of the company is a primary objective. We believe we have some of the best, most versatile teams in the business who have demonstrated their proven ability to produce effectively in multiple cultures and languages.

What are your goals for SMVC?
To establish realistic and achievable objectives, focusing on what is profitable and works within the framework of our company’s beliefs and values. We are committed to achieving a balance between the success of our vacation club business and ensuring a positive guest experience. We will not sacrifice
hotel-guest satisfaction to generate a vacation club sale. If this means lower volume and/or slower growth, then so be it. We will adjust our business to that model. That said, we will continue to grow and expand in key destinations and focus on the satisfaction of our existing members through quality facilities and quality service. We want to keep our members within our network, are acutely aware of the value of a positive referral from an existing member, and are hugely encouraged by the volume of new sales we see generated by existing members through upgrades or additional purchases. There is no greater indication of members’ satisfaction than to see them buy more of our product.

What are your most successful locations now and what’s ahead for SMVC by way of new product and development in the next five years?
Our newest resort is the Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora in the southern part of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Spain. We believe it is the most stunning vacation club product in Europe today. We have been in sales for
approximately nine months and are excited to see the level of acceptance and interest our hotel guests have in this product and the rapid growth we have been able to achieve in sales. We have similarly spectacular resorts in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic with The Reserve at Paradisus Palma Real and just outside of San Juan at the Gran Meliá Puerto Rico, both of which are performing well despite the current economic environment.

We also have a new project under development in the Playa del Carmen area of the Riviera Maya near Cancun, in Mexico, that will be a great addition to our network of resorts, and to the existing ME Cancun and Gran Meliá Cancun resorts in the region. We will continue to look to grow in markets where our existing members tell us they want to be. We will plan carefully for intelligent growth opportunities, taking advantage wherever possible of existing resort facilities and the possibility of distressed asset acquisition if it fits our long-term growth plan.

How do you think the industry will change in the next five years and how will SMVC be affected by that?
The change is already well underway. We see a narrower choice of marketing programs simply because of the need to ensure profitability. I think it will be a long time before we see the type of receivables securitization
opportunities that we saw in the past. That factor alone forces us to rethink our approach to the business and restructure our teams so that we can achieve profitability on operations alone without having to be heavily dependent on financing income to do so. At SMVC we will not chase sales and marketing programs just for the sake of increased sales volume. We have already streamlined or eliminated a number of our
operations with a higher degree of profitability in mind. It hurts and it takes a change in mindset, but we have an obligation to our parent company and to our shareholders to ensure the profitability of our ongoing
operations – and that is what we intend to do.

Global Hospitality Giant Will Open the Sheraton Puerto Rico Convention Center Hotel and Debut the W and St. Regis brands in the Next 12 Months

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. (NYSE: HOT) – the hotel industry’s most global company – today announces it will double its presence in Puerto Rico in the next year with the opening of the island’s first W and St. Regis hotels and its second Sheraton.

Sheraton Puerto Rico Convention Center Hotel – the first full-service hotel and casino built in San Juan in a decade – opens this November. Coming on its heels are the W Retreat and Spa-Vieques Island and The St. Regis Resort and Residences Bahia Beach, both scheduled to open in 2010. The St. Regis also marks a meaningful milestone for Puerto Rico and Starwood as it is the first new luxury hotel to welcome guests to the island since 1997.

“The temperate climate, strong infrastructure, and proximity to gateway cities in the United States, Mexico and South America make Puerto Rico an extremely attractive growth market for Starwood and our proven development partners,” said Paul Sacco, Senior Vice President of Development, North America, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. “As we work to further our lead as the world’s largest upper-upscale and luxury hotel company, and the leading innovator in the select service segment, we see significant long-term opportunity in this dynamic market.”
The three new Starwood properties will join Starwood’s three existing properties in Puerto Rico: Sheraton Old San Juan, Four Points by Sheraton Caguas Real Hotel & Casino and Four Points by Sheraton Resort & Casino at Palmas Del Mar.

Sheraton Puerto Rico Convention Center Hotel
Sheraton Puerto Rico Convention Center Hotel opens next month adjacent to the Puerto Rico Convention Center in San Juan’s newest vibrant commercial and residential district. The new 503-room hotel will accommodate both business and leisure travelers and offer exceptional meeting facilities, a full-service casino and resort-like amenities, including a pool, spa and retail space.

W Retreat and Spa – Vieques Island
Located on the island of Vieques, approximately eight miles off the coast of Puerto Rico, W Retreat and Spa-Vieques Island is scheduled to open in the spring of 2010. The first W property in the Caribbean and the brand’s second retreat property, W Retreat and Spa – Vieques will offer breathtaking views of the Caribbean Sea, stylish guest rooms, world-class dining, a luxurious spa, flexible meeting and banquet space and two private beaches.

The St. Regis Resort and Residences Bahia Beach
Opening in the fall of 2010, The St. Regis Bahia Resort and Residences will offer spectacular views of the sparkling sea to the north and the mountainous El Yunque National Rainforest to the south. The $172 million resort will feature 139 luxurious guest rooms and suites with spectacular ocean views, 25 Residences, the iconic St. Regis Butler Service, a world-class Remèdesm Spa, oceanfront swimming pools, 120-seat restaurant by renowned Chef Jean-Georges and a recently opened 18-hole golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr., marking the island’s foray into the five-star-luxury market with its inauguration.

About Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. is one of the leading hotel and leisure companies in the world with 982 properties in more than 100 countries and 145,000 employees at its owned and managed properties. Starwood Hotels is a fully integrated owner, operator and franchisor of hotels, resorts and residences with the following internationally renowned brands: St. Regis®, The Luxury Collection®, W®, Westin®, Le Méridien®, Sheraton®, Four Points® by Sheraton, and the recently launched Aloft®, and Element SM. Starwood Hotels also owns Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc., one of the premier developers and operators of high quality vacation interval ownership resorts. For more information, please visit www.starwoodhotels.com.