MEPs on Tuesday backed new laws to boost consumer rights and crack down on misleading or aggressive trading practices.

A proposal to coordinate consumer rights bodies across the EU aims to prevent citizens from being conned by scams such as the sale of non-existent timeshare appartments.

A compromise with national government representatives on the report by German MEP Evelyne Gebhardt will mean the law can hit the statute books during the current parliamentary mandate.

A second law, drafted by Italian Socialist Fiorella Ghilardotti, seeks to introduce EU-wide standards to ban misleading trading practices and aggressive advertising targetted at society’s most vulnerable groups.

The general thrust of the first reading report has been welcomed by many within industry but the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) stated concerns that the definition of aggressive advertising remained too vague.

A spokesman for the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) said it backed the principle of protecting vulnerable groups while maintaining credible marketing.

But he stressed that the WFA would not support any moves to apply the ‘country of destination’ principle rather than the ‘country of origin’ as this would create legal uncertainty for consumers and industry.

The second reading of the Ghilardotti report will be tackled by the new European Parliament which meets again after the June elections.

Mombasa based Mnarani Club to get Sh160 million facelift

South African investors will invest US $ 2 million (Sh 160 million) in Mnarani Club in Kilifi to elevate the hotel into a world class status.

They plan to increase the number of rooms from 84 to 248 by July this year.

Douglas Knowles Jackson, chief executive, Africa Vacation Club (AVC), a Pretoria based firm said that his company is already eyeing other investment oppurtinities in Kenya. This includes: Watamu in the North Coast and Diani in the South Coast.

AVC took over the prestigious creek top club and launched the timeshare concept for the first time in Kenya and Eastern Africa.

Timeshare Institute of Southern Africa Executive Director Mr. John Meyer says the club chose to invest in Kenya because they want to give their members they best.

"Kenya is a wonderful world class tourist destination but we did not have a resort for our members here. That’s why we took up this wonderful resort to give our members the best destination", said Meyer.

He said tourism in thriving in South Africa and the club wanted to expand its services to members and expose Kenya to the South African clientele.

"We want South African tourists to come to Kenya. We want to market Kenya to our members through our resorts", he said.

The timeshare concept requires hotel guests to pay membership for access to services. The deal with Mnarani will see the club linked with AVC under the banner of the

Leading Resorts of the World (LRW). This will give its members access to 188 clubs from which they can choose to take an annual holidays around the world.

The hotel industry is filling rooms as fast as it can build them - in time shares, that is.

Major hotel companies are experiencing sizzling sales success with time shares in vacation hot spots such as Hawaii and Florida, and now in places in between.

Ed Kinney, vice president of corporate affairs and brand awareness for Marriott Vacation Club International in Orlando, Fla., said timeshare sales are the healthiest segment of Marriott International Inc.'s business.

Twenty years ago, the company did $5.4 million in timeshare sales in a year. Now it logs that much every 36 to 37 hours, he said. Last year marked the division's eighth consecutive year of 21 percent revenue growth.

Rose Anne Oberheide from Park Ridge, Ill., is an accountant who crunched the numbers carefully before buying a Marriott Canyon Villa in Phoenix with her husband, Bill.

The Oberheides enjoy traveling, but they like the flexibility and affordability associated with a timeshare over owning a second home somewhere. "It does make sense," Oberheide said, relaxing in one of the hot tubs as her two children played nearby.

Five years ago, 75 percent of the time shares were sold by independent operators. Today, 75 percent are sold by brand-related companies.

A construction vehicle sprays water Thursday at the Red Rock Station site. Executives hope to lure locals and tourists to the resort.



Hoping to bury last year's zoning controversy like so many unwanted tumbleweeds, executives from Station Casinos on Thursday staged a ceremonial groundbreaking at the site of their proposed Red Rock Station resort.

With bulldozers now in their second week of preparing the hotel-casino's approximately 70-acre site near Charleston Boulevard and the Las Vegas Beltway, the windswept smile-and-shovel event was largely a public relations ploy to build public interest in the 400-room project long before its scheduled debut in early 2006.

But more than that, Station Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frank Fertitta III said he hopes early signs of construction will persuade nearby residents to get behind a project that only months ago ignited a storm of controversy in the tony suburban development.

"We always want to be good citizens and good neighbors, and there were some frustrating moments in negotiating with the residents," Fertitta said of last fall's battles with some neighbors over the height of Red Rock Station's planned hotel and timeshare towers. "But I think the final outcome is something they can be happy with and that Station can be happy with.

"(The compromise) will work for everybody in the entire community because, ultimately, these residents are our customers."

Station originally hoped to build three towers on the site, one climbing as high as 300 feet with a pair of others marked for 200 feet. A group of residents protested for 100-foot height restrictions, and the Clark County Commission eventually approved an agreement that limited the height of one tower at 198 feet and eliminated the two smaller towers altogether.

With that obstacle cleared, Fertitta said his Las Vegas-based company is now focused on developing what he hopes will become the crown jewel of Station's already expansive locals casino empire.

"This will be the best casino ... that Station Casinos has ever done," Fertitta said of Red Rock Station, whose projected $450 million to $475 million cost would easily exceed the company's most-recent upscale property, Henderson's $300 million Green Valley Ranch Station, which opened in December 2001.

Station Casinos owns a 50 percent stake in that property, which is co-owned by the Greenspun family of Henderson.

The 2,000-employee Red Rock resort will include an 87,000-square-foot casino featuring 2,700 machine games and 60 gaming tables; race and sports books; poker room; and 600-seat bingo parlor.

Nongaming amenities include a 20,000-square-foot spa, 10 restaurants, a 16-screen cinema as well as pool and beach areas.

Fertitta hopes the project's proximity to the highway will help Red Rock Station attract people from around the Las Vegas Valley, as well as out-of-town visitors. If those goals are achieved, the property would give a huge boost to Station's bottom line.

Fertitta expects Red Rock Station to generate a first-year return on investment "in the mid-teens" before improving to more than 20 percent per year as the area develops.

"This is a much bigger investment than we've had in the past, but the demographics are better, the location is better and I expect we'll get similar returns on this project," Fertitta said.

Kevin Orrock, an executive vice president with Summerlin developer The Howard Hughes Corp., on Thursday described the planned casino site as "ground zero" for the community's proposed urban core, a 400-acre master-planned district to be known as Summerlin Centre.

Orrock added he's confident Station Casinos will build a project that nearby residents will embrace and that will serve as a centerpiece for the development's planned commercial area, which will also include offices and high-density residential areas.

"When you get a project of this magnitude, it's going to create the momentum in the area around it," Orrock said. "It's key to have the best players and the best product in the market."

Added Fertitta: "That's one of the things that really attracted us to this site: It was really the cornerstone of a 400-acre planned urban core. We saw a tremendous amount of commercial density here ... and felt that being in the middle of that, with our casino, restaurants and entertainment, would create a synergy between all of these" nearby developments.

Las Vegas-based Sunterra Corp. will expand its timeshare development marketing program to a Strip resort.

Andy Gennuso, chief executive of Sunterra USA, said the company is developing a marketing and sales location at the Stardust hotel-casino.

Jack Binion, Don Rickles among honorees

Horseshoe Gaming Holding Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Jack Binion, comedian Don Rickles and former MGM Grand Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Fred Benninger will be inducted this year into the Gaming Hall of Fame.

The three men will be honored for their achievements June 11 at the 16th annual Gaming Hall of Fame Charity Dinner, which will benefit the American Gaming Association's National Center for Responsible Gaming. The event will be held at the Green Valley Ranch Station casino in Henderson.

"Each has helped shape this industry in a unique way during the past half-century," American Gaming Association President and Chief Executive Frank Fahrenkopf said.

Benninger, former chairman of movie studio giant Metro-Golden-Mayer, passed away in February and will be inducted posthumously.

Death ruled accidental

ATLANTIC CITY -- The death of a man who forced his way into a casino office and scuffled with security guards earlier this year has been ruled an accident by the Atlantic County medical examiner's office.

But the death remains under investigation by prosecutors, and no decision has been made on whether criminal charges will be filed against the guards.

Lanier Blunt's death certificate says he died from "cocaine-induced excited delirium with physical restraint." That determination was disputed by Blunt's family, which has questioned the circumstances surrounding the death and called for a "more aggressive" investigation into the matter.

Blunt's handcuffed body was found in the lobby of a Sands Hotel & Casino administrative office when police -- responding to a 911 call from casino security -- arrived there Feb. 10. Authorities said the 5-foot-9-inch, 235-pound Blunt appeared disoriented when he forced open a locked door before being forcibly subdued by about five guards in plain view of a surveillance camera.

An Extra 400 jobs are expected to be created at the new Aviemore Highland Resort on top of the 279 already planned, it was revealed yesterday.

The consortium behind the resort also announced that £80million will be spent over the coming years - £45million more than originally estimated.

However, it has also emerged that some of the latest planning applications for the resort have been called in by the Cairngorm National Park Authority.

That could jeopardise the resort's future, though its owners hope to resolve the matter quickly to avoid what they say would be a "calamitous" delay.

Macdonald Hotels, which owns a third of the resort with the Tulloch Group and the Bank of Scotland, is pumping £15million into a new 18-hole golf course at Dalfaber.

The consortium will spend £35million creating conference and exhibition facilities and a further £30million will be spent on housing in the village.

The move comes two months after Macdonald Hotels sold the 109-room Waterside Inn, near Peterhead, and the 48-room Thainstone House at Inverurie for an undisclosed sum to London and Edinburgh Inns.

News of the extra jobs and investment came ahead of a visit to Aviemore today by Deputy First Minister Jim Wallace to check out progress on the development - expected to be the largest of its kind in the north.

Highland councillors will also visit the village.

The consortium said it was on target to open most of the facilities this summer.

The conference centre is scheduled to open in autumn.

The steel structure has been erected and foundations laid for a swimming pool complex and leisure club. Cladding and fitting out will begin shortly.

Work is also under way on a new exhibition and conference venue capable of hosting 1,000 delegates. The first few of some 60 upmarket self-catering properties have been completed.

In the next phase for 2005 there will be a visitor and crafts shopping area, a supermarket and up to 140 houses.

A spokeswoman for Macdonald Hotels said: "Work is also far advanced on the new, championship-quality, 18-hole golf course at Dalfaber - where we have just received planning permission for the creation of a major, five-star plus hotel, plus improved leisure facilities at our timeshare resort."

She warned that the delay caused by the park authority calling in planning applications for staff accommodation and the retail pavilion connecting to Aviemore Highland Conference Centre would be "calamitous" as the resort's opening had been heavily promoted.

"The seriousness of the situation cannot be overstated," she said.

"Equally important to our overall plan is the separate element of supermarket retail and, of course, the concept of restoring covered ice and karting to the resort. These applications have also been called in by the park authority.

"Directors of Aviemore Highland Resort have expressed their astonishment that, having begun the process of planning the resort some seven years ago - and after years of hugely detailed discussions with Highland Council, Moray Badenoch and Strathspey Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and, indeed, the local community - this latest intervention has the potential to delay the project beyond the eleventh hour."

However, the spokeswoman said the consortium was "confident" that any planning issues will be resolved swiftly.

Plans for a £30million redevelopment of the resort were announced in December, 2002. It was then estimated that 279 jobs would be created.

'Free' hols firm goes bust

A travel firm which told Midlanders they had won free exotic holidays is under investigation by Trading Standards after going bust.

Customers paid £80 'processing fees' to Birmingham-based West Court Holidays for breaks to Spain and the Canary Islands after being enticed to a presentation.

But the company, which was also selling timeshare deals, has now ceased trading - leaving many 'winners' out of pocket.

A Sunday Mercury investigation can reveal that its director Helen Girling, who lives in a luxury home in Knowle, Solihull, has also been involved in other failed or controversy-hit firms.

And the businesswoman also runs an internet escort agency offering to provide men or women to clients for "stimulating and pleasurable encounters" at £650 a night.

Caterer Julie Lockley, from Wolverhampton, was told she had won a family holiday in a phone call to her home from West Court Holidays last summer.

Julie, 44, said: "I received a call out of the blue saying we were the guaranteed winners of a holiday to an exotic destination.

"All we had to do, I was told, was attend a seminar in Hall Green, Birmingham, where we could collect our prize.

"We knew there might be a catch, like, listening to a talk about timeshares. But we did not mind if we received a family holiday out of it."

Julie and husband Mike, who have one son Joe, 12, attended the seminar on June 7 last year.

Mike, 45, a writer, said: "It was packed out with people and was very professionally put together.

"We were subjected to a high pressure sales talk about timeshares which went on for hours.

"But when we insisted we were not interested in a timeshare they told us we still had our holiday prize to claim.

"We were asked to pay a £79 'processing fee' and told our holiday details would be mailed to us later. We waited and waited - but never heard from the firm again.

"We tried ringing the contact phone numbers we had for the company shortly after Christmas, but they were all dead. That was when we started to get suspicious and called Trading Standards at Birmingham City Council.

"An officer has now told me that they have received other complaints against West Court Holidays from customers."

Helen Girling, 33, is named as secretary and director of West Court Holidays which was based in Shirley, Solihull, and which was formed in March 2003.

The company, which never filed any accounts, now faces officially being struck-off by Companies House, the agency which regulates firms.

Mandy Bailey, 34 and from Kingshurst, Birmingham, is also listed as a director of the firm.

On Thursday the Sunday Mercury visited Miss Girling at her luxury semi in the leafy suburbs of Knowle. A top-of-the-range Freelander, worth £25,000, was parked in her driveway.

Miss Girling pledged all West Court Holidays customers that were owed money would get it back.

She said: "We just ran out of money and got into financial difficulty and couldn't afford to keep going.

"There are still some outstanding agreements with West Coast Holidays customers, but we will do our best to sort those out if they contact us."

Miss Girling is also listed as director of Bond Escorts, a Birmingham-based agency offering to provide men and women to clients for up to £650 a night.

Its internet website gushes: "Our companions offer a first class service that is available to our members who are seeking a stimulating and pleasurable encounter. We provide an outcall service to your home, hotel or business place."

Yet, despite the website still operating, Miss Girling told our reporter Bond Escorts was no longer trading.

She said: "It wasn't an escort agency offering sex, it was a legitimate dating agency.

"It also ceased trading in October."

The Sunday Mercury has also discovered Miss Girling worked for two other companies accused of owing clients money or treating them unfairly.

She was manager of the Birmingham branch of Top Choice Computer Careers which was found guilty of false advertising by the Advertising Standards Agency in December, 2002.

The company had claimed to be offering £18,000-ayear jobs in IT. But when applicants were interviewed they were told there was no job and instead they were asked to pay £2,000 for training courses.

The firm went bust last month - leaving more than 50 angry students out of pocket.

Miss Girling said: "I heard last month that the company had been in trouble but I left in January 2003.

"I didn't know anything about it and I was a shop manager so had no legal responsibility. I have no connection with what happened there."

Miss Girling also worked as a consultant for Hazel Green Village timeshare company, based in Lichfield, Staffordshire, which has been criticised by clients.

They claim maintenance costs were unfairly raised from £150 a week to £700 a week in two years, leaving owners threatened with repossession because they were unable to pay up.

The company also now faces being struck off by Companies House.

Last night a spokeswoman for Birmingham Trading Standards confirmed they were investigating a complaint from the Lockley family against West Court Holidays. She refused to divulge if any other complaints had been received against the firm.

Tahoe Timeshare Owners Hot Over Tax Measure

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. -- A new tax plan in South Lake Tahoe could have property owners paying more to finance area schools, but some are complaining that it's unfair because it includes thousands who own timeshares in the vacation hotspot.

Measure L is opposed by some as taxation without representation and favored by others who call it the cost of owning a piece of one of America's most pristine wilderness settings. Either way, the proposed parcel tax increase is something South Lake Tahoe school officials say they need.

By the end of this school year, the Lake Tahoe School District will be facing a $3 million shortfall. The district claims it has already made cuts. There are just two nurses for the district's 4,900 students. One principal oversees two elementary schools, and on both those campuses, there are no assistant principals.

The next move is to possibly close two out of the districts five elementary schools, dropping all physical education classes and eliminating class-size reduction, according to school officials.

"We'll be asking our parents to supply more money to our schools. Athletic programs may be increased to over $200 per athlete," said school board member Sue Novasel.

To combat the shrinking budget, the district has placed Measure L on the ballot. It would tax a homeowner, including timeshare owners, $60 a year. And this is where the dispute begins. While a single homeowner would pay $60, all 52 owners of one weekly timeshare would each pay $60, totaling more than $3,000.

"Our owners are an easy target. They can't vote here. So, no one can oppose it. Our people say it's taxation without representation," said Stardust Vacation Resort spokesman Ed McCarthy.

Opponents say they're not against paying a fair share, but because most timeshare owners don't live in Tahoe, they can't vote on the measure.

Of the 52,000 homeowners that would be taxed under Measure L, 40 percent of them are timeshare owners.

The school district said it's not out to unfairly target any one.

Voters will decide on the issue next week.

Timeshare plan promises jobs

A MULTI-MILLION pound timeshare project could create new jobs and bring much-needed facilities to Highland Perthshire.

The ambitious £2 million project would see up to 10 part-time and full-time jobs created in Fearnan, near Aberfeldy. Business partners Heather Howard and Dudas Kerr have applied to Perth and Kinross Council for permission to demolish the Tigh-an-Loan Hotel on the banks of Loch Tay. They plan to replace it with 30 timeshare cottages and an ancillary building which will include an office, restaurant, bar, minimarket and gymnasium. Mrs Howard and Mr Kerr say that since the early 1900s the Tigh-an-Loan has been operated without any investment or maintenance in the hotel building. They claim that this means that the site "now warrants complete demolition and a rebuild to keep up with modern touristic demands". Their statement added: "The main building is intended to house a restaurant and bar, leisure facilities, reception and administration offices and also a shop, which will replace the Fearnan village shop that recently closed down. "We feel this Highland Perthshire location is an ideal opportunity to replace a tired, rundown collection of buildings with a destination to attract visitors from all over the world yet still give the village of Fearnan the heart that it has lost in the past." PLANS were lodged this week for the replacement Letham St Mark's Church in Perth. The new church building, which will take up less space on the existing site, has been designed to offer a raft of facilities for the community. Only the land which faces directly on to Rannoch Road is being used for the new two-storey building. As well as the church on the ground floor, there is also a kitchen, creche, toilets, and main hall. On the first floor there is a circulation activity area and four meeting rooms. SEVERAL Perth and Kinross businesses are looking for permission to expand premises. Callum Walker Interiors in Inveralmond Trading Estate has lodged plans for a single-storey extension to its showroom and an increase in parking space, using the blocked-off road in front of the building. In Feus Road, Perth, Sidey Glaziers is looking to reduce the factory space and replace parts of it with a larger showroom and offices. And in Kinross D Sands Ltd proposes building a distribution depot and office space in Bridgend Industrial Estate. Simon Wake of Crieff has applied for permission to convert an existing store at 22 Gavelmore Street in the town into a new cafe.

TROSSACHS TIMESHARE BOSS CONNED CLIENTS

A CROOKED timeshare boss conned buyers out of thousands of pounds.

Eric Vickers blamed staff and others associated with his Time2Share company for the losses.

But at Stirling Sheriff Court on Wednesday he was found guilty of defrauding seven clients.

The court heard that the firm's position in Aberfoyle’s main street attracted visitors staying at the luxury Forest Hills Hotel nearby.

Although Time2Share had no connection with Forest Hills, Vickers (56) was able to buy and sell second-hand timeshares in the complex. He advertised his company as "the timeshare resale people".

But the court heard that a succession of clients who handed over deposits to him in 1998 and 1999 never got their timeshares, their deeds or their money back.

The company closed and Vickers, formerly of Chalmerston Road, Stirling, fled to the Lake District.

Those ripped off ranged from professional people to a handyman and included a retired bank manager and even a property lawyer.

The only clients to have got their money refunded are said to have been a group from Bolton, who travelled from Lancashire to Aberfoyle, trashed Vickers’ office and refused to leave until he paid them.

Vickers, who gave an address in Kendal, Cumbria, was accused of defrauding 18 clients out of nearly £17,300.

He pleaded not guilty, saying that if frauds were committed they were committed by others at the firm and not him.

He was found guilty after trial of defrauding seven clients out of a total of £4187 over 12 months in 1998 and 1999.

One of a string of victims who gave evidence, licensed conveyancer Bernadette Kearns (51) of Wigan, Lancashire, said she handed Vickers £1624 in cash for the purchase of a week at the Forest Hills complex after staying there in August 1999.

She said she and companion Christine Ashcroft had been bowled over by the beauty of the Trossachs.

She said: "The shop itself was very untidy, with papers everywhere, but he seemed a genuinely nice chap.

"He said he had a week for sale in an apartment at Forest Hills which belonged to a person who never used it and wanted to sell it for £2200.

"I offered £1000 and he said he'd have a word with the seller on the telephone. We went for a walk and when we came back Mr Vickers said the owner was prepared to sell for £1500 plus legal fees."

A week later she paid the money in full. Despite writing, phoning and e-mailing Vickers, she never got her deeds.

Eventually her friend Miss Ashcroft phoned Aberfoyle police, who told her the shop had closed and there had been a string of similar complaints.

Miss Kearns said: "I never got my timeshare or my money back."

Ian Angus, defending, said Vickers is now working for a Lake District coach company and had managed to raise £2750 to go towards a compensation order.

Sheriff Robert Younger told Vickers: "If you'd been convicted of all of these charges you'd almost certainly have gone to prison. This amount, I think I can just manage to keep you out."

The sheriff ordered him to do 200 hours of community service and £4187 compensation.

He added: "If you don't pay this money or do the community service, you'll find yourself back here and the only alternative will be putting you into prison."

Marriott Vacation Club Announces New Hilton Head Resort

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C., April 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI), the vacation ownership division of Marriott International Inc. (NYSE: MAR - News), began sales today of the company's eighth resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C. Slated for first phase occupancy summer 2005, Marriott's SurfWatch is proposed to include 195 two- and three-bedroom villas on 31 seaside acres. Initial prices range from $7,900 to $40,900 per week of deeded ownership, depending on villa type and season purchased.
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"The addition of Marriott's SurfWatch marks a very important milestone for us, as we welcomed our Marriott Vacation Club owners here 20 years ago," said Stephen P. Weisz, president of Marriott Vacation Club International. "We're honored to continue to be a part of the Hilton Head Island community and give over 40,000 families, including my own, a vacation home on this great island destination."

Villas offer 1,275 to 1,623 square feet of living space to comfortably accommodate up to twelve guests in the three-bedroom floor plan. Comforts of home include a fully-equipped kitchen featuring granite counters and wood flooring, spacious living and dining areas, washer and dryer, multiple televisions including a Sony Hi-Definition TV, a DVD and a balcony featuring ocean or garden views. Unique to the resort, a relaxing walk-in shower offers a "Deluxe Shower Experience" with body sprays and bench seating.

About Marriott Vacation Club International

Marriott Vacation Club International is the recognized worldwide leader in vacation ownership with a program highly regarded for its quality and unique flexibility. In 1984, Marriott became the first branded hospitality company by nearly a decade to enter the timeshare industry. Now celebrating 20 years of making vacation dreams come true for its owners and guests, MVCI continues to expand with a diverse portfolio of 6,300 timeshare resort villas throughout the U.S., Caribbean, Europe and Asia. Today, more than 245,000 vacation owners in all 50 states and 143 countries own their vacations "the Marriott way," offering options to exchange weeks with priority within the MVCI portfolio, trade their week(s) for Marriott Rewards points or exchange within Interval International's global system of 2,000 resorts in 75 countries. For more information, please visit online at www.marriottvacationclub.com or call (866) 300-3032.