ORLANDO At the 2001 ARDA Conference held here April 21-25, a new concept for the marketing of luxury travel services in the vacation resort club industry was launched under the name The World s Finest Resorts. The World s Finest Resorts will include 100 five-star independent resorts and their owner members. Member resorts are being invited on a selective basis.
The World s Finest Resorts will operate with offices in the UK and North America. The operation is based on a proprietary web-driven multi-lingual reservations system in which services and accommodation availability are posted in real time. No access to member properties and the services of The World s Finest Resorts will be granted to non-members.
Among those resorts already committed to the program as founding members are Underscar and Langdale in England s Lake District, the Madeira Beach Club and Carlton Palms in Madeira, part of the Pestrana Hotel Group. Others in the process of joining the World s Finest Resorts include the Windjammer Landing Villa Beach Resort in the Lesser Antilles, Leela Palace in Goa, and the Donatello Hotel in San Francisco. (4/30/01)