Welcome to this first Laguna Holiday Club Newsletter.

In today’s tough economic environment, communication with customers becomes even more important than ever.

This newsletter is designed to complement the popular “Fun Times” twice yearly publication for LHC members, which will continue to give information on LHC properties and RCI/II destinations, and useful information on events, activities and attractions.

“Fun Times” is also going to a web based format so it can be updated more regularly.

But to continue the communication and give you a more comprehensive view of LHC happenings, we will package more “corporate” content into this newsletter. LHC is, after all, part of the ever growing Laguna Resorts & Hotels.

I hope you find it useful.

Kind regards,

Gerard “Jerry” Van Paassen
General Manager, Laguna Holiday Club

Future Developments for LHC

Laguna Resorts & Hotels (LRH) is continuing with development of the Vietnam ‘Laguna Hue’ site, as the company sees great potential for this property in the longer term. It will emulate many of the successful aspects of Laguna Phuket.

Beyond Vietnam we are focusing on prospects in China. This will be the future strategic approach of LHC. We hope both will become strongholds for LHC with the associated benefits to members.

Multi-Lingual Support

We have noted that many people, especially from Thailand, contact LHC sales personnel through the telephone, fax or in person. One reason is that our website is in English.

This will change.

We are working on ensuring there is a Thai version of the website to make communication easier. It is a fact that many of our members become members through the website contact, so the easier we can make this for prospective members from various nationalities, the better.

We are also looking at Chinese, Arabic, Russian and Bahasa Indonesia versions, given the amount of prospective business from regions that communicate primarily in these languages. For starters, we have translated the membership agreement into many of these languages, including Thai.

Fun Times

As mentioned in Jerry’s welcome, Fun Times will now be produced in an online format only. We will cease production of the hard copy version of Fun Times.

We have done this for a number of reasons. The main one is so it can be regularly updated with news and information, discounts and other promotional offers from LHC and our partners, etc. But, just as important, we are conscious of the environmental impact – and we were very encouraged by the feedback from members during our recent Green survey – so this will save a few trees from being felled when you consider up to 10,000 copies of Fun Times were produced and distributed for the last edition alone. There are cost savings for LHC, which is welcome, but we do not think members will lose anything from an electronic version, especially when it is combined with this newsletter.

Thailand Political Situation

Thailand has been in the news because of widespread protests by anti-government protestors which has necessitated strong action by the Government. However, there have been no signs of such protests impacting or spreading in any serious way into Phuket. The island has remained somewhat divorced from the protests, which have centred on Bangkok and Pattaya.

Thailand Financial Situation Summary

The Bangkok Post recently published a lift out on the Thai economy that contains some encouraging pointers. Amongst a number of observations the newspaper’s writers picked out the following: they advised investors in Thailand to invest at the bottom of the market. The Thai SET lost 46 percent in total market value in 2008, so there are many stocks with strong fundamentals that are undervalued and look attractive. They say the Thai banking sector remains fundamentally sound and profitable, with Siam Commercial Bank picked as the strongest. On the issue of investor relations, the newspaper recommends four main steps companies should take to create good value: fair value; effective communication; feedback and analysis and making a strategic response to avoid misunderstandings. The property sector also took a hit in Thailand last year but sales backlogs mean earnings should grow this year. One area of investment recommended is the hospital sector, which tends to remain quite strong through economic volatility.

History

Even if you have been visiting LHC as a regular member for a number of years, you may not know much about the history of timeshare. Here are a few notes from timeshare history. The idea was originally created in Europe in the 1960s by a French Alps ski resort developer, who encouraged his guests to “stop renting a room” and instead to “buy a Hotel.” The concept was quickly embraced worldwide, boosting sales of condominium units when the industry was depressed. The industry has strong credibility worldwide, with major hoteliers and brands like Starwood, Wyndham, Hyatt, Hilton, Marriott and Disney fully committed to vacation ownership.

CSR

Laguna Resorts & Hotels has a very active corporate social responsibility programme. As Phuket’s largest single employer we take our contribution back into the local community seriously. Our parent company, Banyan Tree, has a history of CSR going back to 1992, when our Executive chairman, Mr Ho Kwon Ping, had the vision and the courage, to develop the Laguna site on a former tin mine.

Consequently the company has developed a comprehensive environmental programme, mainly through the Banyan Tree group connection.

LHC is also part of this CSR vision. We are currently discussing a number of options as to what type of community programme we will support, along with your help. We will be coming back to you to ask for your suggestions before we make a decision. There is a wide range of community, environmental, educational and cultural choices in Phuket, Thailand and beyond. We will keep you posted on our progress.

Three good reasons to join LHC

Feedback

We welcome your feedback and input into this newsletter. Any comments should be directed to: newsinfo@lagunaholidayclub.com