Lourdes Ayala Ochoa is the Director of Regional Projects for Royal Holiday and has a long trajectory with timeshare. She studied Tourist Business Administration at the International School for Tourism and when she graduated she began working as an OPC in Puerto Vallarta. In fact, her credentials were issued by Adeprotur which had just recently formed and she is number 2.
Promoters more than OPC's
“With the passage of time, the term OPC (Outside Public Contact) has been evolving. Before, we not only make contact with the tourists, we were promoters of all the services, activities and attractions in Puerto Vallarta. I would talk about Quimixto and Yelapa and what their experience would be like: why choose a certain restaurant, what music would they hear, how the guacamole would taste and what the table and chairs would be like... first sell the destination and then invite them to see the development.”
“My job was not difficult. I have the honor of saying that I received the second credential Adeprotur issued. The first one went to my boss. The two of us took an exam and that is where we became professionals, learning that this was a career, not a job. The challenge has been dealing with attacks against the profession.”
“27 years ago, one in every 10 tourists knew what timeshare was and the other 9, when they learned about it, thought it was marvelous to be able to freeze the price of their vacation and commit to a holiday every year. If not, they would never have the time to plan their vacation.”
How difficult is it to position the product or close the deal?
“If you like it, it's very easy. You have to like being with people, talking with them, informing them, helping them, doing a service... our motto in this industry is if you don't live to serve, you can't serve to live.”
The service works
“The people who work with us always wear a uniform, badge, credentials and the locale must have a license. These people, certified by Adeprotur, took a course and an exam. The industry has more that 4.5 million associates and there are more than 3,500 developments worldwide with RCI. How many hotels in Puerto Vallarta offer both of these options? It may not be perfect, but there must be something good if international chains are here.”
“It's just that millions of pesos have been invested in our products and in all of the developments – do you think we can afford a complaint? Of course we can't, we would lose even more!”
To be continued...
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