Hilton Grand Vacations: Weak Yen Dents Japanese Appetite for U.S. Timeshares
Skift Take
Hilton Grand Vacations is also eyeing a sales boost by inheriting Bluegreen's marketing deal with Bass Pro's 200 stores after the timeshare giant fully digests its latest acquisition.
Many Japanese have liked to buy timeshares in the U.S. — especially in Hawaii — as an alternative to investing in a Japanese stock market that has produced poor returns for decades. But with the Japanese yen at a 36-year low against the dollar, that trend has reversed.
Hilton Grand Vacations (HGV), the giant timeshare company with soon-to-be 13 properties in Hawaii, said it had seen Japanese buyers be slow to return to the market.
"Japanese new buyer arrivals are down 53% below 2019 levels," said Mark Wang, president and CEO during an earnings call Thursday. "We're still waiting for those new buyers to come back to Hawaii. The general expectation is that it's going to take a number of y
