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The club’s swift growth is due in large part to its decision not to
scale back, even in the face of challenging political, financial, and social
times. As Egypt continues to address incidents targeting tourist areas
with stricter security measures, Khalil affirms, “People will not stop tak-
ing vacations. We’ve had some challenges. We’ve trusted that, in bad
times, we could do better than anybody else — and it’s turned into a
reality. We’ve used this as an opportunity, instead of going conservative
like anybody else.”
Upping the Ante Every Time
With its first two landmark resorts on the Mediterranean Sea, Porto
Vacation Club demonstrates a style that is anything but conservative.
POV at Porto Marina and Porto Marina Beach Club has a state-
of-the-art, 1,200-berth marina that can accommodate crafts up to 328
feet (100 meters), and stages plays and concerts at its Piazza de
Espana, a venue reminiscent of Rome’s Spanish Steps. The property’s
broad, palm-fringed promenade is dotted with 180 designer shops and
11 restaurants and al-fresco cafes, adding to its European cachet. Five
minutes away, a sister resort called POV at Porto Golf and Golf Porto
Marina Beach Club rolled out the region’s first 18-hole championship
golf course. Sprawling across 370 acres (150 hectares), the resort
includes an international spa, a 200-shop mega-mall, 12 restaurants,
and a water park with a dancing fountain. The resort is also the high-
profile home to Olympic City, a training facility for sports professionals
and soccer teams from Europe and the Middle East. Both resorts have
200 timeshare apartments.
In 2011, POV at Porto Sokhna followed suit with another 200 apart-
ments in Ain Sokhna on the Gulf of Suez. The popular weekend desti-
nation welcomes guests with 18 holes of championship golf, eight
swimming pools, a spa, and three malls. Crowning the property is an
886-foot (270 meters) mountain. One of the dozen on-site restaurants
— accessible only by cable car — serves up breathtaking views of the
Red Sea from its summit.
With its fourth resort, Porto South Beach Vacation Club in Ain
Sokhna, Porto Vacation Club quadrupled the number of timeshare apart-
ments, opening 835 units on an expansive private beach. In addition to
luxury amenities that are standard at other Porto Vacation Club resorts,
Porto South Beach offers a mind-boggling array of activities, including
kite boarding, zip-lining, a climbing wall, football, tennis, squash,
horseback riding, and go-carting. There is even a paintball compound
on-site.
When Porto Sharm Resort adds 340 timeshare apartments in Sharm
el Sheikh in 2016, Porto Vacation Club will again up the ante. Built
around manmade Grand Lake, the 160-acre
(65 hectares) complex will include a golf
course, which occupies one of four islands
in the lake, an open-air theater, and an inter-
national theme park. One of two premier
shopping streets on-site, The Corniche is a
promenade with views of Grand Lake’s
fountains, built as a replica of the shopping
area of the same name in Alexandria. A
17-acre (7 hectares) private beach is five
minutes away by shuttle.
Experiencing is Believing
With sales offices in the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain, and Jordan, Porto
Vacation Club reaches out to its primary tar-
get market in Egypt and Egyptian residents
living abroad through traditional channels
such as direct mail and print advertising, as well as ongoing fly-and-buy
programs and social media. In fact, the fly-and-buy program consis-
tently yields a 30- to 40-percent conversion rate, Khalil reports,
emphasizing that it’s often a small step from a positive firsthand
experience to a referral.
“We have a good number of our clients who are really happy and
enjoy their stay and they start referring their friends and other family
members to join them during their vacation,” Kahlil says. “Someone
referred from any already existing client is a hot lead.”
The company also has high hopes for social media. “Social media
is a very strong tool in our marketing,” Sarwat says. The company just
signed on with a new agency that will create compelling video content
and ads for YouTube and Facebook, and will conduct online campaigns
that the company hopes will go viral.
A Pivotal Partner
Having Interval International as a vacation exchange partner is a strategic
part of Porto Vacation Club’s plans for growth.
“Interval has lots of integrity in the market,” Khalil says. “Interval
focuses on the quality of the resorts. It’s not about
numbers, it’s all about quality of affiliations, which
helps during the sales process. We know their
exchange system is very transparent. So, all those
factors give Interval an edge over any other
exchange company.”
Numbers equal to many established interna-
tional vacation clubs also give Porto Vacation Club
an edge when it comes to future growth in Egypt
and abroad. “It’s not only about expanding in the
Middle East,” Kahlil says. “Soon, we will be launch-
ing our new project inMorocco, another beachfront
destination, and we have plans to expand
internationally in other European countries.”
See page 2 for currency conversions.
Developer:
Amer Group; Mansour Amer,
chairman; Omar Amer, vice chairman and chief
business development officer
Headquarters:
Cairo, Egypt
Product:
Fractional, 30 nights, right-to-use
for 30 or 50 years
Price:
From US$5,700 to US$23,000
Resorts:
Sokhna: Porto South Beach
Vacation Club and Porto Sokhna; Sharm el
Sheikh: Porto Sharm Resort (under
construction); El Alamein: Porto Marina and
Golf Porto Marina
Website:
amer-group.com
Social Media:
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Porto Vacation Club
fast
facts
POV AT PORTO SOKHNA
PORTO GOLF, EL ALAMEIN