This is an extract from a speech made by the Premier of Bermuda, Dr. Ewart Brown, at the 13th Annual Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference in April 2009. He very much extols the virtues of fractionals and notes their positive effect on the Bermudan economy.

In the extract below I've bolded the key pieces. If you're putting a fractional business plan together these are some good references to use.

In 2006, I also had the pleasure of talking with all of you about mixed use tourism properties - properties that are hotels as well as fractional units. We have made some significant progress in that area since last we spoke.

As you know, we have a small destination with a fairly small volume of visitors. That's why we focus so heavily in trying to attract the affluent traveler - when you can't get a high volume of visitors; you want visitors of high net worth.

This decade we have averaged 289,500 visitors per year when excluding cruise arrivals. A portion of those visitors are staying in our hotels and fractional units. And increasingly more and more of our visitors choose fractional units.

Since 2006 when you were last here, more than 200 fractional units have sold in Bermuda, according to the Cabinet Minister responsible for Housing. And that excludes our biggest selling year of 2005. In that year we sold 115 fractional units. That is significant growth for a destination our size. It has also resulted in significant revenue for the Government. More than $10 million collected in fees related to fractional units since the start of the 2005/2006 fiscal year. That can pay for a lot of important social programs in a progressive agenda.

We believe fractional units also play an important part in stimulating our overall Tourism product. A fractional unit owner will come to Bermuda at least once a year in some cases and more than once a year in most cases. The thinking here is simple: if I paid for it, I'm going to use it. And when a fractional owner can not use her unit, she is more likely to send a friend or family member.

We think fractional units also increase the likelihood of visits during the cooler months when our tourism business is at its softest. More importantly perhaps, fractional units help us keep more of the tourism workforce employed year-round - an especially critical point in times like these.

Overall, we've seen our annual air visitor spending on-island skyrocket more than $100 million between 2005 and 2007-from 341 million to 444 million. We think the increased number of fractional owners played a role in that increase.

So it should be no surprise that our recently opened hotels - Newstead-Belmont Hills and Tucker's Point - have significant fractional ownership components. Additionally, the Park Hyatt in St. George's and the Reef's Hotel currently under expansion - also have fractional ownership in their business models. I'm sure the trend is similar in other parts of the Caribbean. I am interested to hear how this new dynamic is impacting your destinations.