I've seen a smattering of timeshare discussions here, although I definitely think there's a difference between timeshare and real estate (I know that firsthand). I used to be in that market so I occasionally read the news, though, and this article surprised me:

http://timeshareconsumergroup.org/advocacy_industry_update.html

The points are a little skimpy, but the idea is that the ts industry has not experienced the same problems as the real estate industry and is actually experiencing growth in spite of the economy. To put it plainly: how? Are these people lying to drum up ts business?

One theory is that the sort of person who would own a timeshare would have enough money to get through a recession in luxury, but how many of those people do you know? Anyway, kind of interesting...