Dive Industry Strategy | Scuba & COVID-19
A New Business Model for a Redefined Local Dive Center
COVID-19 accelerated changes happening in the scuba diving industry
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Darcy Kieran is the author of the handbook “Your Career and/or Life as a Scuba Diving Instructor: How to Make a Good Living Out of Your Passion for Scuba Diving” and a unique advanced logbook & checklists for scuba divers, divemasters & instructors.
Retail, education, and travel industries are going through a severe transformation that started before the coronavirus pandemic, and the scuba diving industry operates in all three of them. But the speed of change has accelerated in a COVID-19 world, and we need to keep up — or better yet, get ahead of the curve. The dive industry has been resisting changes to its business model for decades but can no longer withstand a tsunami of changing customers’ expectations and behavior.
The global pandemic has reset the gameboard. How can dive businesses emerge stronger?
I will look at the historical ‘distribution channel’ used to provide scuba diving lessons, dive gear, and scuba diving travel to scuba diving consumers. Then, I’ll look at how it is changing and how the current coronavirus pandemic is accelerating this evolution. Finally, I’ll look at what it means for your scuba diving business.
Traditional Distribution Process for Scuba Diving Products & Services
Historically, dive gear and scuba lessons have been provided to the consumer by ‘local dive shops’ (in ‘origin’ dive centers) and ‘dive resorts’ (in dive destinations). And way back then, dive travel was mainly sold by local dive shops.
We’re talking, here, pre and early-internet. Yet, to this day, the dive industry business model has barely changed. Consumers have changed, but not the scuba diving industry.
Bear with me for a minute.
Pre-internet, it was difficult for a newly certified scuba diver to independently select the best dive destinations for his/her annual vacations. The dive instructor in the local dive shop was the principal source of information. Scuba divers would come…
