Agents who have never before ventured into the dive travel market
may find it intimidating. After all, this market niche comes
complete with a terminology that, to the uninitiated, can sound
mystifying -- phrases like wall dives, C-cards and the like.
But, as John Stewart, vice president of sales and marketing for
the Underwater Explorers Society, says, selling dive travel is not
rocket science.
"Dive travel is not that difficult. While it carries with
non-divers a mystique, with a little bit of product knowledge and a
fam trip and time with us, agents can feel comfortable selling dive
travel," says Stewart, whose firm, a dive operator on Grand Bahama
Island, is working hard to make dive travel and related products
easy for agents to sell.
While agents still sell a relatively small percentage of dive
vacations, some dive wholesalers have seen agents' share of the
market expand. Richard Mitsoda, managing director of Maduro Dive
Fanta-Seas in Miami is one. His firm now has 7,800 agents in its
data base and receives 35% of its bookings from agents, a high
percentage in the world of dive travel. "We have made a
concentrated effort since 1992 to involve agencies. If you go back
10 years, our total agency business was maybe 10%. And our total
business is growing 20% a year. So when we talk about 35% it's a
constant upgrading of numbers," he says.
For agents looking for new commission sources, scuba divers
represent a market that is virtually there for the asking, industry
members suggest. "The maturing of the scuba market has meant that
the largest bulk of [divers] are now in the baby boomer years --
and they are travel happy," says Susan Wilmink, managing director
of the Dive Travel Association and publisher of Dive Travel
Magazine. "Scuba divers have the means and interest to travel. As
we say around here, diving is the activity and travel is the
passion."
Moreover, dive travel represents a potentially lucrative
commission source. "Keep in mind that a day of diving is usually
twice the price of a room night and commissionable at the same
rate, so I would think it's something to sell," says Kathy
Rothschild, president of Rothschild Dive Safaris, a dive wholesaler
in New York.
The following primer, based on conversations with dive industry
members and information culled from dive-related publications,
provides tips on what agents need to learn about dive travel and,
with that information in hand, how to go about tapping this
promising market.
GEARING UP
The essential first step for agents is to bone up on the
fundamentals of dive travel. Short of learning to dive themselves,
there are a number of ways that agents can become educated about
this market niche.
Attend seminars provided by tourism boards, dive wholesalers
and organizations such as the Dive Travel Association.Subscribe to dive travel magazines.Surf the Web. The Dive Travel Association's site --
www.divetravel.com -- is a good place to start. Another site worth
checking out is www.padi.com, the Web site of the Professional
Association of Diving Instructors.Attend consumer and trade dive shows.Join the Dive Travel Association and become a Dive Travel
Specialist.Establish alliances with one or more dive wholesalers.Designate a staff member as your dive specialist and support
his or her dive certification process and membership in local dive
clubs. Barring that, have someone in the agency take a resort or
introductory dive course; these one-day courses involve a short
classroom introduction, in-pool instruction and a guided open-water
dive in shallow water. At the very least, go snorkeling in a
warm-water destination so you can glimpse the underwater wonders
that thrill divers.Study up on the essential terminology of dive gear and dive
travel.Acquire basic dive knowledge about several key dive
destinations, including issues such as how deep the dives are, dive
conditions (water temperature, current, visibility) and dive
highlights (walls, reefs, wrecks, large fish, etc.).TAPPING THE MARKET
Once agents have acquired basic dive travel knowledge, they are
ready to pursue dive travel business. There are three potential
markets agents might target:
1) Divers in their current client base who book dive travel
elsewhere;
2) Current clients who are adventuresome travelers who might be
candidates for a learn-to-dive vacation, and
3) dive travelers who are not current clients of the agency.
Following are a few ideas on how to reach them:
Promote your dive travel knowledge in newsletters and through
e-mail.Advertise your agency as a source for dive travel in regional
newspapers and via press releases to local publications.Create a Web site promoting your dive travel know-how.Put together several dive packages with a dive supplier and
market them.Survey existing clients to identify divers among them.
Potential sources include skiers or ski clubs. "A lot of skiers are
divers and a lot of divers are skiers. They are real cross-over
sports," Rothschild says.Promote your dive know-how to corporate clients, perhaps by
offering dive add-ons when business takes them to a dive
destination or on an incentive trip. Or, contact internal
sports-oriented clubs at the offices of your corporate
clients.Create a window or in-store dive display using tourist board
posters, dive magazines, a snorkel and a pair of fins, dive
magazines and other dive materials.Add a red-and-white dive flag to your business cards and your
storefront window.Show videos about diving or snorkeling in your waiting
area.Suggest to clients headed for a warm-water destination that
they take an introductory dive course or try snorkeling. (Many
snorkelers go on to become divers.)Visit on-line scuba forums and respond to queries about dive
destinations.Promote your services to local dive clubs, underwater
photography clubs and environmental organizations.Create an alliance with a local dive shop to promote each
other's services and products. Suggest co-hosting a consumer dive
travel night.ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS
Selling dive travel successfully requires careful qualifying of
clients and screening suppliers.
Mitsoda of Maduro Dive Fanta-Seas says that when he speaks to
agents he urges them to listen carefully to what clients want. "A
lot of it gets down to the listening mode," he says.
Among the questions he and others suggest agents ask clients are
these:
Are you looking for a dive-only resort or do you want other
amenities, including non-dive activities and nearby
attractions?How much diving do you want to do daily?Are you interested in a live-aboard dive vacation (for avid
divers)?Will you be traveling with a spouse or companion who does not
dive?What kind of diving do you want? For example, do you prefer
seeing large marine creatures or exploring shipwrecks or reefs? Do
you practice underwater photography? Do you have a preference for
drift diving, moored diving or shore diving?
Before calling a dive wholesaler, agents should also ask clients
these questions:
Are you a certified diver?What is your level of experience? How many dives have you done?
To what depths?How recently have you been diving?Do you have your own equipment?Are you interested in taking any special certification courses,
such as wreck diving, night diving or fish identification?Will you be needing a refresher course (for clients who haven't
been diving for two or more years)?What is your travel budget?KNOWING THE RIGHT ANSWERS
Familiarity with dive destinations and suppliers is key to
successfully servicing dive clients. Among the client questions
agents should be prepared to answer are:
How long is the trip to nearest dive sites?What types of dives are available in the area (reef, wreck,
drift, shore, wall, etc.)?Are there sites suitable for both beginners and experienced
divers?How deep are the dives?What are dive conditions -- visibility, currents, water
temperature?Are the dives guided?How many boat dives are included in the package? Is there an
extra charge for shore diving?What certification courses are offered?Is underwater camera and video equipment available?Do divers need to wear wetsuits or is a swim suit
adequate?Is there a hyperbaric (recompression) chamber at the
destination?Do dive boats leave from the hotel? If not, how far away is the
departure point?How often is rental equipment updated? How is it
maintained?Are the dive boats custom-built for divers?Is there oxygen on aboard the dive boats and someone trained to
use it?
* * *
Resource Tips
EDUCATIONAL SEMINARS
The Dive Travel Association (formerly the Dive Travel Industries
Association) sponsors seminars for agents that provide
nuts-and-bolts information on how to sell dive travel, earn agents
ICTA continuing education credits and qualify them to become
certified Dive Travel Specialists. The seminars are offered in
conjunction with consumer dive shows and at an annual dive show
sponsored by the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association.
The next DTA seminar will be held in Atlanta on Oct. 16. DEMA's
next show, scheduled for Jan. 13 to 16 in New Orleans, will be
preceded by agent seminars on Jan. 12.
DTA MEMBERSHIP
For $100 annually, agents may join the Dive Travel Association and
receive discounts to its events, a newsletter, access to a
password-protected section of its Internet site, marketing
materials and more.
For information on DTA membership and seminars, call (305)
257-3113 or e-mail [email protected].
FOR THE BOOKSHELF
A useful resource for agents is a newly updated edition of the
"Hennessey Guide to Live-Aboard Dive Boats." The 208-page book
includes details on live-aboard vessels in six regions around the
world; information on dive conditions and area attractions in
various destinations; travel particulars; international health
facts; resources for divers with disabilities, and baggage
guidelines for 31 airlines.
Agents who mention they read about the book in Travel Weekly are
eligible for 10% off the purchase price of $14.95 (plus shipping).
Orders may be placed by calling (800) 664-2206.