The Scuba Diving Industry Stakeholders

Dive training agencies, scuba gear manufacturers, local dive shops, dive resorts, scuba diving instructors, dive travel agencies & more

In an Instructor Development Course from a major training agency, there was an exercise for scuba instructor candidates to list dive industry stakeholders. The correct answers included pretty much everybody on the planet! I’m not sure what the purpose of this exercise was since it did not define the dive industry stakeholders in a useful way.

For instance, airlines and governments can and do have an impact on the dive industry, but they are not an active part of it — scuba diving is far from being their primary focus. In fact, our SWOT analysis identifies these as external factors that provide opportunities or pose threats.

To discuss the current state of the scuba diving industry and explore ways to improve the business of diving, let’s focus on the core participants in this industry. In that sense, it’s more useful to define the dive industry stakeholders as those who make a living in the dive industry.

Five stakeholder groups represent the key players we need to understand and study the dive industry. From there, we can work on finding paths to drive industry growth.

This post is part of our Shifting Tides: Dive Industry Assessment & Strategies for Today’s Scuba Divers series by the Business of Diving Institute and Darcy Kieran, author of:

Unless otherwise specified, to improve readability, all statistics in this post are drawn from results of surveys conducted and market reports produced by the Business of Diving Institute. They are presented in Your Dive Industry Compass.

Further discussions and analyses are presented in Shifting Tides: Scuba Diving Industry Assessment & Strategies for Today’s Scuba Divers.

The 5 Key Scuba Diving Industry Stakeholders

In some cases, we can analyze the dive industry as a whole. However, in many cases, it’s best to examine each category of players separately, because they may have diverging interests with entirely different critical success factors. In fact, these different and sometimes conflicting priorities are at the core of the issues on the board of directors of the Diving Equipment and Marketing Association (DEMA), resulting in DEMA doing, most of the time, nothing.

Dive Training Agencies

Training agencies are in category A2 on the DEMA Memberships & Board of Directors.

There are more than a hundred recreational scuba diving certification agencies worldwide. Some of them only exist or are recognized in a small region. There are only a few international organizations that dominate the worldwide market, including Scuba Diving International (SDI), Scuba Schools International (SSI), and the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI).

Until recently, scuba diving training agencies resembled glorified book publishers with a semi-captive clientele. They designed courses, produced course material, and issued C-cards (certification cards). The bulk of their revenues came from selling the course material.

Nowadays, they are trying to redefine themselves in a digital era. They are at the heart of many discussions we have about the cost of online scuba theory lessons and the need to modernize the dive industry.

Tidbits of information from Your Dive Industry Compass:

Nearly 70% of dive instructors believe that dive training agencies’ quality assurance is insufficient to ensure consumers have an excellent course experience, and over 60% even question its effectiveness for ensuring course safety.
48.2% of instructors believe the cost retained by dive training agencies for online learning is not reasonable compared to the income instructors receive for teaching.
There is significant interest in a dive training agency that would provide reliable consistency in the quality of the scuba diving experience: 60.0% of dive center owners and 69.2% of instructors would seriously consider affiliating with a “higher-quality training agency” if one were available.

Scuba Gear Manufacturers

Dive equipment manufacturers are in category A1 on the DEMA Memberships & Board of Directors.

“Gear manufacturers” can be a misnomer. It is more accurate to refer to them as “dive gear brands” and “wholesalers.” Only a handful of them actually “manufacture” some of their products. For the most part, they are “brands” involved in the “distribution” of scuba diving gear purchased from a handful of suppliers. For instance, wetsuits sold under various brands are often manufactured by the same Asian supplier.

For some products (usually the high-end ones), these brands will create their own design. For many other products (especially inexpensive ones from Asia), you get the same item under different brand names.

Yet, within the dive industry, they are referred to as “manufacturers.”

Tidbits of information from Your Dive Industry Compass:

Only 17.1% of dive center owners believe that dive gear manufacturers provide them with enough marketing and business management support.
More dive gear is now sold online (53.4%) than in physical dive-specialized retailers (42.7%).
Core divers (8+ dives/year) are the most valuable customers, spending an average of US$747 annually on new gear in the USA, compared to US$132 for casual divers.
When selecting a dive computer, 97.8% of both tech and recreational divers ranked Quality as important or very important, whereas Price was important to only 26.5% of tech divers and 38.1% of recreational divers. This suggests quality branding should drive sales, not prices.

Dive Centers

This is category A4 (retailers / local dive shops) & part of A5 (travel & dive resorts) on the DEMA Memberships & Board of Directors.

The dive center has traditionally been at the heart of the dive industry. Training agencies, dive gear manufacturers, and dive travel wholesalers are, for the most part, still focused on selling to dive centers that resell to their local clientele. However, the dive center part of the value chain in the dive industry needs serious upgrading to meet today’s consumer expectations.

Dive centers are typically small local businesses facing the unrealistic task of managing six businesses in one. The primary focus of a dive center depends on its location, whether it is an origin dive center or a destination dive center.

Local Dive Shops, often referred to as LDS or dive stores, are located in “origin” cities that may not even have nearby dive sites. Their primary focus is providing courses, selling dive gear, and bringing their clients to dive (locally or on fly-away trips).

Dive Resorts are similar yet very distinct. Their focus differs from that of the local dive shops. For instance, they typically rely much less on selling gear and focus more on daily charter boats. We label them as “destination dive centers.”

We further review these differences in a post about these two types of dive centers.

Tidbits of information from Your Dive Industry Compass:

Only 26% of dive center owners report making a good living from their passion for diving. 45.5% of current dive center owners would rather not own a dive center if they could make a good living teaching.
87.8% of dive center owners desire more customer service training for their staff. A significant number of owners (34.3%) feel they are better at teaching scuba than managing a retail store.
Local dive shops are increasingly marginalized in the travel market, with only 9% of dive resort bookings generated through dive centers.
Both scuba divers and dive professionals demonstrate low confidence in the rescue skills of dive operators’ staff (average rating of 3.0/5.0).

Independent Instructors & Dive Clubs

Independent dive instructors and dive clubs are not represented on the DEMA Board of Directors.

Independent instructors are often seen as a non-significant part of the dive industry. Typically, gear manufacturers don’t sell to them. Training agencies do not list them on their website. They are a bit of the black sheep of the dive industry, especially in North America.

Independent instructors often need to establish an affiliation with a local dive shop to use rental gear and access other services. In Europe, they can teach through dive clubs offering dive outings and training. Of course, in North America, they “can,” too — it’s just not as prevalent.

Yet, compared to dive centers, independent instructors in the USA are more successful at converting entry-level students to advanced scuba diving certifications, keeping these new divers active.

We pursue the discussion on standard dive centers vs. independent instructors in the Octopus Strategy: Gear vs. Training.

The role of independent instructors could be vital in relaunching the industry.

Dive Clubs could be included in this category if they provide scuba diving training courses. We’re defining this 4th category of key dive industry players as a group providing dive training outside the standard dive center.

Tidbits of information from Your Dive Industry Compass:

Only 13.6% of dive instructors say they make a good living. The average income for recreational instructors decreased by 7.8% between 2019 and 2024.
26.4% of scuba diving instructors admit to having “cut corners” in their teaching activities, often due to time (60%) and profitability (40%) issues inherent in the system.
62.2% of instructors are receptive to shifting toward a “scuba coaching” model, where they are compensated per hour/session instead of per course, allowing for instruction tailored to readiness rather than fixed schedules.
Specialized independent training (e.g., rebreathers, cave diving) attracts clientele based on the quality of expertise, regardless of location.

Scuba Diving Travel Agencies & Wholesalers

Travel agencies and wholesalers are categorized as A5 on the DEMA Memberships & Board of Directors.

Traditionally, dive trips were mainly promoted through local dive shops, using albums of pictures from the previous dive trips. Today, of course, with the internet, scuba divers can (and do) research and book dive trips directly with resorts and travel agencies. The role of the local dive shop has undergone significant changes in that regard.

You can buy a trip to Bonaire from any travel agency, anywhere. However, it seems appropriate to include scuba diving travel agencies and wholesalers in our current discussions on the business of diving, especially with PADI’s move into direct-to-consumer (DTC or D2C) following their acquisition of Diviac, a European startup specializing in selling scuba diving adventures directly to consumers.

Through Diviac (renamed PADI Travel), PADI is now selling courses directly to the consumer, along with online training and arrangements to get certified in a tropical destination. It warrants discussions on threats & opportunities for the local dive shops and dive resorts — and what it means for the future “value chain” in the dive industry.

Tidbits of information from Your Dive Industry Compass:

Travel wholesalers command the highest average commission from dive resorts, at 30%.
Dive resorts reported a very low level of satisfaction with major agency-affiliated sales platforms.
Dive resorts generate 67% of their total revenues from direct-to-consumer sales.

Other Dive Industry Stakeholders

As discussed in the introduction to this article, we could compile an almost endless list of dive industry stakeholders if our goal were to fill one. However, to analyze the dive industry and develop business strategies, we can focus on the five key players in the dive industry described above.

The other dive industry players are not ‘core’ to providing scuba diving products and services to the consumer. For instance, it’s practical to have a magazine dedicated to scuba diving, reaching current divers. However, we don’t “need” such a magazine to reach current scuba divers. But we do need scuba diving gear to dive.

Let’s list a few of these other dive industry stakeholders.

Dive Media and Publications are part of Category A3 on the DEMA Memberships & Board of Directors, specifically “Dive Publishing, Media, Consulting and Non-Retail Service Providers.” These companies provide support to our five key dive industry players. For the most part, they offer a way to reach current scuba divers, just like Facebook and Google can help you do it, too.
Consultants: They’re also part of A3 on the DEMA Board. We have nothing against them. This is the category in which the Business of Diving Institute fits in (consulting & media). However, they provide support services to the core dive industry players.
Trade Organizations and Associations: There are plenty of them. DEMA is one. The Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) is another one. We can also include your local chamber of commerce, retailer associations, and many other organizations in this category. Once again, these players provide value to the core dive industry players, but we could live without them. For instance, you may be getting a significantly reduced rate on in-store credit card processing from a retailer association, but you would operate your business even without it.
Governments certainly have a significant impact on various industries. But their focus is not the dive industry. They are a part of external factors that create opportunities or threats to the dive industry.
And many more…