Scuba Diving Industry Market Statistics: Sources of Data & Lack of Data
When you try to analyze the dive industry, the first thing you notice is a severe lack of dive industry market data and low reliability of the statistics you actually find.
There are several reasons why you may want scuba diving industry statistics and market data. For instance, you may be preparing a business plan for a new dive company, or you may want to grow your current dive business.
Dive industry market data is vital for managing your scuba diving business effectively, as it informs decisions such as whether to buy or sell a business in this industry, which target market to pursue, the type of marketing message to use, and more. Scuba diving industry statistics are valuable for every business decision you have to make.
Unfortunately, when you try to analyze the dive industry, the first thing you notice is a severe lack of dive industry market data — and low reliability on the statistics you actually find. Let’s imagine that running a business is like sailing.
It’s challenging to navigate a yacht to port in a storm while being blindfolded and without GPS.
You get the picture. And that is precisely what it is like to manage a dive business with no scuba market data.
In all other industries I’ve worked in, we had readily available market and financial data on the industry, including market trends.
We’ll dig into the statistics & data available in the dive industry and discuss what scuba diving industry statistics & data are missing the most — what data would actually help us grow the industry and our business. However, first, let’s examine two other industries to put “industry data” into context.
This post is part of our Dive Industry Compass series by the Business of Diving Institute and Darcy Kieran, author of:
Contents on This Page
TL;DR Overview
The scuba diving industry suffers from a severe lack of reliable market data and financial statistics. This deficiency makes it challenging to manage a dive business effectively, prepare business plans, identify target markets, or make informed decisions about buying or selling a company. Unlike industries such as radio broadcasting or rail, where professionals have access to extensive financial, demographic, and competitive data, the dive industry largely operates in the dark. This scarcity means stakeholders often lack the comparative socio-demographic profiles needed to target different clienteles, resulting in poor differentiation where everyone tries to sell everything to everybody.
While sources of statistics exist, they are often sparse and incomplete. Data from dive training agencies often consists of “pep talks” designed to motivate instructors and store owners rather than providing actionable market data. Reports from DEMA (Dive Equipment & Marketing Association), such as the Certification Census, are valuable but incomplete, as key agencies (like SSI) often do not report due to legal, political, or logistical issues. Manufacturer sales data (MSI) is effectively dead, hampered by secrecy and paranoia among manufacturers, and its replacement (MPI) only offers vague trend directions.
Crucially, the data that is missing the most relates to understanding non-customers (dropouts, refusing non-customers, and unexplored non-customers) and the reasons they leave or avoid scuba diving. To grow the shrinking industry, professionals are encouraged to look beyond current divers, collaborate with businesses in other sectors (e.g., cross-promotions with bowling alleys based on shared potential clientele), utilize external, reliable resources like the SFIA (Sports & Fitness Industry Association), and actively participate in ongoing market surveys.
1. Putting The Scuba Diving Industry in Perspective: Comparing Ourselves To Other Industries
Our goal here is to promote the idea that having a reliable mechanism in place to collect and share dive industry market data would help everybody in the dive industry.
In the following two industries, which we’re using as reference points, we will not review all the available data — the list would be too long for this post. Instead, we will examine specific sets of data and consider what it would mean to have something equivalent in the scuba diving world.
1.1 Market Data in The Radio Broadcasting Industry
A valuable set of data we had when I was in the radio broadcasting industry was audience ratings — surveys conducted directly with the public to determine how many people listened to our shows and on-air personalities.
On top of knowing the number of people listening to our morning show compared to the other morning shows in our market, we had a complete socio-demographic profile of these people — which is even more critical. For instance, my radio station may be targeting younger at-work women while another radio station is targeting male baby boomers. The type of music and the way radio announcers speak on these two stations are different. Having a well-defined socio-demographic profile helps when selling advertising to companies seeking specific audiences for their products and services.
- This is an example of the type of financial data that broadcasters in Canada have access to, as per the CRTC.
- This is accurate information on the number of broadcast radio stations in the USA, as provided by the FCC.
Professionals in the radio broadcasting industry have access to extensive and accurate statistics. It makes everybody’s job easier. Instead of chasing windmills because somebody said it was the right thing to do this year, we have data showing us if there are windmills.
What would this look like in the dive industry?
If we had this kind of market data for the dive industry, we wouldn’t have to guess everything, such as the number of local dive shops in the USA.
The dive industry has several studies on the profiles of current scuba divers. And for your dive store, you can get the profile of your past clients by grabbing your customer database and running it through AnySite, offered by DEMA (USA only).
What we don’t have available is the socio-demographic profile of your clients compared to the rest of the market in which you operate. Maybe you are targeting wealthy male baby boomers while your main “competitor” is targeting college students. If so, you are not competitors, and there are many areas in which you could cooperate. It’s more profitable for everybody if we do not all target the same audience — just like radio stations targeting different audiences.
The same principle applies to any other stakeholder in the dive industry. For instance, it would be reasonable to have dive gear brands targeting different clienteles, rather than everybody trying to sell everything to everybody, with no real differentiation.
And, of course, we don’t have accurate information on total sales in local dive shops in the USA, nor on the total sales of dive gear worldwide. And the list goes on. We have very little to work with.
1.2 Market Data in The Railroad Industry
The rail industry is another sector with a wealth of data — and stiff competition from trucking.
From various sources, we can determine how much of a particular commodity was being transported between two states and by which mode of transportation it was being moved. We could even figure out the RTM (revenue per ton-mile) for our competitors. RTM represents the revenue you earn by moving one ton of products one mile.
But what is the real competition? In some cases, it’s another railroad. But in most cases, it’s a long-distance trucking company. We had market data on what was being transported by trucks, boats, and rail. Having these statistics helps every North American railroad be more competitive with long-distance trucking companies — our real competitors.
Trucking companies have difficulties recruiting drivers for long-distance routes. Meanwhile, railroads are more cost-effective and environmentally friendly than trucks for long-distance travel. In a collaborative approach, the transportation industry worked toward trucks handling local deliveries while railroads connect different geographical markets over long distances.
What would this look like in the dive industry?
Imagine having detailed information on other activities that potential scuba divers are involved in. Instead of advertising scuba diving to current scuba divers (consider all the existing dive publications), we could focus on cross-promotions with businesses in other industries.
For instance, if the socio-demographic profile of the potential clients you want to reach is similar to the clientele at your local bowling alley, stop focusing on “the other dive shop” in town. Enter into a cross-promotional agreement with the bowling alley’s operator.
We will get back to this topic when addressing “the missing data” below.
2. What scuba diving industry statistics do we have?
We’re discussing, here, sources of scuba diving market data besides what is provided by the Business of Diving Institute.
It may seem to you that we have a fair amount of dive industry market data. After all, training agencies regularly release statistics. DEMA provides data. Etc. However, let’s look at it carefully.
2.1 Market Data From Dive Training Agencies
Don’t you find it curious that the dive certification agencies’ results are always “great”?
For instance, it seems to me that PADI switched from releasing North American statistics to Worldwide numbers when the North American results weren’t good enough. When you attend a PADI event as a PADI instructor or dive store owner, you are attending a pep talk. You are listening to a motivational speaker. The main goal of the speaker is to convince you that everything is great when you are in the PADI family — and you should stock more PADI products, now! You don’t get actionable market data at these pep talks.
Meanwhile, SSI is steadily boasting about how many PADI centers they are signing under the SSI banner. However, this does not lead to industry growth. It is just two training agencies fighting for market shares within a shrinking pie. And SSI is just like PADI when it comes to providing ‘pep talks’ under the disguise of sharing market information.
Otherwise, you can get entry-level scuba certification numbers from DEMA if you are a member. However, not all training agencies report their certification numbers to DEMA (in fact, most don’t), and we are unsure what information is being shared by those who do submit certification numbers. Yet, we’ve factored those numbers into our evaluation of the dive industry’s size.
2.2 Market Data From Dive Gear Manufacturers
There’s… Really… None!
DEMA produced the MSI (Manufacturer Sales Index) with statistics provided by dive gear manufacturers. But it’s now dead — more on this below.
It’s unfortunate that we are keeping our dive industry so isolated from the rest of the world. Members of the Outdoor Industry Association receive significantly more market data than we do. Members of the SFIA receive an annual summary of wholesale gear shipments for the sports and fitness industry.
You can always discuss with your Beuchat, Aqualung, Mares, Poseidon, or whoever’s sales rep. But do you think this information will be reliable? I remember a dry suit sales rep who would tell me, at every single visit to my dive shop, that he had just received the biggest purchase order of his career. That’s verbal diarrhea, not market data.
With dive gear manufacturers and training agencies, there is a paranoia and obsession with secrecy — often to their own detriment.
2.3 Scuba Diving Industry Data From DEMA
We must raise our hats to DEMA for attempting to provide us with some scuba diving industry statistics.
Over the years, DEMA has produced reports that could be valuable to manage your dive business in North America:
- Certification Census for the U.S. market
- The MSI (Manufacturer Sales Index), replaced by the MPI (Manufacturing Purchase Index)
- Socio-demographic profiles of scuba divers
Let’s briefly look at them.
DEMA’s Certification Census
The Certification Census is compiled by aggregating US-only open water certifications provided by a select group of training agencies that have agreed to share their certification numbers: PADI, SDI, and NAUI. That’s good. Thanks, DEMA!
But… Wait a minute! Why only these three training agencies? For instance, with SSI stealing market shares from PADI, shouldn’t SSI be part of the certification census?
I have been informed by internal sources at Mares-SSI that they cannot legally comply with the requests made by DEMA. It appears that nowadays, DEMA will not accept your certification numbers unless you also provide a list of your client divers, including their email addresses, contact information, etc. Since SSI is a European company with its servers located within the European Union, it must comply with much more stringent privacy rules than those in the USA, which means it cannot provide confidential information about its clients to another entity, such as DEMA.
Starting in 2024, DEMA made it even more difficult to get this information. They used to put spreadsheets in their online store. The spreadsheets were never formatted in a useful manner, as if the information was intended to be obscure. However, we could reformat them and gain some insights into the trends of entry-level certifications in the USA. Nowadays, you have to subscribe to an email list to receive these reports (as if they want them to be even less visible), and the spreadsheets you receive are now even more useless.
It is mind-boggling that our dive industry association, DEMA, seems incapable of providing us with the most basic market data. It’s not rocket science! Every other industry association does it, including the Outdoor Industry Association and the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.
Strategically, we probably should kill the half-dead DEMA and all join the Outdoor Industry Association. We would get a lot more for our dollars! But that is a topic that goes beyond the goal of this post.
DEMA’s MSI — Manufacturer Sales Index
The MSI Index should have been a valuable tool for manufacturers themselves and local dive shops. Not only did it help you understand if the market was up or down, but it also showed you which category of products were tanking and which ones were growing. This would be valuable, right? One would expect that the manufacturers would have provided this information to their dealers, right? Wrong. They kept it to themselves.
When DEMA started the MSI Index, only A1 members (dive gear manufacturers) had access to the report. Some people in this industry suffer from acute paranoia! They should consider ways to support their dealers and expand the dive industry — and everybody would benefit.
When I was on the DEMA Board of Directors, we finally got the A1 members (manufacturers) to agree to share a “summary” of the MSI Index Report with the other DEMA members. What a victory! It brought the dive industry from the Stone Age to the feudal era!
Soon after, things got worse. Some disputes between manufacturers led one to drop out, while another decided to only report on specific categories; and Voilà! The MSI Index stopped being updated.
DEMA’s Manufacturing Purchase Index (MPI)
Years after the death of the MSI, in 2023, DEMA announced a new quarterly report on the health of the U.S. dive equipment market.
Sounds good? Well… It doesn’t provide the same kind of information. The MPI only reports a trend: up, flat, or down. But is it down 5% or 50%? Go figure!
Furthermore, the MPI report does not differentiate between geographical regions. Well… The Asian market can rise while the American market falls.
Overall, I fail to see how this MPI provides real, actionable market data.
Our own State of the Dive Industry market study also reports “trends” in sales of dive gear. However, we differentiate between a small increase/decrease and a large increase/decrease. We also provide the information by geographical region (that’s pretty crucial). And we have more dive gear manufacturers contributing to our market study than the number reporting to the DEMA MPI.
Socio-Demographic Profiles
DEMA occasionally produced reports on the socio-demographic profile of scuba divers. However, every time we analyzed them, we found that the socio-demographic profiles of scuba divers provided annually by the SFIA were more accurate.
2.4 Dive Industry Data From Cline
If you own or operate a dive center or dive resort, you’ve most likely received a request to participate in William Cline’s quarterly survey on the dive industry. Presumably, you’ve also received the results in your eMail inbox.
Are Cline’s survey results reliable? That’s a million-dollar question. I had that discussion with him a couple of times. It seems to me that his results are usually optimistic.
For instance, for the first quarter of 2018, Cline reported a 3.1% drop in new certifications, whereas the certification census provided by DEMA, based on data from the certification agencies, reported a 12.1% decline for the same period.
How can Cline’s numbers be so much better? (It’s a sad state of affairs when we call “optimistic” a drop of 3.1%. But moving right along…)
Cline sends his survey to dive stores by email. Some of them answer. Most don’t. Just like in any poll. In this case, I presume the ones who care to respond are the most successful dive centers.
We’ve noticed the same “positive” bias in our own scuba market surveys and reports.
Another reason could be that dive store owners and managers answer the survey from the top of their heads, without even really knowing their sales results per category. And they don’t want to look like losers!
I recall when I started my dive store as a part-time hobby while working full-time for CN Rail. I was answering these surveys because I thought I had to do so to receive the results. I didn’t have time to read the instructions. And I was doing that between two meetings at my ‘real job.’ Additionally, the POS system I had in place at the time was an outdated cash register with no database. I couldn’t know in which category my sales were up or down. I was answering blindly, as I ‘felt’ on that day. Today, more local dive shops use computerized POS systems. However, dive shop owners are not known to be very sophisticated in their IT departments.
Either way, it’s up to you to take Cline’s numbers in your planning and budgeting process, if you wish. The trends (up or down) may still be valid even if the numbers are on the optimistic side.
2.5 Data From Dive Center Business Magazine
There’s one source of information about the dive industry that is readily available and free to dive shop owners: Dive Center Business magazine, published by Mark Young. When he analyzes statistics in the dive industry, he is known to be impartial and reliable. His magazine is available, free of charge, to dive center owners in the USA and Canada. Get it and read it!
2.6 Data From Leisure Trends Group
Many years ago, Leisure Trends produced quarterly reports on dive industry sales in US dive centers by compiling data provided directly from the POS (point-of-sale system) of participating dive centers. It didn’t provide a comprehensive assessment of the full size of the dive industry in the USA, but it did help identify trends. Unfortunately, this report ended around 2005.
2.7 Market Data From Outside The Scuba Diving Industry
SFIA and OIA are two non-diving industry associations with valuable data for the dive industry.
SFIA — Sports & Fitness Industry Association
One very reliable source of data on the scuba diving participation rate in the USA is the SFIA (Sports & Fitness Industry Association), formerly the SGMA (Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association).
SFIA provides valuable information on the participation rate and the other activities scuba divers tend to engage in. Once a year, the SFIA (Sports & Fitness Industry Association) publishes an extensive study on Americans’ participation in various activities. They do so in collaboration with seven other sports industry associations, including the Outdoor Industry Association, with which the dive industry should be affiliated. Wouldn’t it be valuable to us all if DEMA were part of this group to provide us with a deeper understanding of the recreational scuba diving, tech diving, snorkeling, and freediving markets? But we prefer playing alone in our little sandbox.
The two main SFIA reports you want are the following:
- Sports, Fitness, and Leisure Activities Topline Participation Report
- Scuba Diving Single Sports Participation Report
Unfortunately, these reports are expensive (for the typical dive store owner)— but much less than the fake dive industry market reports you find promoted online on various websites.
We suggest purchasing them every couple of years or so. It will give you a trend. These reports are quite reliable due to the sample size and the way the surveys are conducted.
OIA — Outdoor Industry Association
You won’t find scuba diving-specific data at the Outdoor Industry Association except for a small mention in their annual Outdoor Participation Report. However, you will develop your knowledge of the outdoor industry, in which the dive industry resides.
For instance, you will see which activities are gaining popularity and what motivates people to participate in them.
If you are serious about managing your dive business as a business more than a hobby, we strongly suggest you go at least once in your life to the Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City. Compare the outdoor industry’s initiatives with those of the dive industry and return with a wealth of ideas! If you have a limited budget, it’s worth skipping the DEMA Show for it, at least once.
2.8 Some Ridiculous Sources of Dive Industry Statistics and Market Data
It is worth noting that a Google search will give you hundreds, if not thousands, of scuba diving industry market reports. Unfortunately, most of them fall in the “fake” category.
It appears to be profitable to utilize random number generators to generate market reports for business executives seeking data.
I’ve covered this topic extensively, here: Warning: Fake Scuba Diving Industry Statistics and Market Research.
3. What Scuba Diving Industry Statistics Are We Missing The Most?
Most of the dive industry data sources we have are focused on profiling the current scuba divers and determining how to reach more of them. That’s what we’ve been doing for years, and the dive industry has been shrinking for years.
Perhaps it’s time we remove our blinders and start looking around. Doing the same thing over and over again will most likely give us the same dismal results.
The three target markets we should study extensively are:
- The soon-to-be non-customers. In the dive industry, we call those “dropouts.” Why are they dropping out? Would they remain active scuba divers if we changed the way we provide products and services in the dive industry? Would they stay if they could experience more consistency in the quality of their experience?
- The refusing non-customers. These are customers who typically fit the profile of our current clients but refuse to take scuba diving. Why? Would they jump in if we were to change the way we provide products and services in the dive industry to make it less focused on c-cards and more on the experience of scuba diving? Can we create more “value” for these people?
- The unexplored non-customers. The way we provide products and services, and the way we market scuba diving, doesn’t attract them, but they could be interested if we were to focus on satisfying them instead of insisting on doing everything the way we’ve always done it.
Ultimately, the discussion is about creating a Blue Ocean Strategy for your dive business. It’s about redefining how scuba diving is delivered to meet the needs of today’s consumers.
It’s about doing things differently if we want different results.
The case of Tryout Scuba, Entry-Level Courses & Drop Out Ratios
We have some extremely vague ideas on the rate of divers dropping out. We also lack a clear understanding of why they are dropping out. Knowing it would help us understand what we are doing wrong so that we can fix it.
Another set of data we are missing: How many “tryout scuba” (e.g., PADI Discover Scuba Diving & SSI Try Scuba) are being done annually around the world, and, especially, how many of these people continue on their underwater journey to get their entry-level diver certification (e.g., PADI & SSI Open Water Diver). I suspect this ratio is quite small.
4. Dive Industry Market Data: Sources of Data & Lack of Data — In Summary
In conclusion, reliable dive industry market data and financial statistics are scarce in the scuba diving industry. Sources of statistics are sparse. None of them is complete. It leads to management by blind fate. When your training agency tells you to jump, you jump! It’s a risky approach to managing a business. Even more so since reliable sources of dive industry news are even scarcer.
There could be a market tsunami heading our way, and we wouldn’t know because those who know don’t want to share their precious information. They would rather see us die (the dive industry is shrinking) than collaborate with anybody else.
However, this is a small industry. Therefore, you can obtain an overview of the dive industry market data from your own experience. Develop good connections in the various major companies selling scuba diving products and services (at the executive level, not your local sales rep). Work on making some sense out of the little scuba diving industry statistics you get from training agencies and dive gear manufacturers. And keep digging! Oh, and, of course, participate in our scuba market surveys.
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