Published
Jan. 25,
2015
潜水行业的5个特征1zplay
Having some experience with the tourism & travel industry as a whole, and beingavid traveller myself - I always find myself analyzing the scuba industry in thecontext of the bigger picture and after some years of this on-going thought process,I feel like I am ready to formalize some of those thoughts.
Below are 5 characteristics of the Scuba Industry that I observed.
#1:低工资
the first thing that I hear across the board is low salaries - for everyone. The dive guides, boat captains, instructors and even the course directors (relatively).
there is a chorus of voicing singing:
"If you want to get into the diving industry, only do it for the passion, and don't expect to earn much from it."
A somewhat average monthly salary of a European Dive Guide on a liveaboard in the Maldives for example is between 500$ and 700$, obviously including accomodation and food. Depending on the boat it may go upto $1000. This is very low, considering that the job requires relatively expensive training aswell as being a difficult & risky job.
In Europe and America, a minimum wage worker is likely to make DOUBLE that amount.
Moreover, I find a lot of times when a dive masterwill work for free,只要给他免费潜水。
Frankly, this whole situation really puzzles me. Why should a waiter earn more than a qualified dive guide?
the 'explanation' I hear over and over again is that most people in the industry do it for the love of the sport.
好吧,如果是这种情况,那么对这项运动的热爱实际上正在损害行业,因为人们无法实现体面的生活。
A perfect analogy is of a tour guide. The average tour guide earns 1.5-2 times what the dive guide earns, without risking his life,
causing damage to his health and generally performing a similar job.
#2: Lack of Permanence
第1点导致了这一点 - 缺乏稳定性。水肺专业人士的平均寿命约为3年,在事物的背景下,寿命非1zplay常短。t
his however is not surprising, since its very difficult to support a family with the wages earned nor afford much. At some point, people begin to question the sustainability of such a lifestyle and change career paths.
the other thing that is noticable is the how quickly dive guides & instructors move from dive centre to dive centre, globe trotting. Essentially, they are travelling and financing the travel with their temporary employment.
问题是,这不是该规则的例外,它几乎是规则。
With the rare exception of some really well established dive shops/liveaboards that hold onto some key staff members for a long time, the dive industry is probably the most non-permanent segment in the travel industry other than waiters perhaps.
# 3: Poor Reservations Protocols
the Scuba Industry has surprisingly bad protocols for booking and is still stuck in the agent model. The airline segment of the industry was the first to evolve into direct bookings killing an entire segment of middle-men. The hotel industry followed suite, with either direct bookings or online travel agents like booking.com or expedia moving in.
the Scuba Industry is by and large still stuck in direct bookings through some primitive manual methods like email + phone + bank transfer.
the other alternative is travel agents that work on a rather old school model, they build relations with certain operators - often ones that give them a high commission rate and market those operators heavily.
there is rarely a standardized booking management system - which auto updates as rooms become unavailable, nor is there a standardized way to set the parameters of each boat to easily compare them.
And finally, most importantly, there is very little user generated content on the websites of these agents. Articles, reviews, photographs etc are all hand picked and place there with the intention of selling it and showing it from the best possible angle.
4. Short Life-Cyle
the lack of permanence in the industry in my opinion stems from the fact that a lot of the professionals simply cannot lead a sustainable and comfortable life style with the wages in the industry. In my opinion one of the main reasons for this relatively low wage rate is caused by the inability to charge higher prices, i.e: the economics of the market.
Usually, prices are lower than 'they should be' in two cases.
Either to gain a competitive edge over competitors, which is usually done in areas where there is a high 'supply' of similar services, OR to have less margin but increasing volume. Often, this is done out of desperation when targetting a 'demand' that is just to low.
the over saturation of Dive Operations in Certain Areas
世界上的一些地方是充溢着Dive Shops/Centres and the competition is so high that it drives the prices even lower. I remember walking through Phi Phi Leh in Thailand and seeing dozens of dive operations crowded next to each other. It was really weird, since you were literally getting pestered while walking by young dive guides trying to entice you with an amazing opportunity to try Scuba Diving.
Small overall market
Other areas have a generally small market for Scuba Diving and dive shops are simply not able to generate enough sales to keep up their operational costs.
他们要么位于非常偏远的地区,要么潜水不足以维持其业务。
Poor Marketing Abilities & Management
大多数潜水1zplay店主或经理在管理企业或营销方面几乎没有背景。
In most cases, dive shop owners are just passionate scuba divers who became instructors - they are well versed with the diving but not the business of diving.
结果,您对库存,现金流不良和几乎不存在的营销的管理不佳。数字营销是最明显的渠道之一but most operators get this wrong.
5. Lack of Unified Standards
this is not to be confused with 'Scuba Diving' standards, i.e: the actual act of Scuba Diving, but rather the process around it, i.e: thehospitality part.
正如我提到的那样,这种区别似乎并不存在,但确实应该。
there needs to be unified standards of assessing the quality offered by a dive centre, PADI has started in the right direction but in my opinion are far from it.
例如,根据PADI的5星潜水中心不一定反映了1zplay操作员的服务水平,而是他们在该设施中至少有一门课程主任并提供了PADI课程。
We need a body that will assess dive operators based on the quality of their service. Quality of the boats they use, the ethics of the dive guides.
Conclusion
the Scuba Industry is still very young, and has a long road ahead of it. Eventually, I would like to see higher quality of service, more quality marketing and better wages.
I would personally rather see fewer operator that have their business in order versus more operators that are barely surviving and cutting corners at every turn.
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timur K2/9/2015 7:52:16 PMAndreas Brill , Eitherway, my point was - the 5* criteria isn't based on their QUALITY but rather in what they offer.
Céline t3/26/2015 10:29:27 AMquote ' We need a body that will assess dive operators based on the quality of their service. Quality of the boats they use, the ethics of the dive guides.' ' I agree entirely and was shocked when I started diving that such a sport does not have standards. Even complaining to Padi does not do any good.
jodie roberts4/26/2015 8:12:13 AM这5分是我们所有人都看到的东西。我很幸运能够在一个没有陷入困境的潜水中心工作 - Sair1zplayee Cottage Diving几乎是整个Koh Tao的唯一潜水中心,它提高了员工的工资,因此使我们忠于他们的忠诚公司,意味着为客户提供更好的服务,并为每个人提供更好的生活质量!
Jodie
http://www.idckohtaothailand.com