Dema show???

[mdb]

Widget: I do not know the copyright rules on the Cline report. I did note that total response was 267, hardly any real indication of the total world wide dive market. So, according to the Cline report, 148 respondents indicate they will attend this years DEMA.

With many major manufacturers showing with very small display space it would seem to validate your thoughts on how relevant the show is for the equipment industry.

 

[Leadking]

Ask Bill if you can post the link!

 

[widget]

Widget: I do not know the copyright rules on the Cline report. I did note that total response was 267, hardly any real indication of the total world wide dive market. So, according to the Cline report, 148 respondents indicate they will attend this years DEMA.

With many major manufacturers showing with very small display space it would seem to validate your thoughts on how relevant the show is for the equipment industry.

Yes, I do agree mdb, its a very small sample selection, so I am not sure if it has much weight either.

It would be interesting to know the "Demographic feet count" through the doors at Dema this year, I am thinking it will be overwhelmingly in favour of the travel industry.

 

[BubbaG]

Is this show appropriate for new divers?

 

[cerich]

Is this show appropriate for new divers?

genrally no, it's a industry show. lots of cool stuff but aimed at the industry. There are quite a few regional shows that certainly are more geared that way

 

[widget]

I just thought some people may find it interesting that I have just yesterday returned from two weeks in Asia and Europe visiting manufacturers to finalise our 2010 product and orders, and speaking to them I was quite alarmed to hear how badly the industry is doing world wide and how, honestly, most of them can simply not afford to attend Dema anymore.

Of the four Asian manufacturers I visited only 2 will attend, and both said had they not paid a deposit they were not keen to forfeit, they would not attend. I visited two manufacturers in Europe, and only one will attend with a skeleton staff compliment and a reduced stand size, they feel they cant justify the cost with sales.

The feeling I got was the USA market, which for most of them was very big, was severely hit by the recession, and sales to this market have plummeted between 50% & 60% especially in the scuba lines (regulators, bc's etc).

Most of the manufacturers (if they are to be believed) are saying they are down between 40% & 50% on OVERALL sales since the start of the meltdown.

Worringly, some of them are saying, if things dont improve, they dont see a future past 12-18 months, and even if things do improve, few are confident the market will ever recover to pre 2006 level, which can only mean further attrition in the market.

I dont want to be all gloomy, but I have to say I was alarmed, none of them had a good summer season and with the Northern hemisphere (their biggest market) winter about to start, sales are expected to fall further in the normal seasonal cycle, but there is no "fat" anymore, and I honestly found there was not a lot of optimism around either.

 

[cerich]

I just though some people may find it interesting that I have just yesterday returned from two weeks in Asia and Europe visiting manufacturers to finalise our 2010 product and orders, and speaking to them I was quite alarmed to hear how badly the industry is doing world wide and how, honestly, most of them can simply not afford to attend Dema anymore.

Of the four Asian manufacturers I visited only 2 will attend, and both said had they not paid a deposit they were not keen to forfeit, they would not attend. I visited two manufacturers in Europe, and only one will attend with a skeleton staff compliment and a reduced stand size, they feel they cant justify the cost with sales.

The feeling I got was the USA market, which for most of them was very big, was severely hit by the recession, and sales to this market have plummeted between 50% & 60% especially in the scuba lines (regulators, bc's etc).

Most of the manufacturers (if they are to be believed) are saying they are down between 40% & 50% on OVERALL sales since the start of the meltdown.

Worringly, some of them are saying, if things dont improve, they dont see a future past 12-18 months, and even if things do improve, few are confident the market will ever recover to pre 2006 level, which can only mean further attrition in the market.

I dont want to be all gloomy, but I have to say I was alarmed, none of them had a good sumer season and with the Northern hemisphere (their biggest market) winter about to start, sales are expected to fall further in the normal seasonal cycle, but there is no "fat" anymore, and I honestly found there was not a lot of optimism around either.

hmmm, unfortunatly I agree with their assesment, UNLESS we reinvent the industry. The dive industry is very much underperforming the economy and has been for the last 20 years. That tells me the problem is us...not the economy.

There are a few of us in the industry that are trying to shake the tree, wanna come and join us?

 

[widget]

hmmm, unfortunatly I agree with their assesment, UNLESS we reinvent the industry. The dive industry is very much underperforming the economy and has been for the last 20 years. That tells me the problem is us...not the economy.

There are a few of us in the industry that are trying to shake the tree, wanna come and join us?

- Yes, I agree, I think the new diver entry is down dramatically and lets be real, old divers may buy a new mask or a pair of fins, but a new diver is in the market for everything, from A-Z and this chunk of the market is in serious decline from my understanding.

What to do?. To be honest, I dont know, I have been in this industry for 30 odd years and am getting close to the age of retirement, for me, maybe, its no longer that important, but I fear the Industry / business / sport, I once loved is at a critical crossroad, and I think (as you say) its going to need some serious surgery to prosper again.

 

[Leadking]

- Yes, I agree, I think the new diver entry is down dramatically and lets be real, old divers may buy a new mask or a pair of fins, but a new diver is in the market for everything, from A-Z and this chunk of the market is in serious decline from my understanding.

What to do?. To be honest, I dont know, I have been in this industry for 30 odd years and am getting close to the age of retirement, for me, maybe, its no longer that important, but I fear the Industry / business / sport, I once loved is at a critical crossroad, and I think (as you say) its going to need some serious surgery to prosper again.

Having been involved in the diving industry for over 30 years, the best proposal that I have seen is the "Ships to Reefs" program. Every time a new ship goes down there is a huge amount of publicity and interest by both the general public and divers.

If this could be done on a geographically widespread basis through-out the U.S., it may be the shot in the arm we need. The main problem seems to be that the bulk of actual money spent in the industry is in exotic travel and they see this as competition, so don't expect a lot of co-operation from major industry groups.

 

[cerich]

Having been involved in the diving industry for over 30 years, the best proposal that I have seen is the "Ships to Reefs" program. Every time a new ship goes down there is a huge amount of publicity and interest by both the general public and divers.

If this could be done on a geographically widespread basis through-out the U.S., it may be the shot in the arm we need. The main problem seems to be that the bulk of actual money spent in the industry is in exotic travel and they see this as competition, so don't expect a lot of co-operation from major industry groups.

ships to reef is a HUGE plus, and can be done worldwide. WE also need to look carefully at every marketing effort over the last 20 years and acknowledge that whatever we have done it sure hasn't helped! As an industry we have been on a steady downturn, that means we are the problem. With the increase in participation in riskier sports and enviornmental awarness we "should" have been a no brainer for growth...instead we have managed to make diving boring in our efforts. We have managed to under perform as an industry in good times and in bad, even in great economic times showing moderate or flat growth year over year as GDP and population soared! We also made every effort to dumb down divers and in th eprocess dumbed down the industry and alienated the potential consumer base by trying to treat them like morons or worse.

We have to start talking, not sit around and wait for the "big names" to offer solutions, no offense guys, but screw them, we did follow the plan and here is where we sit.

Lee (leadking) is correct, we as a industry are still trying to sell exotic travel in a near depression....anybody wanna hazard a guess how big a industry that will support in this economy? We need to sell the Stayventure, staypedition (my take on staycation) virtually everywhere has local diving that would be the dream of somebody somewhere else. Once we get enough commited local divers having fun the travel stuff starts to take care of itself...in fact it grew on that 30 years ago, not the other way around.

I dare say it is time to re-examine everything we do, start with the idea that our base assumptions on how to have a healthy dive industry are wrong, thus EVERY plan based off those assumptions are also wrong, no matter how logical they appear to be.