DevonDiver
N/A
My question still stands. Given the factors that you have listed, what is the business model that will succeed where the diving community doesn't "suffer" as you put it??
A bleak outlook: Increasing agency costs, plus reduction of retail opportunity due to online mass-sellers will make small-medium sized dive operations untenable. Only large-very large dive centres have the price-breaks and retail clout to compete. Dive centres get bigger, selling cheap uninvolved scuba courses based on high student turn-over and large course sizes.
Baseline truths:
Online sellers are cheap because they have lower overheads (no showroom) and bulk purchase deals with manufacturers. Only large dive centres could match that, especially if they wish to stock from multiple manufacturers.
Agency costs ('main' agencies) decrease based on dive centre turn-over. Every effort is made by such agencies to create bigger, busier dive centres that offer quicker, cheaper courses to more people. An anathema to quality.
Add to that the development on eLearning schemes - there is a rapidly diminishing necessity for dive operations, with increasingly more customer cash being diverted straight to the 'big guys' (agencies).
Shops and instructors that attempt to focus on quality, variety and promote genuine relationships with customers are likely to find the business climate increasingly stifling. Those providers would most likely switch allegiance to minority agency/equipment suppliers that fitted with their goals and ethics. They would have to be content with a tiny minority share of the scuba market: appealing to customers who recognize that quality costs and are prepared to pay more for a higher level of service.
From my own perspective, given the changing market, I am quite happy being an independent instructor. I don't have the overheads of running a facility as I am increasingly less likely to require a classroom or showroom. I charter boat spaces for my needs and those charters provide tanks. I don't do retail, because I can't compete with online sellers. The downside is that my courses cost more - but that is balanced against the low instructor-student ratio and the dramatically increased customer-care I am incentivised to provide as an independent.