Anilao Dive Rates

[rhadamantus]

perhaps... less traffic of divers during weekdays help keep anilao's dive sites to how they are now...

 

[clgsamson]

hehe "lonely divers" he said....

 

[shugar]

Thanks for your feedback. I am not out to get anyone too. I am just wondering why Anilao is so different (in terms of pricing) from the rest of the world.

why does it have to be the same? in which case we might as well charge $50 a boat dive so it will be at par with mexico... or $100/ dive just like the GBR...

You will have to dive with what ever group is there at the resort because the resort will only get the appropriate number of boats for the divers available. Like everywhere else around the world... you dive with who ever is diving.

ummm... would you want to be forced to dive with "whoever is diving?"... this doesn't guarantee increase in sales... and anilao isn't the place where you can go "oh, crap, cosme is on that boat? i'll walk down the beach to another op where toink or cosme don't dive". That's cattleboating...

Well... for starters... It is physically impossible to load 25 fully geared divers in the boat. hihihihihi. What will stop them you ask?... Resort policies will stop them from over loading. Simple. The resort themselves can police the number of people per boat.

You are right. A resort can cram as many divers into one boat. But I don't think they will do that if they are after the comfort an welfare of their guests. I would not go to a resort that will sacrifice my safety... would you?

at this point yes you get a choice - safety and all that - but when the bigger boats start appearing (w/ capacity for 15 comfy divers) or all the small resorts start cattleboating then you'll start to see the problem...

why is boracay mandarin more expensive than boracay courtyard? they're in the same area and use the feature the same beach? extrapolate that into dive ops... big ops will be able to charge a premium for their "luxuries" like small-capacity boats... the smaller operation will have no choice but to offer budget divers ****ty conditions like cattleboats and small towels...

There is a proper way to explain the ceiling to resort operators. One can say that this ceiling is in the interest of safety and ultimately for the long term benefit of Anilao. Prices do not have to go up. 700 or 800 peso per dive per person is more than enough to keep all service suppliers happy as long as there are 5 divers (max of 6 including DM) on the boat. If more than 5 divers... resort has to get another boat and its resort's problem to try and ensure they have 5 paying divers.

so why don't the resorts just raise their per-diver rate to P700 and continue as always? why the set rate but still with a boat cap? it's not even safety or comfort because those are fairly easily handled - as it is you can fit 8 divers in a typical anilao bangka for a 1-tank dive... maybe even 10 divers...

and again you're assuming "more than enough to keep all service suppliers happy as long as there are 5 divers"... eh if there are not enough divers? what if there is 1 diver on a monday morning? who shoulders the expense for gas?

or the divers at the resort are composed of a diver with a camera who wants to shoot beatriz and a small group of 3 OW noobs who couldn't tell a tube worm from a pipefish... i don't think either will have fun with the other... so 2 boats...

I am not assuming that there will be boatloads of people immediately. It will slow burn... but once news catches on that the prices of diving in Anilao are now fixed (reasonable) then more and more people will come (tourists). Then I hope there will be boatloads of people on weekdays. Yes! Anilao should compete with the rest of the world. Anilao has world class dive sites. Anilao has world class DM. If Anilao has anything not world-class then they will have to improve it and make it world class. This will be to everyone's benefit.

what if the computations for a fixed rate are not reasonable? your 700-800 is a best-case scenario where 5 divers will fill a boat everyday... so where are your contingencies for zero-guest days and typhoons? so you add a few pesos here and there... before you know it, it's P1,000 to dive and at that rate i can demand a solo boat for myself (because i can get that on a weekday in PG or boracay)

sure anilao can compete but it's a question of infrastructure not rates... roads, access, internet, phone lines, professional services, high-end bora-style accommodations, small italian pizza restos, and what nots...

and "world class" does not benefit "everyone"... ask the locals who have been unable to swim in their very own boracay because now it's just too damn expensive... ask the filipino-owned dive op on verde island that was just shut down because a big shiny operation is being set up to cater to japanese tourists... ask the simple low-cost-but-homey resort owner who will have to shut down or kill himself with debt just to keep up with the ayala money of solana, john wee money of scubarworld or god-knows-from-where money of mayumi...

personally if anilao is going to sprout a whole shoreline of resorts like the one beyond mainit - no thank you - that's what boracay is there for, for people who want to spend money in posh style...

plus: i don't know if you've noticed how diving is starting to become popular - and an option - to upper middle class individuals. it's democratization. 20-something call center kids are going into diving... lowly college professors are going into diving... entrepreneurs with ok businesses are going into diving...

it's no longer the realm of old-money spanish mestizos or chinese tycoons with compounded poly-syllabic family names

the hundred-or-so pesos i save on a dive trip by being able to customize my dives equates to the following:
food for the trip
i can tip the DM/ boatmen
i don't have to work 80-hour weeks to be able to dive 1 day
i can do 1 more dive for the day para sulit ang byahe
i can get a beer with my buds after the dive

then locals can come up with tricycles or pedicabs. More business opportunity for them. I am sure infrastructure should be and will be improved when the local government sees that there is a need for it because of the increasing number of tourists.

this must be done simultaneously - not reactively - everything will have to be built-up simultaneously if not everyone will have to wait till the roads get done, w/c won't be done till there's business booming, w/c can't happen because it's hard to get to... and sadly that takes money that many businesses in anilao can't afford

Agree that they will need to advertise. Advertising need not be expensive. Advertising on the net is not expensive at all. Resorts will now have to get off their asses and start getting creative and find ways to promote without costing too much. It can be done. It is not easy... but it can be done at an affordable manner.

at the level you're looking at they'll never prosper with simple web advertising... no way. there are too many businesses vying for too little eyeballs (how often have you clicked a google ad?)... web advertising does generate biz, but at the levels you need to sustain fixed-rate anilao then you need to invest in print advertising that hits your target market. both local and international... why do you think el galleon makes a brisk business w/o caring how many people are on SB? because they pay for print... and that costs

and if the 100+ resorts/ ops on anilao all want in on the big bucks then they'll all have to compete on limited print outlets... driving advertising costs up and beyond small ops reaches

I guess its just in my character to try and improve things especially when I think something is wrong with it. Anilao system SEEMS to work. That is the crux. It SEEMS to work but not in reality. It gets by... but it does not excel. Just on this thread alone... there are people who expressed why they don't go to Anilao because of the confusing rates. It is a problem that we can ignore or refuse to acknowledge because we have friends to dive with and we are used to it. But if Anilao is really interested in moving forward and really becoming a tourist destination, then they should take care of their present clientele better and expand their market by not neglecting the other people (tourists) that want to go but are turned off.

You are also right... there is no immediate need to fix it. We can dive every weekend with our regular buddies. We are content with everything. We see Anilao on weekends and forget about it on weekdays. Anilao can take their time... meanwhile tourists are going somewhere else.

.

look i'll leave it at that...

unless you own a resort and are looking at cashing in big time it's not like anything we bicker about here will affect the near future...

on the other hand - talk to your home resort - try to convince them to go with a fixed-but-affordable rate... you never know... they might be able to start a trend and change the paradigm of the anilao business model...

it might drive solana's prime rates down?

it might generate more weekday divers to defray what losses are incurred in the initial part?

it might even give birth to alternative business models - like resorts sharing boats or smaller ops outsourcing tanks and other supplies to lessen their overheads?

and if it happens - we'll support it... after all for the most part we'll go were the diving is good... with all the perks we have become accustomed to.

Jag

 

[shugar]

hehe "lonely divers" he said....

nothing a jar of mayonnaise and one of pak's DVDs won't solve...



Jag

 

[rhadamantus]

never tried mayonnaise before......

 

[clgsamson]

unsalted...

 

[rhadamantus]

but not for long, i would assume.....

 

[shugar]

never tried mayonnaise before......

poor zee.......... :l:

Jag

 

[clgsamson]

others' low budget activity use Colgate....

 

[chip104]

why does it have to be the same? in which case we might as well charge $50 a boat dive so it will be at par with mexico... or $100/ dive just like the GBR...



ummm... would you want to be forced to dive with "whoever is diving?"... this doesn't guarantee increase in sales... and anilao isn't the place where you can go "oh, crap, cosme is on that boat? i'll walk down the beach to another op where toink or cosme don't dive". That's cattleboating...



at this point yes you get a choice - safety and all that - but when the bigger boats start appearing (w/ capacity for 15 comfy divers) or all the small resorts start cattleboating then you'll start to see the problem...

why is boracay mandarin more expensive than boracay courtyard? they're in the same area and use the feature the same beach? extrapolate that into dive ops... big ops will be able to charge a premium for their "luxuries" like small-capacity boats... the smaller operation will have no choice but to offer budget divers ****ty conditions like cattleboats and small towels...



so why don't the resorts just raise their per-diver rate to P700 and continue as always? why the set rate but still with a boat cap? it's not even safety or comfort because those are fairly easily handled - as it is you can fit 8 divers in a typical anilao bangka for a 1-tank dive... maybe even 10 divers...

and again you're assuming "more than enough to keep all service suppliers happy as long as there are 5 divers"... eh if there are not enough divers? what if there is 1 diver on a monday morning? who shoulders the expense for gas?

or the divers at the resort are composed of a diver with a camera who wants to shoot beatriz and a small group of 3 OW noobs who couldn't tell a tube worm from a pipefish... i don't think either will have fun with the other... so 2 boats...



what if the computations for a fixed rate are not reasonable? your 700-800 is a best-case scenario where 5 divers will fill a boat everyday... so where are your contingencies for zero-guest days and typhoons? so you add a few pesos here and there... before you know it, it's P1,000 to dive and at that rate i can demand a solo boat for myself (because i can get that on a weekday in PG or boracay)

sure anilao can compete but it's a question of infrastructure not rates... roads, access, internet, phone lines, professional services, high-end bora-style accommodations, small italian pizza restos, and what nots...

and "world class" does not benefit "everyone"... ask the locals who have been unable to swim in their very own boracay because now it's just too damn expensive... ask the filipino-owned dive op on verde island that was just shut down because a big shiny operation is being set up to cater to japanese tourists... ask the simple low-cost-but-homey resort owner who will have to shut down or kill himself with debt just to keep up with the ayala money of solana, john wee money of scubarworld or god-knows-from-where money of mayumi...

personally if anilao is going to sprout a whole shoreline of resorts like the one beyond mainit - no thank you - that's what boracay is there for, for people who want to spend money in posh style...

plus: i don't know if you've noticed how diving is starting to become popular - and an option - to upper middle class individuals. it's democratization. 20-something call center kids are going into diving... lowly college professors are going into diving... entrepreneurs with ok businesses are going into diving...

it's no longer the realm of old-money spanish mestizos or chinese tycoons with compounded poly-syllabic family names

the hundred-or-so pesos i save on a dive trip by being able to customize my dives equates to the following:
food for the trip
i can tip the DM/ boatmen
i don't have to work 80-hour weeks to be able to dive 1 day
i can do 1 more dive for the day para sulit ang byahe
i can get a beer with my buds after the dive



this must be done simultaneously - not reactively - everything will have to be built-up simultaneously if not everyone will have to wait till the roads get done, w/c won't be done till there's business booming, w/c can't happen because it's hard to get to... and sadly that takes money that many businesses in anilao can't afford



at the level you're looking at they'll never prosper with simple web advertising... no way. there are too many businesses vying for too little eyeballs (how often have you clicked a google ad?)... web advertising does generate biz, but at the levels you need to sustain fixed-rate anilao then you need to invest in print advertising that hits your target market. both local and international... why do you think el galleon makes a brisk business w/o caring how many people are on SB? because they pay for print... and that costs

and if the 100+ resorts/ ops on anilao all want in on the big bucks then they'll all have to compete on limited print outlets... driving advertising costs up and beyond small ops reaches



look i'll leave it at that...

unless you own a resort and are looking at cashing in big time it's not like anything we bicker about here will affect the near future...

on the other hand - talk to your home resort - try to convince them to go with a fixed-but-affordable rate... you never know... they might be able to start a trend and change the paradigm of the anilao business model...

it might drive solana's prime rates down?

it might generate more weekday divers to defray what losses are incurred in the initial part?

it might even give birth to alternative business models - like resorts sharing boats or smaller ops outsourcing tanks and other supplies to lessen their overheads?

and if it happens - we'll support it... after all for the most part we'll go were the diving is good... with all the perks we have become accustomed to.

Jag

Minds are like parachutes, jag....I think hanna is being respectful in her view points.