Putting aside some of the usual and customary cynical commentary about PADI's business image, it occurs to me that what we are seeing in some of the comments about travel is not unlike the debates about online retailers vs brick and mortar shops. Some shops whine that their business is being damaged by online vendors, yet many shops have continued to thrive, because those shops adapted their business models to the changing reality, and customers who value personal service continue to patronize them. Yes, there has been a decline in the total number of dive shops in operation in the US over the past several decades, but I have some trouble attributing that to online sales as much as to inefficient business practices and management.
Some divers are going to opt for the cheapest available option - for gear, for travel, for training, whatever. That's their choice, more power to them. If PADI is somehow, with its travel program, pulling those customers away from a shop because it is offering less costly options, or better service at the same cost (I am not sure that either is the case, just using this as a 'what if example'), chances are some other entity would eventually do that as well. I still don't have a reasonable answer to my earlier question - exactly what action has PADI taken to 'cut the throats of its affiliated dive shops'? I understand the heresay - what some shops are supposedly saying. I am just not understanding why a PADI travel initiative is going to harm a successful shop. As boulderjohn said
boulderjohn:
If PADI travel is creating competition for dive travel, then that competition will exist regardless of your shop's affiliation. As someone from that shop said, their customer base for travel likes the personal touch they provide, and he does not think they will lose many of those customers.
So, what is it about the travel program, per se, that does irrevocable harm? Is the concern about the travel program similarly uninformed as was the initial reaction to PADI eLearning? Just asking here, because I really don't 'get' the concern.
boulderjohn:
I recently got an explanation of their thinking on this issue. When they send in the certification information for a new diver, they are sending in the contact information for that individual. That individual is a potential travel customer for them, but that individual will be getting direct travel solicitations from PADI now that they are in the travel business.
But, IF on the certification 'paperwork' - paper or electronic - the instructor checks the box that says the certified diver does NOT wish to receive solicitations from PADI, that shouldn't happen (the diver getting direct travel solicitations from PADI), should it?
If a shop has an active travel program, and suffers considerable loss in business because of the PADI travel initiative, perhaps that shop should be looking at their travel business model, not whining about PADI, or changing agency affiliations out of spite.
Now, as a PADI member, and as an Instructor who works for two shops with active travel programs, I am having some difficulty seeing how PADI's move into travel business somehow irreparably harms shops. Both shops with which I am affiliated - which are PADI-only shops - continue to sell out their trips, yet continue to have a good relationship with PADI, and maintain their price structure for travel, etc. Both shops continue to sell gear, irrespective of the availability of online gear sales.
I don't have a dog in this fight, even as a PADI Instructor. What a shop in Colorado does or does not do will not directly impact me. But, I am always anxious to learn, and maybe there is something in the PADI travel initiative that should concern me. I just can't figure out what that is, and ask the questions not to criticize or defend PADI, rather to understand what is actually taking place.
