Looking for best way to offer FAM trips to Shops..

[danvolker]

I have been working for about 6 months now on creating an entirely new infrastructure in Palm Beach county Fl, in which Dive Vacations become far more spectacular...We have created 3 major Dive Resorts, and in order to showcase how spectacular dive vacations are going to be in Palm Beach from now on, we will be offering FAM ( Familiarization Trips) to Dive Shop owners/Travel coordinators .
This involves the 3 hotels I found to be most ideal in Palm Beach for diving ( the boats agreed with me on this), namely the Hilton on the beach at singer Island, the Delray Beach Marriott, and the Jupiter Beach Resort. This covers the three principle inlets to diving Palm Beach, and the Dive fleets of each inlet. Group RATES for these Dive Resorts are AS LOW AS $120 per night, and can be even lower with booking at the right times.
I created a powerful synergy between the best boats in Palm Beach, and these 3 hotels. Now we have killer packages for Dive travel.....and we will be sending out invitations for FAMS.... But I would like some feedback and suggestions from you guys, if possible.

The basic fam will be free hotel rooms for 4 to 6 days with some free meals....Boats will be a tiny fraction of normal price--we are just establishing this now.. We will need to know that each person we give a fam trip to, actually DOES group dive travel with groups of 10 or more (10 or more rooms per night) ....


What will we be showcasing?

• Diving Palm Beach, why it is world class diving
• What these luxary resorts are like for divers--how well they are catering to us!!
• The special menus they have created for us ( the Hilton actually created a Diver down Cafe menu !) ....entrees priced more around $11 to $13, food quality excellent, quality protein and complex carbs designed into offerings.
• What to do when you are NOT diving..there are NO Dive Destinations in this hemisphere that can compete with Palm Beach when it comes to what to do when not diving--this being HUGE for non-diving family on Group travel
• All groups will be able to use free shuttle vans to get to dive boats and local attractions....if a FAM occurs when we don't have a group in, we can still offer this at the Hilton..the other two not yet( but coming) This means NO RENTAL CAR costs due to shuttle!!!
• Great Dive shops close to hotel
• Free shore diving at the now world famous Blue Heron Bridge Marine Park, spectacular for nudibranchs, octopus, frogfish, sea horses, and dozens of other creatures rare everywhere else.

Please give me some feedback on what dive stores will want to know/need to know....and on any specifics to the FAM I have not mentioned.

 

[Wookie]

Dan, the first thing to do is to become a trade organization member. That gets you the list of all of the other trade organization members, so you can market the dickens out of them. I use DEMA, ymmv.

Something to think about, though. Groups are getting smaller and smaller. Looking to book 10 rooms for a single trip is biting off a whole bunch. Most liveaboard and resorts are creating smaller and smaller packages because dive shops just aren't able to fill 20 spaces consistently. A good group size to shoot for is 6-8.

 

[danvolker]

Dan, the first thing to do is to become a trade organization member. That gets you the list of all of the other trade organization members, so you can market the dickens out of them. I use DEMA, ymmv.

Something to think about, though. Groups are getting smaller and smaller. Looking to book 10 rooms for a single trip is biting off a whole bunch. Most liveaboard and resorts are creating smaller and smaller packages because dive shops just aren't able to fill 20 spaces consistently. A good group size to shoot for is 6-8.

Frank,
If I join DEMA, does the list of other trade organization members include a large block of dive shops?

Thanks.

 

[Wookie]

Frank,
If I join DEMA, does the list of other trade organization members include a large block of dive shops?

Thanks.

I did this about 2 years ago. If I remember right, it includes about 1,000 shops and clubs. Sadly, there is still a tremendous amount of work to do after you get the list. Many of these shops, and a few of the clubs are defunct, so you have to look up the websites, see if they do travel, (It's surprising how many don't), See if they do domestic travel. I limited my search to dive shops east of the Mississippi, who were DEMA members, who had a travel program of some sort. I sent out 400 direct mailings. I got exactly 1 response, BUT I get told at trade shows and things "hey, you were the boat that sent me the postcard, weren't you", so they do remember.

If you're friendly with Brad Nolan, he has a list of shops too.

 

[bjf123]

The basic fam will be free hotel rooms for 4 to 6 days with some free meals....Boats will be a tiny fraction of normal price--we are just establishing this now.. We will need to know that each person we give a fam trip to, actually DOES group dive travel with groups of 10 or more (10 or more rooms per night) ....

Speaking as a shop owner, I think your goal of 10 rooms per trip is a little ambitious. Most of the trips we book tend to max out at 10 - 16 people, or 5 to 8 rooms, with 12 - 14 people seeming to be the norm. Do we occasionally have a trip of 20 or more? Yes, but it's very rare, and then it tends to be our lower priced trips.

Please give me some feedback on what dive stores will want to know/need to know....and on any specifics to the FAM I have not mentioned.

Here are a couple of questions. How many spaces will be required to earn a free spot once you're up and running? If people are flying in, will you provide transfers to and from the airport? Maybe the hotels already provide that, but it's good to know.

 

[Doc]

Dan-

Charge something for the trip. Nothing is worth nothing unless you pay something for it.

It will keep away the pure riff-raff, it will solidify their commitment to show-up, and you can buy them a few extras- maybe pay for a premium item (what my wife calls CPC, meaning cheap plastic crap) or "collateral".

Do not ignore SCUBA dive clubs. In skiing, this is a huge avenue to market penetration. Get at them through their regional council listings.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Getting ten rooms filled is as others have said going to be hard. I'm an independent instructor and club member who is just now looking into setting up some group trips for next year. This year for anything but semi local stuff (4-5 hours driving) is too late. I have students coming up through training and others who already have their big trips planned for this year. And maybe it's just the people I hang with, but a Hilton is not necessary for the way we would like to dive. 4 dives a day, don't need fancy hotel, with good reasonably priced food available. Be able to walk through the lobby in wet clothes with maybe some sand dripping and not feel conspicuous. Have you considered cheaper hotels with a diver feel to them as opposed to some place fancy like a Hilton? The problem is if we have to fly to get to our destination and fill ten rooms Cozumel is cheaper and easier to do. I could likely get a group of 8 plus myself and GF but 20? At this point just not possible. If it were me, I'd look to get smaller groups coming in at great prices with the idea that word of mouth will increase those numbers over time. Blackbeard's at times offers 1 free for 5 booked and at high season 1 free for ten paying. A number of other resorts will offer 1 free spot for every 8-10 individuals. My plan would be to spread that savings around to everyone in the group. But I won't recommend any place I have not been before.

 

[danvolker]

Getting ten rooms filled is as others have said going to be hard. I'm an independent instructor and club member who is just now looking into setting up some group trips for next year. This year for anything but semi local stuff (4-5 hours driving) is too late. I have students coming up through training and others who already have their big trips planned for this year. And maybe it's just the people I hang with, but a Hilton is not necessary for the way we would like to dive. 4 dives a day, don't need fancy hotel, with good reasonably priced food available. Be able to walk through the lobby in wet clothes with maybe some sand dripping and not feel conspicuous. Have you considered cheaper hotels with a diver feel to them as opposed to some place fancy like a Hilton? The problem is if we have to fly to get to our destination and fill ten rooms Cozumel is cheaper and easier to do. I could likely get a group of 8 plus myself and GF but 20? At this point just not possible. If it were me, I'd look to get smaller groups coming in at great prices with the idea that word of mouth will increase those numbers over time. Blackbeard's at times offers 1 free for 5 booked and at high season 1 free for ten paying. A number of other resorts will offer 1 free spot for every 8-10 individuals. My plan would be to spread that savings around to everyone in the group. But I won't recommend any place I have not been before.

Jim,
Thanks for bringing up these issues.
I have a couple of unique "fixes" I think...

I created a dive group creation software, that can be used either by sfdj, or by a shop.....if I am talking to 3 shops, each has 4 "rooms" of divers that would like to take the trip, the software takes all the preferred dates each person in each group would like to go on, and then when it finds a common date range for a threshold number of rooms/divers, it will report out/email the date range and ask for confirmation. It also has each diver put in their preferred thing to see on dives, preferred depths, preferred swimming speed, etc, so we can often customize the trip even more. The big "IF" will be if dive shops or clubs will embrace the technology.....it is quick and easy, and it will allow groups to be created when before the size would have been insufficient for good group rates. If lots of shops ( or divers) began using this , it would be easy to always use the killer rates possible with Group Travel deals, and to get all the extra services Groups can achieve.

The Hilton, for a group, can actually get SFDJ shops summer rates under $100---because THEY WANT to make a big name right away for divers..this is close to $100 per night under their normal rates. They created a special menu for divers, and they have a very neat, indoor/outdoor dining option awesome for divers who are still in wet clothes....it had been used till now by their beachgoing guests swimming and snorkeling and generally requiring an informal place to eat, drink, and relax.

They also have an informal lounge and bar area at night with a big screen lcd TV, that they encourage divers to plug their cameras into ( hdmi) and play back videos or stills on it....when this happens, the non-diving guests of the hotel tend to hang out watching all the dive stuff intently!

Back to prices...at the Hilton you dont need no stinking rental car! There is a shuttle van to take divers to either of the marinas to their dive boats, for free!! It will also take you to any place on singer Island--the mall, Sailfish marina, MacArthur Park ( eco-tourism area for hiking, kayaking, etc) and they will take you to the now famous BHB Marine Park for free shore diving. This is about 800 yards from the Hilton. No rental car saves big money each day, even when compared to the cheap motels!

The cheap hotels ( holiday in express, super 8, etc) were what the boats always used to use....My issue with this, was that the cheap hotels would never be able to really DO ANYTHING for the divers....certainly no free bus, no special menu ( the hilton will even do box lunches dives can pick up at breakfast and take on the boat), the cheap ones wont care to help with the actual diving vacation--the hilton, and the other 2 hotels we have, have made big committment to HELP people get the most out of diving here. If you came, and ended up with a wish list of things you'd like, there would be a meeting on your wish list, and anything possible would be acted on....cheap hotels could not do this.

These three hotels "want" to be DIVE REORTS. THEY "ARE" Dive Resorts now. If you go to Fiji, to the Beqa Lagoon Resort, it will not feel like a super 8 motel..there are many special services just for divers. The 3 Resorts in Palm Beach are pulling out all the stops to accomplish just this kind of atmosphere for divers.

In past years before this "Dive Resort" initiative, the dive boats exclusively used the cheap super 8 style motels.... divers were spread all over, into dozens of these little motels, and never felt like they were at a Dive Resort, and did not feel like they were on an "Ultimate Dive Vacation". Many people are aware that Palm Beach has great diving--compared to anywhere...but few have enjoyed the "resort" side of a vacation here before.....My goal was to change that forever, and to also show divers who have visited in the past, that PAlm Beach has so many dramatically different environments you can dive in--completely different kind of dives, that you would have to dive here for months or years to "really know" Palm Beach diving. And with the software, we plan on helping divers find others with the same interests, and get them diving at the same time...Nudibranch hunters, Frogfish Safaris, Goliath Grouper trips, Intersecting pelagics, rubble zones, weed mats, far more than reasonable to list here.

I can see dive shops bringing their people on Dive Trips to Palm Beach, and having their customers blown away in practically the same manner as what would have occurred had the trips been to Fiji.....this gets the excitement level among shop clients high, gets them talking it up to all of their friends, and should get them wanting a lot more trips...which are actually incredibly affordable.....ultimately, this increased diving activity in the customer base of the shops, SHOULD BE creating a large increase in diver purchases of dive gear and instruction.....And, it should make the "Diving Lifestyle" way better for shop owners and managers

I would personally invite you for one of our FAM Trips right now...The hotel portion is free, I believe the boats are charging about $30 to 40 for the 2 tank dive for fam recipients....they were discussing this just yesterday....

Thanks, and I look forward to your thoughts on what I went over here.

 

[danvolker]

Speaking as a shop owner, I think your goal of 10 rooms per trip is a little ambitious. Most of the trips we book tend to max out at 10 - 16 people, or 5 to 8 rooms, with 12 - 14 people seeming to be the norm. Do we occasionally have a trip of 20 or more? Yes, but it's very rare, and then it tends to be our lower priced trips.
Here are a couple of questions. How many spaces will be required to earn a free spot once you're up and running? If people are flying in, will you provide transfers to and from the airport? Maybe the hotels already provide that, but it's good to know.

Thanks for the ideas. If you read my response to Jim Lapenta, I have a cool solution for the "Group size" issue.....if I can make it easy for you and other shops to qualify for the rates of a ten or more room per night group, the huge increase in extra services possbile, and big reduction in hotel rates should be something that could change dive travel enormously!

As to how many spots for free, I am inclined to suggest we do this on a case by case basis, based on the future relationship we see with anmy dive club or shop. I expect for 10 or more I would have you a free room ( you could have more than one person in it) and a far below wholsale rate on the dive boat. You would not need rental cars, and there will be so much MORE to do when you are not diving, I can guarantee you it will be shocking to you This has big value particularly for the non-diving family or friends that come along as spouses or kids, and actually NEED to have a good time for the whole Dive Vacation concept to be big for you.

There is a shuttle from the airport to the hotel....I will need to find out if it is free or a small per person charge.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Dan, just wanted to get back to you with a quick reply to say thanks for the extra details. Those change things considerably. At work now and no time to get too detailed but will address it later today. But one quick thing. In my area there is a great deal of competetion and little cooperation between shops. Clubs are the best bet but unfortunately many of them are based around shops in SW Pa. Ohio is a completely different story. Lots of cooperation between clubs and real sense of comaraderie. I will get back to later with some contact info you may find useful. Appreciate the FAM offer and may take you up on it at some point but right now I'm going to be at DEMA for the first time this year and that will eat up some time and travel money. I'm going to need to get with you for more info on diving and water temps, conditions, etc. I will also run this by some students in the next couple weeks and see what kind of response I get.