Nightmare Marketing Problem Killing Florida Dive Industry--Any Suggestions?

[FloridaScubaNews]

Misunderstanding Killing Dive Industry in Florida, not the Oil Spill

As is so often the case, the greatest damage to Florida’s dive industry is not coming from the outpouring of oil from the Deepwater Horizon site, but rather from a misunderstanding of how this tragedy has affected the Sunshine State and may continue to do so in the future. More…

Oil, Oil, Everywhere! (Well, Actually, No...) | Florida Scuba News... scubanews.com

 

[ScubaSteve]

The sad thing is you have some of your own "dive professionals" on here (ScubaBoard) trying get the hype going and starting threads about it.

 

[mike_s]

Misunderstanding Killing Dive Industry in Florida, not the Oil Spill

As is so often the case, the greatest damage to Florida’s dive industry is not coming from the outpouring of oil from the Deepwater Horizon site, but rather from a misunderstanding of how this tragedy has affected the Sunshine State and may continue to do so in the future. More…

Oil, Oil, Everywhere! (Well, Actually, No...) | Florida Scuba News... scubanews.com

Well the national news media is swarming on the beaches trying to video any drop of oil that comes ashore. it's coming ashore in Florida in bits now.... but a month ago they did the same thing and made it seem like "all the beaches" (Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana) had oil on them.

I just spent 10 days in the FL panahandle last month. NO OIL. No smell of oil. but people were panic'd about it. the condo's were EMPTY. All this because the national news media was sensationalizing.

These empty condo's mean owners have problems making payments, housekeepers get cut back as does the rest of the staff. Restaurant workers get less tables to work. and every other industry there. Cities get less tax revenue.

reservations are getting canceled like crazy.


But for the folks that do go down, they get dissappointed also that when they get there the dive boats are sitting in port and not running charters, but taking the "BP Boat of Opportunity" payment. So it's frustrating for the people who don't cancel their reservations but still can't dive when they get there. This is when the water was still crystal clear at the time.... oh well.


The sad thing is that this could have all been prevented if BP had followed the rules and tested the blow out preventor.

 

[Wolfling68]

And of course, FL has an east coast as well...........Is the diving on the east coast going to pick up because of the west coast issues????

and I do not know about the dive sites, but the pics and videos of the beaches look pristine

 

[ReefHound]

Well yeah, but people have to book condos and plan vacations weeks if not months ahead of time. And no one knows what conditions will be like tomorrow, much less next week or next month. People can't wake up one morning, see someone has posted on Scubaboard that there is no oil on the beach, and decide to beam themselves to Destin that day.

When your economy is dependent on tourism you have to take the bad with the good. I'm sure Florida didn't mind the extra tourism boost when people avoided Mexico due to swine flu, for example. Maybe this is the year that East and West coast destinations to get a tourism boost?

 

[Hetland]

Misunderstanding Killing Dive Industry in Florida, not the Oil Spill

As is so often the case, the greatest damage to Florida’s dive industry is not coming from the outpouring of oil from the Deepwater Horizon site, but rather from a misunderstanding of how this tragedy has affected the Sunshine State and may continue to do so in the future. More…

Oil, Oil, Everywhere! (Well, Actually, No...) | Florida Scuba News... scubanews.com

Are you talking about the panhandle? The person who wrote that article references the beaches being mostly clear. If he's having trouble finding oil, he needs to go a few miles offshore, where the best diving is (was). Maybe he'll get lucky and be able to dodge the slicks enough to find water that's clear and clean, but he won't be able to spearfish.

The sad thing is you have some of your own "dive professionals" on here (ScubaBoard) trying get the hype going and starting threads about it.

"Dive professionals" are not intentionally chasing their own business away, they're being honest and responsible service providers. Just because you don't see tar balls on the beach doesn't mean you won't be scraping crude off your boat after a day of diving.

Which is better, sugarcoating the situation and having someone come down to spend thousands of dollars on a crap dive, or being honest about a situation and having those same people remember you when things improve? A tourist will never, ever forget a terrible trip, and will likely tell his/her friends and family about it too.

And while the beaches are relatively easy to clean, you still have stuff like this: Lots of sharks, lots of oil seen off Bon Secour (with video) | al.com that may not affect a beach-goer, but sure as hell will affect scuba divers. (yes, I know this is Alabama, but my point stands)

 

[mike_s]

"Dive professionals" are not intentionally chasing their own business away,

Actually I think Steve's post is basically about one person and a thread they started here about oil in the keys about a month ago with "half assed information" and on real facts. I think his comment included a lot of sarcasm, but you'd have to know what he was talking about to get it.

I don't think he was bashing anything of the panhandle operators.....

 

[Hetland]

Actually I think Steve's post is basically about one person and a thread they started here about oil in the keys about a month ago with "half assed information" and on real facts. I think his comment included a lot of sarcasm, but you'd have to know what he was talking about to get it.

I don't think he was bashing anything of the panhandle operators.....

Ahh, thanks for straightening me out. I missed the Keys post.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

If this is about the keys... perhaps the appropriate forum would be a better place for this post?

 

[mike_s]

If this is about the keys... perhaps the appropriate forum would be a better place for this post?

At first I thought that FL Scuba news had mistakinly put this in the wrong forum. but right now the oil spill is affecting the panhandle areas ( FL , Bama, Miss, and of course Louisiana) a lot worse than the rest of Florida, so I think this is the right forum.


Steve's comment didn't mention the keys, even though he was referring to a thread about the keys where the "crying wolf" about the oil was being posted. (even if he didn't state which thread it was).

I have no issue with the thread being moved,.... however, I think the current "problem area" is the one geographically covered by the Deep Dixie Diver forum.