So. you have a nice day boat and training out of Hurghada. I don't see doing training in the US as a profitable business, there are already many operators demonstrating that. The best areas for diving already have a plethora of operators. I don't see many of your trainees going to Egypt for their certification dives or a dive vacation. I may be entirely off base and look forward to seeing what you do. I think you may be quite naive. Time will tell.
As an American and literally the only person I personally know who is ever been to Egypt (for any reason), I would reinforce that.
When I tell people I went to Egypt for a scuba trip they look at me like I have three heads. Their usual reaction is something like: “why on earth would you go to Egypt?“ Not because they don’t think of Egypt as a scuba destination, though that is certainly part of it. But mainly because they think of Egypt as a wildly dangerous and uncomfortable place for Americans to go.
Now, I don’t agree with this. Which is why I went to Egypt for a liveaboard! But it’s closer to the truth than many people would like. For example, seeing multiple guards armed with fully automatic weapons moving money from an armored car into a bank is not a typical experience for an American. Having English be no better than the third most common language (behind Arabic and Russian!) is also not comfortable for an American. Having travel to Egypt being marked by the US State department with a level three advisory (reconsider travel) due to terrorism is not comfortable for an American.
So I can tell you that you are already going to be starting at a significant disadvantage. You’re going to have to dig your sales process out of the very deep hole that it will already start in for the average American.
Plus, there’s lots of logistical difficulties. To my knowledge, there are zero direct flights from the United States to Egypt. Every flight I could find required literally an overnight layover in an airport in Europe. Not something most people are going to be willing to do. I ended up taking a flight from Toronto direct to Egypt, but that required me to take a bus from Detroit to Toronto and spend an extra night in Toronto. I enjoyed it as part of the adventure; most people won’t put up with that kind of nonsense.
And if you don’t plan any kind of tie in with your existing Egyptian business, then your business really isn’t going to be any different than any of the other established scuba businesses already here in the United States. Most of which are struggling, and the market seems to be shrinking each day. Maybe you have an established product and process in Egypt that will translate well to the United States. But given the incredibly different economic and political climate, I find that somewhat unlikely. But hey, I’ve been wrong before.
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