Trip Report: My Experience in a Koh Tao Diving Factory

[stevenl]

Agree with you to a certain extend.

There is one big misunderstanding though.

For everything you need a new card and spending money, while really you are almost not allowed to do anything yourself anymore.

PADI has standards for teaching courses, but does not say you are not allowed to do things, that is the DC interpretation of things.

 

[DevonDiver]

Nothing wrong with business and making money!
But I have the feeling before it was like: I love diving, I make a DC so I can earn my living with the thing I love to do.

I think that, even now, most dive center owners/investors enter the industry with those exact sentiments.

However, the realities of the scuba industry are that it can be exceptionally tough to make a profit. Many scuba businesses go bankrupt - and with that goes people's life savings.

Funnily enough, none of their 'happy customers' appear to help them when that happens....

Scuba is not an industry for the potential 'Donald Trumps' of this world. It IS about making friends, loving your job...and waking up every morning and smiling. That said, any business needs to be run properly - as a commercial enterprise - if it is to survive.

Sadly, the dive centers that go broke quickest, are the ones with the most well-meaning owners :depressed:

Now I have the feeling a lot manager and investor try to make the maximum of money and diving is just the vehicle to do so.

Firstly, what person DOESN'T try and earn the maximum income from their job or business?

How does a dive shop owner explain to his wife or children why they can't afford this or that...because it isn't "in the spirit" of diving etc etc??

When non-diving pros go to their regular jobs on monday to friday....sitting in their offices, shops or factories.... are they ever overcome with such benevolence for their employers and customers that they offer to recieve less wages???

People work in diving because they LOVE diving. Trust me... it is HARD work and LONG hours. The pay/profit is insultingly low. There is NO WAY you would work in the scuba industry unless you had a deep and enduring PASSION for diving.

That said.... scuba pros need to eat and live. Some have families to support. They have to save money for retirement. They have to pay medical insurance, kit maintenance, agency fees, professional development courses etc etc. In short... they also need to earn decent money out of their jobs.

As I said in a previous post - some people believe that the scuba industry should be some sort of beatnik hippy commune where it is ethically wrong for money to change hands. Those people need to wake up and smell the coffee.

 

[lord khram]

You seem to be missing the point a little here devondiver. Most people realise that businesses have to return a profit, like I said before I ran my own for nearly 20 years untill I sold it 3 years ago. But the simple facts are that at most locations in Thailand, there are simply too many DC's already, this is why quite often the new ones find it difficult to establish themselves in the market. This is evident when you constantly see the procession of boats leaving the pier with only a handfull of customers. Nobody forces them to set up in an already saturated market. I see it all too often in Pattaya a new shop appears only to close a few months later, unfortunate for those involved but maybe a little in depth research before entering into such a venture would have been appropriate in some cases, before following a dream.
Also from the point of view of the established shops, when someone has a complaint, instead of rushing out on the defensive all the time they would do well to listen to customers requirements a little more. As we can see from these last few posts there are two from the few of us here that no longer dive with DC's, certainly myself and I dare say h90 would still be diving with DC's if we could get what we wanted.
I dont expect anything for nothing, as most people do I simply expect to pay a fair price for a good service, but am afraid over a number of years my patience ran out, paying good money and leaving feeling cheated for various reasons, so now I and some friends organise our own trips, and believe me there are no hippies in sight.
Primarily this move was not to save money, simply to get what we want. Believe me or not I would much rather simply pay and let someone else do all the work and organisation. Then all these impoverished hard working dive professionals you are talking about would still be making some money from us.
What was the old saying about greed? Something to do with killing a goose??

 

[h90]

I think that, even now, most dive center owners/investors enter the industry with those exact sentiments.

However, the realities of the scuba industry are that it can be exceptionally tough to make a profit. Many scuba businesses go bankrupt - and with that goes people's life savings.

Funnily enough, none of their 'happy customers' appear to help them when that happens....

Scuba is not an industry for the potential 'Donald Trumps' of this world. It IS about making friends, loving your job...and waking up every morning and smiling. That said, any business needs to be run properly - as a commercial enterprise - if it is to survive.

Sadly, the dive centers that go broke quickest, are the ones with the most well-meaning owners :depressed:




Firstly, what person DOESN'T try and earn the maximum income from their job or business?

How does a dive shop owner explain to his wife or children why they can't afford this or that...because it isn't "in the spirit" of diving etc etc??

When non-diving pros go to their regular jobs on monday to friday....sitting in their offices, shops or factories.... are they ever overcome with such benevolence for their employers and customers that they offer to recieve less wages???

People work in diving because they LOVE diving. Trust me... it is HARD work and LONG hours. The pay/profit is insultingly low. There is NO WAY you would work in the scuba industry unless you had a deep and enduring PASSION for diving.

That said.... scuba pros need to eat and live. Some have families to support. They have to save money for retirement. They have to pay medical insurance, kit maintenance, agency fees, professional development courses etc etc. In short... they also need to earn decent money out of their jobs.

As I said in a previous post - some people believe that the scuba industry should be some sort of beatnik hippy commune where it is ethically wrong for money to change hands. Those people need to wake up and smell the coffee.

Well, you are a techn. instructor and I doubt people get techn. instructor without loving it. So I absolutely believe that all is true for you.
But walking in Pattaya or any other tourist spots I see mostly something different. In small shops some Thai lady who has no idea about diving sits there, not the owner.
Or if you have active sale guys they are mostly young "from zero to hero" DM who made all their experience at 3 spots in 60 dives. They are complete PADI clones. Everyone tells you exact the same words. Knowing only what PADI told them, not one word more.
On the Boat of course you mostly find the same DM (also not your dive loving owners).

I am sure there are others like you describe, but at "normal" tourist you just see these shops. And all the shops are virtually the same. You really need to search hard to find any shop which is not a complete clone of the shop nearby.

Most probably that is how it must be. There are a mass of OW diver who dive twice a year at their holidays and you have the Dive Nurses who are dragging them 100 % safe thru the shallow peaceful places.
That brings the money.
LK, me and another 5 customer who have different ideas might not be enough for a DC to live. So the DCs are doing it just right, just LK and me are kind of Dinosaurs who want something different.....

 

[JonJonboo]

I have had the Koh Tao dive experience, what the OP posted is true and as many tourist divers have posted here on Scubaboard the same negative experiences are ALWAYS attacked by the staf of Thai dive op so called "professionals" Listen to what customers are saying and perhaps your buisness may be more profitable, return customers is what makes a buisness sucessful. Attacking their every post does not.

 

[lord khram]

I have had the Koh Tao dive experience, what the OP posted is true and as many tourist divers have posted here on Scubaboard the same negative experiences are ALWAYS attacked by the staf of Thai dive op so called "professionals" Listen to what customers are saying and perhaps your buisness may be more profitable, return customers is what makes a buisness sucessful. Attacking their every post does not.

Couldn't have put it better myself.
And I must say that it does seem to be the same faces that reappear and go on the defensive every time there is a negative report on the Thailand forums.

 

[DevonDiver]

Listen to what customers are saying and perhaps your buisness may be more profitable, return customers is what makes a buisness sucessful. Attacking their every post does not.

Who said that the dive centers weren't profitable? Koh Tao (a tiny 8km island) supports over 50 thriving dive centers and is responsible for more PADI certifications than the rest of Thailand combined. It has a thriving tech diving community and is a primary 'stop off' on the backpacker trail through Asia.

People often criticise McDonalds... low quality food, poor service etc. But McDonalds is hardly unprofitable. It undertands the market well and targets a focused niche. It doesn't try or pretend to be something it is not. The same is true for the dive market on Koh Tao.

The OPs criticism was misplaced and showed ignorance of the scuba market. He wanted to tear apart McDonalds for not offering 'a la carte' Michelin star food. He wanted a $10k Toyota to perform like a $100k Ferrari.

Koh Tao is what it is.

Good, friendly, affordable budget tropical diving, with an excellent vibe, and dive community atmosphere island-wide. It is not trying to compete with the service standards of a 5* Sandals dive resort. Neither does it claim the amazing critter experiences of Borneo, Philippines or Indonesia.

There is not many places in the world where you can do an OW certification for $260 dollars.. and have a chance to see whale sharks on your certifying dives.

 

[theaustriandiver]

I guess the quote would be ban Ban's. ;-)
Big is not always beautiful, at least not on a Dive boat.
Safe dive