Yet... it is.
Back to you.
But seriously, a liveaboard boat is not just an infinitesimally small sample... it's a terribly skewed sample.
Perhaps I didn't explain my thinking correctly as to why I DON'T think this liveaboard example is skewed. It it had been a Hard core boat in say Truk or the Glapagos then I would agree.
This Boat was a welcome all in that there were no restrictions and minimum quals, hence you had people learning their OW Some experienced people and one technical instructor (buddying his less experienced father on a vacation) We ourselves just cohose it as it was a last minute getaway rather than a focused trip. But I digress
First of all it was truely International, While I was on it we had 3 stos for changing passengers. Every time you got a new set on the make up was generally the same with 50% being mainland Europe 25% being UK and 25% being from the continental US.
The point I was trying to get across was that I feel this provides a good snapshot of vacation divers, who I believe make up the vast proportion of divers. In teh world of vacation divign you might only make 20 dives per year or every other year. Someone having greater than 100 dives is the exception rather than the rule.
If I were to give a really skewed example I could use my local club as an example thus
1. Constant membership of 100 regular divers (those who pay the extra fee for the diving membership rather than social etc
2. Out of that 100, we have 20 rebreather divers
3. we have a "technical" side with around 50 whole have completed the technical training to visit sites greater than 40m depth.
4. 50% of our membership are instructors.
5. Less than 25% are still at AoW standard (all our sites are deeper than OW certification hence all divers new to the club are encouraged to get their AoW as soon as possible)
6 Everyone is Nitrox, everyone carrys DSMB's 50% hold a Partial pressure Nitrox blending cert, 15% are Royal Yacht Association certified Boat handlers ...
7. Over 50% dive wings
And so on
Our Location makes it skewed - with most people having lived in the Middle East for some time, those in more conservative countries have had little more to do than dive and get Quals. The majority have a disposable income such that saving to buy a rebreather is no big deal for instance (not that many do)
As you can see not even a representative sample of a diving club let alone divers as a whole.
Back to my original point. I think the vast majority of divers are people whole dive only on vacation, I'm sure a lot stop when they have a family and can't afford overseas vacations some get back into it when finanaces improve, people consider themself "experienced" once they completed a few vacations. Very few continue it if they don't have a diving partner or spouse. Perhaps thats where the marketing should focus on, get more females into diving and make it sexy - make LDS more of a friendly place to visit rather than guys chatting about geeky diving stuff.
Take my wife as an example. She's very experienced with over 600 dives. She started diving and gave up when she had her children and then restarted. She wants to dive to see pretty things or big things, She's not interested in SAC rates or any of the more technical aspects. She dives her gear and it works, the only modifications she has is if she finds a pink item (hose, fins, mask , webbing etc) She wouldn't go to a Dive shop to browse or chat Where as I will pop in to the shop to chat up and see if they have some wiget that I haven't got whether I need it or not!
---------- Post added December 8th, 2014 at 09:56 AM ----------
Maybe in the spirit of big game hunting, spear fishing-focused live-aboards to travel the seas hunting a range of exotic species to prepare & eat on the boat fresh? Prizes for biggest or most unusual catch? Killing wildlife isn't all that politically correct, and I don't know whether spear hunters have any interest in tourist hunting, so I'm just using this as an example whereby perhaps a niche player could do well for awhile.
Richard.
Or you could go the other way with the younger generation being more envionmentally aware have more Eco focused trips with people seeing Coral damage, teh results on non sustainable fishing litter on the sea bed etc etc Perhaps thats another niche?
---------- Post added December 8th, 2014 at 10:11 AM ----------
As for live-aboards, I wonder how booked up the ones in the Caribbean stay, and to what extent they need to offer cheap specials to book up? I'm curious as to whether the live-aboard market in this region has better, or worse, market growth potential?
Richard.
Interesting comment and my
perception is this:-
When I was younger and growing up in the the UK a forigen holiday was rare and normally ment going to Spain. People who went to the Caribbean were viewed as wealthy. Fast forward to the 90's and The US and Caribbean were more accessable. Now it seems with the advent of cheaper airflights, more travel programmes and the Internet, people (from Europe) see SE Asia as a more inviting and exciting destination, normally cheaper too! That said some of my friend with Small families would still choose an All inclusive resort in the Caribbean rather than SE Asia as they want some luxury and "civilisation" and percieved safety and security
But of course it depends where you live. For me in Dubai the Caribbean doesn't offer anything to justify the long plane journey, indeed the Maldives are a 4 hr hop thus a long weekend, SE Asia only 7 hrs amd micronesia and the coral Triangal the same distance time wise as theCaribbean.
I'm certain that holiday destinations suffer from being fashionable and when they become too popular people chose to go somewhere else.
Certainly if I use a UK search engine for Diving Liveablords (just typed it in) then the Red Sea is at the top, then Asia, Austrailia - only on Page 3 did the caribbean appear...
