Non-Profit Scuba Trips Overseas

What would happen if a scuba group gathered together and endeavored to go on an overseas trip in a non-proft manner? No lining of pockets, no adding anything on top for a profit, no commissions kept.

What would happen if the free spots gained* and the commissions (given by the resort) were funneled back into everyone's price, thus lowering it to a very attractive level?

Now think what would happen if not the usual 15 or 20 divers did this, but 50, 100, or even more. What kind of discounts, perks, and incentives might be offered by the resorts?

Power Scuba aims to find out. We're taking 50 of our members to Cozumel tomorrow and are excited as can be. The resort offered us a great deal. (We did Indonesia last Fall as well.)

It's too late to sign up for this trip, but we have several planned for next year and beyond. (Palau, Exuma, Scapa Flow, Raja Ampat, and many more.) Come see what a SoCal non-profit scuba group can really accomplish when its members come together for the common good.

*Full disclosures stated on every trip event page.

Bill Powers
President, Power Scuba
www.powerscuba.org

Nothing would happen. It's how many of my friends in the UK do trips. We have done trips to Egypt and more recently to the Galapagos, filling boats and splitting the total costs between us.

We are just a bunch of friends, we don't need looking after or an instructor or a DM. I wouldn't take a trip where I paid for someone else.

Bill has done some wonderful things for divers in the San Diego area. If he can extend this to creating reasonably priced trips to international destinations, I say all the more POWER to him! Of course it takes a lot of hard work on the part of the organizers, but Bill has a loyal group of people who make that happen.

Booking 50 to 100 divers at a single facility might bring costs down, but it is a different experience than with a smaller group. The Cozumel trip was listed in another post at around $800 without air. While different packages are not necessarily comparable, if you went on xxx today you could get 7 nights all-inclusive with the standard 2 dives a day for $808, double occupancy. You could also pay around $900.

Comparisons can't be legitmately done unless all the facets, benefits, and perks are taken into account.

Time of year, number of dives, all-inclusive, booze, etc.

We took our hotel's Dema pricing and then lowered the price by channeling the many free spots back into everyone's pricing AND returning to everyone the commission one gets when booking a stay for a group. (12% for group leaders vs 15% for travel agents.)

I'm quite comfortable our no-profit trips will comapare extremely favorably with any dive store or travel agent out there... and will compare at least equally with other dive groups with a similar model.

The point of my original post is that our community is unundated with trips put on by shops, travel agents, and individuals intent on making a profit. While that's indeed their "business' to do as they will, there are alternatives. Co-ops and groups such as ours can bring the price down to a level affordable to most people. Despite what the above posters might state, it simply isn't done that way all that often.

Bill

PS- And if Fionab thinks a resort wouldn't extend extra perks to a group of 100 or 150 (vs a group of 15) then he's simply not open to the true possibilities.

Fionab is a she not a he. Frankly I didn't understand the point of your post in the first place. So stated what basis I only book trips under. I have never paid a dive shop a premium for their organisational abilities.


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- Fiona