I'm interested in leading dive trips; how do I get started?

[DivingOnMyMind]

I'm a certified Divemaster and have some dive travel experience to Hawaii, Cozumel, and a few other nice destinations. I'm very interested in leading dive trips and I'd like some advice on how to get started.

I'm a member of my local dive club and have a good following on social media so I have some ways to promote trips. My questions are:

1. How do I work with a resort and airline to get a package deal I can pass on to trip participants?
2. How many divers do I need to sign up so that I can go free or at a discounted rate?
3. How far in advance should I announce a trip to make sure I can fill it up?

My local dive shop leads trips to more exotic destinations (like Palau, the Philippines, etc.) and I'm thinking about closer locations like Hawaii and Mexico. I'm definitely not in any kind of competition with them or anyone else; I'd just like to start with some trips that I think I can fill up and manage easily.

Any ideas, advice, and other thoughts are welcomed.

Thanks.

 

[oly5050user]

I'm a certified Divemaster and have some dive travel experience to Hawaii, Cozumel, and a few other nice destinations. I'm very interested in leading dive trips and I'd like some advice on how to get started.

I'm a member of my local dive club and have a good following on social media so I have some ways to promote trips. My questions are:

1. How do I work with a resort and airline to get a package deal I can pass on to trip participants?
2. How many divers do I need to sign up so that I can go free or at a discounted rate?
3. How far in advance should I announce a trip to make sure I can fill it up?

My local dive shop leads trips to more exotic destinations (like Palau, the Philippines, etc.) and I'm thinking about closer locations like Hawaii and Mexico. I'm definitely not in any kind of competition with them or anyone else; I'd just like to start with some trips that I think I can fill up and manage easily.

Any ideas, advice, and other thoughts are welcomed.

Thanks.

To answer your questions..
1. Call them. Be prepared to be responsible for payment even if a participants changes their mind and cancels at last minute. Have liability insurance so if there is an accident and they see you as trip organizer responsible in some way you do not lose your shirt. You can be totally not at fault but can still be sued and lawyers are expensive.
2. Depends on the resort
3.never can be sure a trip fills. Sometimes a month sometimes a year. Depends on location and your reputation of conducting a problem free trip

remember it is not really a free trip. You are expected to be the problem solver for anything that happens. From getting a better room for a unhappy client, dealing with airline cancellations , being financially responsible for any errors on your part. Screw up just a little and that free trip will cost you.
what can you offer that the LDS does not? LDS sends an instructor who can teach and certify on the trip. As a dm you cannot. Have you been to the location enough times to know local spots for activities , restaurants, dive sites?

 

[Doppler]

I'm a certified Divemaster and have some dive travel experience to Hawaii, Cozumel, and a few other nice destinations. I'm very interested in leading dive trips and I'd like some advice on how to get started.

I'm a member of my local dive club and have a good following on social media so I have some ways to promote trips. My questions are:

1. How do I work with a resort and airline to get a package deal I can pass on to trip participants?
2. How many divers do I need to sign up so that I can go free or at a discounted rate?
3. How far in advance should I announce a trip to make sure I can fill it up?

My local dive shop leads trips to more exotic destinations (like Palau, the Philippines, etc.) and I'm thinking about closer locations like Hawaii and Mexico. I'm definitely not in any kind of competition with them or anyone else; I'd just like to start with some trips that I think I can fill up and manage easily.

Any ideas, advice, and other thoughts are welcomed.

Thanks.

In essence, you are asking: "How do I become an Adventure Travel Service?" And to all intents and purposes, you are looking at becoming a travel agent. Not sure what the guidelines and legislation is in your state -- it varies -- but would suggest doing research on what insurance, banking, licensing and other commercial crossed Ts and dotted Is you need to take care of.

Leading a dive trip is not easy nor is it something to be undertaken lightly: it carries professional and ethical responsibilities. And most importantly, what are you offering that people will pay for? What leadership creds do you have?

Oh, and by the way, you WILL BE in competition with the local dive shop... like it or not.

And certainly you will be viewed as competition for any other dive travel operation/travel agent within your catchment area... once they get wind of what you are doing. Seriously.

 

[Hawkwood]

It's not a free trip for you. You are "on" 24/7.

Everyone who participates on your trip will suddenly loose their capability of independent thought and action once they hit the airport.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

The above is why I prefer to leave anything more than local long weekend trips to people with experience.

I know several very good operations that if I get say eight or ten of my students/customers I can book with them and add to their numbers. I can "earn" a free spot by bringing them the extra business.

Which I do not have a problem with. Right now I don't have the time or expertise to put together a whole trip involving extensive travel.

Tried that and it can be a success or dismal failure. Schedules, abilities, cert levels, some want classes, some don't, etc.

It really is a full time job that requires the skills of a travel agent, knowledge of trip liability, how to counsel problem children (there is usually one adult on any given trip that fits this description), liaison between said child and hotel/boat/airline/other divers to keep them from drowning said child, etc.

 

[Wookie]

It's not a free trip for you. You are "on" 24/7.

Everyone who participates on your trip will suddenly loose their capability of independent thought and action once they hit the airport.

Starts before the airport. If I'm paying for a guided trip (and if you are getting a free spot on my back, I am paying for a guided trip) then I want lots and lots of pre-trip communication, I want to know what bugs are there and the best bug repellant for those bugs. I want you to have been there at least once, preferable 2 or 3 times so you know the bartender's name, and all of the boat drivers know yours. I want you to tell the chef that I don't like bell peppers, and that I'm really a really fussy eater. I don't want to have to explain that myself. I want to be told what the airline restrictions are, and what time to meet at the airport.

I want you to arrange a night in a hotel on the way, because after spending up to 36 hours in an airplane/airport getting to wherever place you are taking me, I want a restful sleep before we get on the boat. I can afford it, and I want it.

Now, if you think I'm a prima donna, you haven't met your client yet.

 

[Hawkwood]

The one trip I "organized" went pretty easy - fully booked the Kona Aggressor with 14 friends. Everyone had to make their own way there. Show up on the dock at the proper time. Didn't have to lift a finger. I was in no way "leading" the trip.

Well, actually I did have to do something - I got a big table at Splashers on the Saturday where we had copious beers while waiting to board.

I didn't take the "free spot". Factored that into the total cost and sold it, reducing everyone's cost by a bit.

 

[Damselfish]

There's a big difference between a group of people booking a boat or resort, splitting the savings from any free spots, and no one really having any expectations of anyone leading anything.

Versus people paying more or less the normal rate, and someone truly leading the trip in return for getting the free spots. I'd expect the leader to ideally be more familiar with the destination than I am, do a decent amount of planning, coordinating, communicating, and to take care of issues along the way. If they aren't doing that, and aren't good at it, there is little incentive for me to sign up for such a trip.

I'm pretty fussy about my travel choices and details and put a lot of effort into planning a trip. It can make it even more of a vacation for me if someone else has already planned something that happens to work for me, and will deal with any crap that comes up along the way.

 

[Bob DBF]

Personally, I would probably be more apt to deal with an LDS which has a track record with trips and the ability to cover if the host DM was incapacitated for any reason.

I think a better course of action would be to work with/for the LDS to accomplish your goal. Write a business plan and withhold your contact list until you have a written deal. You may have to work for them so they can see if you are up to their standards, but business is about making money and it is a foolish entrepreneur that turns down a good deal.

A great idea is a lot easier to think of than it is to accomplish, especially if you have little experience taking care of all the details. OJT can kill a business quickly, a service business even faster.


Bob
------------------
I may be old, but I'm not dead yet.

 

[RJP]

The one trip I "organized" went pretty easy - fully booked the Kona Aggressor with 14 friends. Everyone had to make their own way there. Show up on the dock at the proper time. Didn't have to lift a finger. I was in no way "leading" the trip.

In reading a contract with a large liveaboard fleet recently I noticed something interesting...

It basically said that if the boat was booked as a discounted group trip, that the group must have an appointed and identified leader, that the boat would only deal with that leader regarding issues, complaints, communication, etc, and that leader must have decision-making authority over the group.

So while you may not have considered yourself the leader, it's possible that the boat may have.