How Resident Rates Will Kill the Diving Sector
In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis everyone is searching for ways to bring customers back to their business. Especially in the tourism sector this is a difficult endeavour, because the foreign tourists on which we depend are not able to come to our beautiful island. Some dive centres seem to think that lowering their prices is the way to achieve this, hoping that this will increase the number of residents by offering special resident rates. We are aware that it may not be the most popular decision, but we will not be following this trend. We strongly believe that this trend will be harmful to our sector, as well as for our clients.
To see how this is harmful to our sector, we only need to look at a simple economic equation. Our costs are rising due to new regulations and extra precautions we have to take. On the other hand, our sales are drastically down, meaning we have a lot less income while the costs stay the same. If you lower our prices on top of that, something has to give. A simple reality is that a reduction in price may bring a few more clients, but not enough to equalize this extra loss. The only possible result then is a bigger loss than you had before.
The only variable in the equation where you can then make up the difference is the costs, but which costs can you realistically tamper with? Fixed costs are fixed, so aspects like fewer dive guides and less experienced personnel would be the only variable costs that could be brought down. When you do this, however, quality will suffer. And in diving, when the quality suffers, the safety suffers.
At Sea Urchin, we
will never sacrifice the quality and the safety of our diving experience. Following the Covid-19 outbreak we have rebuilt our interior to satisfy all the requirements, we have stocked up on disinfectant, and are putting in all the extra day-to-day work to keep our dives fun and safe. Our highly qualified and experienced instructors and skipper remain at your service to offer you an amazing underwater experience. We have always had resident prices, and we will continue to have them, but we care too much about the survival of our sector and our clients, so we will not join in harmful trends by lowering them any further.
