ECO PRO Why the Scuba Industry Needs More Self-Generated Data – by Alex Brylske, Ph.D., President, Ocean Education International, LLC
In the October issue, my article “Charting the Blue” highlighted a land- mark study that finally put numbers to what many of us have long sensed: dive tourism isn’t just a passion industry – it’s an economic engine, contributing an estimated $8.5 to $20.4 billion annu-
usage, incidents, or simple reef condition signals (e.g., bleaching, visibility, crown-of-thorns). Without these, we can’t inform marine spatial planning nor demonstrate how good practices (e.g., moorings, briefings, Green Fins) reduce impacts. 4. Temporal and geographic blind spots: National travel accounts and broad tourism dashboards are often annual, lagged, and aggregated at the country level. Dive man- agement needs seasonal resolution and site or Marine Protected Area (MPA) granularity – exactly what those datasets don’t provide. 5.Skewed multipliers and leakage: Tourism multipliers used in generic reports rarely fit dive’s locally rooted staffing and procurement patterns. In many destinations, dive centers hire and buy locally more than mass-market tourism does – yet generic models can understate that local retention of value. 6. Policy translation gap: Ministries and MPAs need stan- dardized, comparable indicators – certifications by level,
ally and supporting up to 124,000 jobs worldwide. But if that piece established the “why,” this follow-up tackles the “what now.” Because when it comes to real decisions – marine spa- tial planning, coastal permitting, fee structures, protected area design – our sector’s voice is still too often absent. Not for lack of impact, but for a lack of standardized, self-generated data that policymakers recognize and can act on. Some argue that the effort and expense of creating self- generated data aren’t necessary, citing that while other sports, fitness, and travel organizations already provide data – which may not be comprehensive for scuba – it is sufficient. How- ever, this argument is inaccurate for many reasons. 1.Misclassification and
operator employment, dives per site, conser- vation fees remitted – not a proxy from “outdoor recreation” or “beach tourism.” When our evidence arrives in the wrong format, it gets side- lined in favor of sec- tors with cleaner data plumbing (e.g., cruise, hotel, fisheries).
dilution: Mainstream sources like the Sports and Fitness Industry As- sociation (SFIA) and the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) bucket scuba into broad “outdoor recreation” or “water sports” categories. Our training pathways, capital intensity, safety require-
Source: The Journal Cell Reports Sustainability, 2025
ments, and environmental dependencies are nothing like paddle sports or general fitness – yet our signal is aver- aged into theirs, masking the true size and structure of dive tourism. 2. Participation ≠ economic impact: SFIA/NSGA-style datasets focus on participation counts and equipment purchases. That misses the spend profiles that matter for policy – multi-day travel, boat operations, training and certification fees, conservation levies, and local employ- ment – where diving diverges sharply from most recre- ational activities. 3.No site-level pressure or ecology: Generic travel/tourism reports don’t track dives per site, mooring
7. Strategic risk: Overreliance on non-diving sources cedes narrative control. When downturns or shocks hit, we can’t credibly argue for targeted relief, fee redesign, or in- frastructure (e.g., moorings, patrols) without our own time series tied to outcomes on the water. The reality is that borrowed numbers simply aren’t built for the realities of dive operations, training, and reef-dependent livelihoods. If we want precision in policy, funding, and man- agement, we need precision in the data – defined by us, for us, and reported consistently. The problem isn’t that we don’t care, or even that we don’t collect anything. It’s that our information is scattered, incon-
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