Benchmarking that matters: How do your certifica- ▪ tion volumes, local hiring, or dive-per-site patterns com- pare to peers in your region and globally? Where are the operational bright spots you can learn from? Marketing advantage: Participation badges tied to real ▪ environmental practice (e.g., Green Fins scores) and data transparency elevate credible operators with sustainabil- ity-minded travelers and tour wholesalers. Policy leverage: Aggre- ▪ ECO PRO continued
A practical path: Phase 1: Pilot in 8–10 destinations across tropical and ▪ temperate regions with a small, shared indicator set and a lightweight portal. Phase 2: Integrate plug-ins to popular dive POS/book- ▪ ing/log systems; return operator-level benchmarking re- ports; align with Green Fins or similar programs for recognition. Phase 3: Harmonize with na- ▪
gated evidence of jobs, local hires, conservation fees, and low-impact practices strengthens your position in zoning and fee debates. De- cision-makers respond to numbers over narratives. Funding access: Many ▪
tional statistics offices and UN tourism accounting, pub- lish the first “State of Global Dive Tourism” report, and launch a public dashboard and API. From data to decisions: Why does this matter beyond pride and PR? Because deci- sions flow to where evidence lives. Marine spatial planning: ▪
grants and concessional fi- nance facilities require mon- itoring and evaluation. A standardized dataset reduces friction and makes you more eligible for support.
Source: The Journal Cell Reports Sustainability, 2025
Transparent dive pressure and incident trends support mooring installations, rotation schedules, and caps when needed – protecting sites while keeping businesses viable. Fee design: Clear visibility into conservation fee rev- ▪ enues and their link to site upkeep builds public trust and operator buy-in. Climate resilience: Aligning site condition signals with ▪ thermal stress or storm events helps prioritize restoration and closure decisions. Workforce policy: Demonstrating high local hire rates ▪ and seasonal job stability strengthens our case in tourism development plans. We are already the sector whose fortune rises and falls with ecosystem health. Self-generated, standardized data turns that fact into a policy instrument. The cultural shift we need: There’s a deeper benefit in doing this together. When a fragmented industry starts speak- ing a shared statistical language, we shift from a collection of businesses to a recognized sector. We move from reacting to policy to helping design it. And we model what sustainable
If the system is built well, reporting becomes a one-click ex- port from your booking/log software, not a monthly chore. Governance and privacy: non-negotiables: Trust is ar- chitecture. A neutral host – an industry-university-NGO con- sortium – should steward the data. Contributions must be voluntary, de-identified at the operator level, and released only as aggregates at site/region/country scales. Validation rules, outlier checks, and versioning keep the numbers credible; a data charter makes them safe. Open doesn’t mean exposed. It means reproducible methods, clear definitions, and transpar- ent indicator construction – so that when regulators or re- searchers ask “how do you know?”, we can show them. Destinations as early movers: The fastest gains will come from places that already collect pieces of the puzzle: MPAs with fee systems (Bonaire, Raja Ampat, Komodo, ▪ Great Barrier Reef) can report monthly permit/fee totals and site usage. National or regional dive associations can coordinate on- ▪ boarding and incentives. Training agencies can share quarterly certification aggre- ▪ gates by level and region. Citizen science partners can align site IDs and share ▪ trend summaries.
tourism looks like in practice: transparent, locally rooted, and science-informed. We don’t need to be perfect. We need to be consistent. If we want a seat at the table, this is the chair we build our- selves. Click/Scan for a copy of the study.
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