William Cline publishes survey on dive industry sentiments

In his introduction, William Cline writes:

We, as an industry, are experiencing tremendous change that started well before this current global pandemic. We are seeing shifts in training, dive vacation habits and dive equipment purchasing patterns that all point to seismic shifts in our dive consumer base. This survey seeks the industry’s assessment of where we are going by sector and what we can do to change or respond to some of the emerging trends.

The survey questions touched some nerves and varied opinions were offered; some negative, positive and everywhere in between. There is valuable quantifiable data but the true significance of this survey lies in unique and well thought-out personal responses. There are unique perspectives given that might change the way we think about a some of our ‘gold standards’ in the industry and how we could change in the future.

Not unlike our varied industry, the comments ranged from hundreds of words while others offered just one. The nature of a sentiment survey is just that –‘opinions’ and a test of our temperature as an industry while we reboot our businesses as a result of the COVID shutdown.

Not surprisingly, the pandemic and its affects area common theme as the entire world has been negatively impacted. For the first time in history, we in the diving industry are all in the same boat.

That moment of reflection is what makes this survey unique as we all stop to analyze our companies and personal futures in this industry post-COVID. We have yet to pass the halfway mark globally on any sort of recovery. In fact, many companies are literally treading water hoping to open or stay open, in many cases, to generate some revenue.

Link to the full study is posted at the bottom