Which Is The Best Dive Training Agency in 2024?

Darcy Kieran has been on the Board of DEMA. A course director and instructor trainer with several agencies, he has owned or managed dive shops, dive gear distributors and wholesalers, dive resorts, and charter boats.

He also runs the Business of Diving Institute (www.businessofdiving.com). Earlier this year, he conducted his second annual survey on dive training agencies to determine if some training agencies had more credibility and trust than others. Here is a summary of his report.

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Scuba Diving Training Agencies' Brand Awareness & Familiarity

For each dive training agency, survey participants were asked to answer based on their experiences with dive centers and instructors or to select " N/A" if they were unaware of that agency or did not know enough to have an opinion. Here is the percentage of scuba divers who had no knowledge of the ten best known dive training agencies.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

We asked divers how likely they were to recommend each dive training agency to their friends, family members, or colleagues on a scale of 0 to 10 to determine a Net Promoter Score (NPS), a measure widely used to evaluate the quality of customer experience and predict business growth. NPS uses a scale of 0 (not at all likely to recommend) to 10 (extremely likely). Answers fall into three categories: Promoter: 9 or 10; Passive: 7 or 8; Detractor: 0 to 6.

The NPS score is (% of Promoters) -- (% of Detractors) and ranges from -100 to +100. Above 80: World-class; Above 50: Excellent; Above 20; Favorable; Above 0: Good

We found that scuba divers are critical of dive training agencies, with only DAN (Divers Alert Network) scoring above 20. Only four other agencies scored above zero: TDI, Dive Heart, PFI, and SDI.

With these negative NPS scores and a consistently high drop-out rate among newly certified scuba divers, we are overdue in redesigning the business model that introduces people to the underwater world.

What's with PADI?

The low net promoter score for PADI made us wonder if it was because non-PADI professionals love to hate PADI. But it doesn't seem to be the case. In fact, PADI instructors gave an even lower score to PADI.

It is stunning that PADI instructors who answered this survey were much more likely to recommend SDI instead of PADI to their friends and family members for recreational scuba diving training.

The Best and Worst

Based on the survey, the three best training agencies for tech diving are TDI, GUE, and UTD.

Based on the survey, the three best training agencies for recreational scuba diving are SDI, SEI/PDIC, and BSAC.

Based on the survey, the three worst training agencies for recreational scuba diving are.PADI, CMAS, and PSS.

Who Participated in The Survey?

We received responses from 781 scuba divers: USA: 42.7%; Western Europe: 29.4%; Canada: 7.4%; Eastern Europe: 5.9%; Other: 14.6%. 27% were women. Dive center owners made up 22.8%; dive instructors, 45.4%; and scuba divers, 31.8%.

More reading: www.businessofdiving.com/books

Undercurrent edited the original text for brevity and takes full responsibility for any errors or omissions.