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Current Online Updates*
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Updated January 31, 2021

You can sign up here to receive future Undercurrent Online Updates and get news alerts and special offers like these every month.

Undercurrent Survey Shows Good News for Dive Operators:
A Preponderance of Traveling Divers Will Be Heading Out Before Year’s End

Will scuba travel return to normal after the pandemic? Dive operators worldwide are concerned that their dive customers may not return once it is safe to travel, and many are worried that they may not be able to keep their businesses intact. We at Undercurrent wondered ourselves. 

To get a glimpse at the future of dive travel in the next  12 months (as, hopefully, the COVID-19 threat diminishes), we asked our subscribers, the most traveling group of divers in the world, if they will soon be traveling to go diving? And under what circumstances? We also asked the same questions of nonsubscribers on our separate email list.

Subscribers Responses:
How many dive trips would you hope to make in the next 12 months?
The result? Overwhelmingly, divers are eager to get wet. As soon as they can, 85% of those we surveyed will be traveling abroad as frequently as they had in the past.

Undercurrent Readers are Ready to Go

Of the 1608 subscribers who responded to our survey, 98% considered themselves to be active divers. Of these, 97% have made more than 100 dives, with 65% having made more than 500 dives. The median age is about 62, with 55% older than 65 (only 10 respondents were under 40). In the past three years, 85% had made two or more overseas dive trips. We’re pleased that 93% say they will get vaccinated, 2% won’t, and 5% remain undecided. (Going through airports, flying, and traveling overseas without being vaccinated is a risk we wouldn’t take.)

Now, the good news for the dive industry: Of the 97% who will continue to make overseas dive trips, 90% of them expect to take a dive trip in the next 12 months (14% percent of these are risk-takers; they will travel even if not vaccinated). Of the remainder, 50% will go only after being vaccinated, 5% more will wait longer to be assured flights and airports are safe, and 11% more will wait until they are assured their host country is safe. Still, 81% percent plan to make as many or more trips than they did in the past.

Subscribers Responses:
Would you expect to resume making at least as many annual trips as you had before?
We also surveyed our email list, which includes many people employed in the dive industry, past Undercurrent subscribers, and divers who have signed up to receive our emails. The profiles of the 1149 respondents who considered themselves active divers were consistent generally with our readers in experience, age, frequency of international dive trips, etc. And their plans are more good news for the industry: 85% plan to travel internationally to dive in the next 12 months, down only 5% from Undercurrent readers.

Indeed, divers are a fearless bunch. USA Today reports that 54% of international travelers would be comfortable traveling six months after they are vaccinated. In combining our two surveys, we find that 88% of the responding active divers who travel internationally plan to travel as much as they did once they get their vaccinations. Still, some will delay their trips until they are assured that airports and flights are safe at their destination. For the vaccinated, there remains a small risk of infection (about 5% of the risk for those unvaccinated), and emerging new variants of the novel coronavirus might slow things down.

So, a significant number of traveling divers expect to be back on the road within the year, many making more than a single trip, which will give a real shot in the arm, shall we say, to the foreign dive centers that depend upon American dive travel.

And with that, let’s get vaccinated and go diving. And, to you dive operators out there.  Hang on a little longer.  We're coming back!

Ben Davison, editor/publisher
BenDEditor@undercurrent.org

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Note: Undercurrent is a registered 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization donating funds to help preserve coral reefs. Our travel writers never announce their purpose, are unknown to the destination, and receive no complimentary services or compensation from the dive operators or resort.

Highlights of Previous Online Updates*

Here are past Online Update emails sent out . You can sign-up for free to receive these in the future here.

 

16 March, 2024

16 February, 2024

15 January, 2024

16 December, 2023

28 November, 2023

25 October, 2023

26 September, 2023

18 August, 2023

20 July, 2023

12 June, 2023

27 May, 2023

22 April, 2023

21 March, 2023

21 February, 2023

22 January, 2023

17 December, 2022

26 November, 2022

19 October, 2022

23 September, 2022

15 August, 2022

21 July, 2022

21 June, 2022

16 May, 2022

29 April, 2022

30 March, 2022

25 February, 2022

24 January, 2022

 

3 December, 2021

27 October, 2021

21 September, 2021

August 18, 2021

28 July, 2021

12 June, 2021

21 May, 2021

26 April, 2021

11 April, 2021

27 March, 2021

12 March, 2021

28 February, 2021

9 February, 2021

31 January, 2021

20 January, 2021

5 January, 2021

20 December, 2020

1 December, 2020

15 November, 2020

1 November, 2020

13 October, 2020

1 October, 2020

21 September, 2020

9 September, 2020

21 August, 2020

8 August, 2020

18 July, 2020

8 July, 2020

25 June, 2020

9 June, 2020

May, 2020

April, 2020

March, 2020

February, 2020

January, 2020

Online Updates* Archive, 2000-2019

* Sometimes referred to as Upwellings


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