PADI Offices are taking action to promote and support local diving during COVID-19.
“Adventure is a state of mind, a spirit of trying something new and leaving your comfort zone. Adventure is about enthusiasm, ambition, open-mindedness and curiosity. Adventure can be found everywhere and it is up to us to seek it out.” Alastair Humphreys wrote this passage in his book, Microadventures: Local Discoveries for Great Escapes, published years before COVID-19 caused the border closures and social distancing that have changed the way we are living.
As we all get used to the new world we find ourselves in, there’s a shift in how and where we seek adventure. Where once we could hop on a plane and find ourselves in a new destination with ease, presently many of us have look within and nearby to discover adventures more locally.
This represents a huge opportunity for the diving industry, so the PADI organization is inspiring nondivers and divers to discover local diving adventures and get certified in their own backyards. From wreck diving in Germany to Loch diving in Scotland, shore diving in California to harbor diving in New Zealand, there are unique sites to be discovered everywhere.
How is PADI inspiring divers to seek local dive adventures?
Local Dive Site Destination Pages
In July, PADI Worldwide launched new “Exploration” pages on padi.com that encourage divers to discover local dive sites. The key consumer message is: “There’s a world of underwater adventure waiting for you. As a certified PADI Diver, you hold the passport to the last frontier.” The pages will expand, adding more dive site content over coming months to further to engage divers in local diving opportunities they might not know about.
Check out the Exploration page here
Dive Local Consumer Webcasts
Throughout June, July and August, the PADI Regional Headquarters teams, and a selection of special guests, have hosted live webcasts to inspire consumers to discover local dive sites, continue their education and get certified at home. More than 1,000 consumers have joined these live webcasts across the UK and Ireland, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and Thailand. Attendees were astonished to discover the wealth of diving opportunities within their home countries, and this feedback has inspired continued evolution of this series of dive local webcasts.
COVID-19 Dive Status Map
The COVID-19 Dive Status Map keeps divers up to date on where diving and travel are available in a world that is changing constantly due to the pandemic, and connect them directly with PADI Dive Centers and Resorts.
PADI Adventures App
At home or abroad, the PADI Adventures App
notifies area divers about your available dive adventures. While the pandemic continues to affect the dive industry in different ways regionally, the PADI Adventures App provides PADI Dive Centers and Resorts the flexibility to manage dive courses and activities in real time, ensuring your business remains as agile and open as possible.
If you aren’t already one of the more than 1,000 PADI Dive Centers and Resorts that have already promoted their activities via the PADI Adventures App, follow these simple steps to get live:
- Access the PADI Adventures
quick start guide. - Add your dive center or resort information.
- Add your local and travel-based events – PADI courses, dive and snorkeling trips, online or in person happenings, Project AWARE cleanups. If your store is doing it, the App can be promoting it.
Questions? Please email adventures@padi.com
#DiveLocal on PADI Social
SEEK ADVENTURE. SAVE THE OCEAN.SM Locally. PADI Worldwide’s social team has been busy engaging divers around the world with local diving. Visit the community page, where you can check out PADI’s new podcast, “Dive Stories,” view people’s #divelocal photos on Instagram and learn how PADI AmbassaDivers are committed to elevating diving in their communities and across the planet.
PADI’s Global PR Efforts
PADI’s global media outreach is focused on driving consumer demand by engaging divers and non-divers alike in ways to start or continue their diving adventures now with PADI Dive Centers and Resorts. Since the pandemic began, PADI’s public relations efforts worked to showcase local diving opportunities and PADI eLearning® to put immediate diving opportunities in the spotlight with vast audiences. Highlights included:
- Forbes.com – During Lockdown Why Not Learn to Scuba Dive From Home?
- Women’s Health, print magazine – Travel Well
- The Sun, print and online – Unusual UK Holidays
- National Geographic – Backyard camping and other ways to fire up wanderlust at home
- BBC, online – The Future of Travel Lies Underwater
- The Telegraph – Why water has healing powers, and where to reap the benefits around Britain
PADI and its members garnered nearly 700 pieces of editorial coverage in July alone, reaching 679 million people around the world, with an equivalent advertising value of over $6M USD. This coverage represented 96% of all press mentioning diver training agencies throughout the month.
Your PADI membership matters. Only by working together can we get through this challenging period and to thrive as an industry. We are confident that PADI’s focus on local diving, combined with our dedicated and unprecedented member resources, will lead the industry in the right direction for all to benefit now and in the future.
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