Scuba diving tourism dollars flow into ocean protection and local communities worldwide

The global diving tourism industry generates up to around 20 billion US dollars per year, finds a study published in Cell reports sustainability. These income contributes to stimulating local economies by employing local populations and supports marine conservation initiatives both by collecting funds and increasing their public awareness.

“Scuba diving is not a marginal hobby,” explains Anna Schuhbauer, author of the main study of the University of British Columbia. “This is a pillar of several billion dollars of the economy which can channel the dollars of tourists directly in coastal communities and the protection of oceans.”

Recent studies have shown that ecotourism, the activities in which participants observe and interact with marine organizations in a way that avoids evil in marine life, can play an important role in marine conservation, especially in protected sea areas. In an effort to quantify this impact, Schuhbauer and his team decided to focus on one of the most popular ecotourism activities – the diving of the Scuba.

“The global diving industry has increased regularly, but political decision -makers lacked global estimates that the value of the sector,” said Schuhbauer. “Most previous work has stopped in local case studies or national snapshots, so that its cumulative economic impact – and its contribution to the conservation of oceans – has remained invisible. Our team decided to fill this knowledge lake by producing the first world base of income and diving jobs.”

By examining the diving operators around the world, Schuhbauer and his team estimated the global total income generated by marine diving tourism, as well as its economic advantages for the conservation of the oceans and the means of local subsistence. They estimated that 11,590 diving operators in 170 countries were involved in ecotourism and hired around 124,000 people, 80% of whom were local nationals.

They also found that world annual income from 8.9 to 13.6 million annual divers estimated about $ 3.2 billion in US dollars per year, generating from $ 8.4 billion in total. These figures highlight the overall meaning of scuba diving as a key component of marine ecotourism, say the authors.

The researchers hope that this information strengthens the arguments for the community management of conservation initiatives, since the majority of ecotourism groups are used by the inhabitants. They also note that the extent of their estimate only includes finances related to diving trips, equipment rentals, diving certifications and associated travel and housing, but does not include broader economic impacts of manufacturing and sales of equipment or other sources of income generated through diving international associations, which could be included in future understanding the economic impact of the industry.

“These figures are first conservative cuts, offering a global overview and not a detailed country analysis by country, they should therefore guide – not dictate – a policy,” explains Schuhbauer.

In the future, Schuhbauer and his team plan to develop standardized surveillance programs to make data on income and visitors that are easy to follow and to quantify the impact of the supply chain, with a particular emphasis on post-19th pandemic trends.

“These advances will refine economic and conservation decision -making,” explains Schuhbauer.