who is the dive tourist?
The dive tourist is any diver, free diver or snorkeler who loves to travel and cares about protecting the coral reefs, fish, sharks, whale sharks, whales, manta rays, turtles and macro life we so love to dive with.
The dive tourist is an enlightened traveller who pays more than lip service to the concept of best practice dive tourism and wants to take it one step further by ensuring their dive tourism dollar makes a difference to the conservation of coral reefs and marine life and the lives of local fishers. The dive tourist is of any age or nationality and probably dives everywhere they can.
The dive tourist makes a consumer choice to enjoy and support the conservation success of best practice dive operators who use integrated coastal management to conserve coral reefs and marine resources and provide livelihoods for local fishers. The dive tourists lets others know who they dive with and why.
The dive tourist is rewarded with the best dive travel experiences on the planet, all the while knowing that their dive travel dollar has conserved coral reefs and marine resources and provided livelihoods for local fishers, capable of changing fishers from exploiters of coral reef resources to protectors.
Whether you travel far to reach the world’s most biodiverse, remote and exclusive dive locations or simply add a dive or snorkel to a full family travel itinerary, you can be the dive tourist.
Dada Li free dives the coral reefs of the Banda Sea. Image by Aaron Wong of www.aaronsphotocraft.com