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Substantial revenue from diving, which depends on healthy ocean ecosystems, offers a new argument for marine conservation

An international study estimates that scuba diving contributes between $8.5 and $20.4 billion to the global economy each year, supporting up to 124,000 jobs across 170 countries, offering an economic incentive for marine conservation.

The research, published today in the journal Cell Reports Sustainability, was co-authored by researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC), UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Simon Fraser University, and provides the first comprehensive estimate of the diving industry’s worldwide economic impact.

“Unlike mass tourism operations that can harm local communities and marine environments, dive tourism, when managed well, can be economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable,” said Anna Schuhbauer, lead study author and postdoctoral fellow at UBC’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. “With a vested interest in healthy ecosystems and abundant marine life, dive operators are natural allies in conservation efforts.”

The team set out to answer a fundamental question: What is the global economic impact of marine dive tourism, and how does it contribute to ocean conservation and local communities? The researchers compiled a list of more than 11,500 dive operators across 170 countries using data from Google Maps and PADI (the Professional Association of Diving Instructors), validating their database with local experts. They then conducted an online survey that netted responses from 425 businesses across 81 countries.

Using the survey responses and statistical modelling to calculate the money spent directly on diving activities and indirect spending, such as hotels, food and transport by the 9-14 million annual recreational divers worldwide, Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor, co-author and assistant professor at Simon Fraser University, said, “the analysis revealed that direct spending on diving activities generates between $900 million and $3.2 billion annually, and between $8.5 and $20.4 billion when including indirect spending on accommodations and local services.”

The study also delivered key findings about the scuba businesses and their workforce: 80 per cent of employees are local or national residents. The survey also revealed dive operators’ deep concern about environmental degradation, with most reporting negative changes at their dive sites over the past decade.

“Scuba diving is pretty unique because it makes you spend time underwater,” said Fabio Favoretto, co-author and postdoctoral researcher at Scripps. “You can sail or surf above a dead ocean, but scuba divers notice if there are no fish — it’s really an activity that is dependent on the health of the system. That’s a positive for conservation because it makes divers allies.”

While ocean-based tourism is recognized as an economic force, the specific contribution of scuba diving at the global scale has remained unknown until now. This absence of economic data made it challenging for ocean advocates to concretely cite scuba’s economic benefits to argue for conservation policies.

Prior research has suggested that increased ocean conservation could increase dive revenue by attracting more divers who are willing to pay higher prices to encounter the more diverse and numerous sea life afforded by the added protections. Scuba divers’ preference for marine protected areas (MPAs) is also supported by data showing that roughly 70% of all marine dives currently occur within MPAs.

“We show that diving generates a lot of income, and it does this without degrading the environment like extractive industries such as fishing or mining,” said Octavio Aburto-Oropeza, a marine biologist at Scripps Oceanography and co-author of the study. “We hope that showing the scale of the economic impact from this activity will encourage policies that invest in diving by increasing marine protections.”

The study positions dive tourism as a model for the “Blue Economy” — showing how coastal communities can prosper while protecting their marine resources.

“Global economic impact of scuba dive tourism” was published in Cell Reports Sustainability.

Tags: Anna Schuhbauer, conservation, IOF postdoctoral fellows, Modelling, Research, scuba, tourism