You Are Not Alone – Help In Selling Travel – Michael & Rachael Conners – Scuba Diving Industry Magazine & Video Podcasts for Dive Pros

January 2026 Table of Contents
category: Retailing (6 min read)
sponsors: Explorer Ventures

Creative Ways to Fill Your Group Trips

by Michael and Rachael Connors, Owners, American Dive Zone, MI

In 2024, we bought a dive shop in Grand Rapids, MI. Not inherited. Not franchised. Bought it. This is our story.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE. If you are a new retailer and you have been suffering from information overload when it comes to all the recommendations on dive trip locations, believe us we have been there too. This magazine is filled with helpful articles from industry professionals who have successfully built their travel programs. We all strive for that kind of success, and every journey begins with a step. Here’s how we took our giant stride into the world of dive travel, because we all have to start somewhere.

We bought our shop in June of 2024 without any trips planned for the following year. The entire 2025 season was a blank slate for us to build the trips we wanted to run. We knew we had to get trips on the books ASAP. Industry rule of thumb is to book two years out so we didn’t have much runway. Leaning heavily on guidance from a dive travel agent, we landed on a trip to Cayman Brac. It was a destination the previous owner hadn’t done, which we believed would add intrigue for our existing customer base. It was also a relatively easy trip for us to plan: flights were manageable, dive profiles were OW+ friendly, and most activities took place at the resort. From a logistics standpoint, it felt doable.

What we didn’t know was how to sell it. With limited time before the trip and a very small marketing engine, we were overwhelmed. We saw other shops selling out trips with 20+ divers, and the comparison froze us. Building a travel program from scratch felt daunting, but we pushed forward and booked the trip. We launched it on Facebook, created a one-page flyer, talked to everyone who walked into the store, and hoped for the best.

We ended up filling five spots, and two of them were us. With those numbers, a free spot was out of the question. We were essentially paying more than we would profit. At the time, it felt like a huge loss. We felt like we failed. We were even embarrassed when people asked, “Who else is on the trip?” because we felt we hadn’t met the benchmarks set by others. Looking at the financials, it didn’t seem worth our time or money. Boy, were we wrong.

We arrived in Cayman Brac with our three additional divers. We had swag bags of American Dive Zone apparel and printed itineraries for the week. We welcomed them as soon as they stepped onto the resort and guided them through every meal and activity. Our relationships with those three divers grew very strong. During morning boat dives, since we were a group of five on a 20-person boat, we spent the week diving with another group of ten. Our rides out to the dive site were filled with conversations about favorite dive locations, memories of sea life encounters, and personal stories. After a few dives and time spent around the resort with the other ten divers on our boat, we all connected. They saw our divers, the underwater and boat etiquette we integrate into our group trips, the way we supported each other, and they wanted to be part of American Dive Zone. In less than a week, we built a community at the resort, and everyone on the boat became an American Dive Zone diver.

We walked away from Cayman Brac with ten divers who weren’t from our shop asking to be added to our email list. Of those ten, six booked a trip with us to Little Cayman this year. Cayman Brac had three paid divers; one year later, our Little Cayman trip sold out (with the phone still ringing) and we proudly booked 22 paid divers.

If you’re a new dive shop building a travel program and learning how to run trips, our best advice is simple: book the trip. Do it scared. Do it uncertain. Just do it. Then get the word out social media, conversations with every customer, your website, and flyers at the counter. Any marketing helps (because we know you’re juggling a million things as a new owner). And if only a few people sign up, show those people an amazing time. That kind of hospitality is contagious.

Paid Advertisement

Take photos and videos of everything on land and underwater. Most importantly, take photos of your customers diving. People always walk away from a dive trip with photos of that rare fish or cool turtle, and they rarely get photos of themselves diving. Write a short post on social media every day of the trip and show how much fun you’re having because FOMO is real. Build relationships with the people on your boat who aren’t from your shop. Tell them your story. Make them feel part of the community you’re building. If you do this, three things will happen:

1. Your customers will rave about traveling with you

2. Interest in your trips will grow

3. Your travel program will gain a following

When you treat each trip as an opportunity to connect more deeply with your divers and build your travel program, the growth can be incredible.

Key Takeaways:

Book the trip. Don’t let being a new owner stop you from starting your travel program.
Find a trusted advisor. A dive travel agent can help you book trips that are easier logistically. Don’t try to do it all alone.
Market however you can. Flyers, social media, and word of mouth. Any exposure helps.
Deliver a great service to your divers. Your divers are there to enjoy themselves and capture lifelong memories. Help them build and capture those memories. Guide them through the week so they can relax and enjoy their vacation.
Network outside your shop. The divers who share your boat or resort may become loyal customers.
Follow up. Thank your divers for coming on the trip with you. Create a shared folder for photos taken on the trip, add the ones you took and ask them to do the same. Add new connections to your email list, connect on social media, and send information about future trips. Keep the conversation going.

The only way to build a travel program is to book your first trip. We’re here to cheer you on and remind you that booking that first trip is a win. You may not have the marketing resources, time, or bandwidth at first and that’s okay. If people remember you for how you took care of them and how you made them feel, congratulations: you’re on your way to building a travel program that will grow your revenue and business for years to come.