Rancho Santa Margarita, California – January 23, 2018 – As the world’s largest scuba diver training organization, PADI® is committed to growing the scuba and freediving markets by both attracting new people to the sport and motivating existing divers to dive more often. To this end, PADI has introduced the all-new global PADI Travel™, featuring an online travel platform and full-service team dedicated to providing top-notch travel services – inspiring divers to explore more of the underwater world and take care of our oceans. PADI Travel is designed to energize and grow the overall diving community for the benefit of everyone in the dive industry, offering hundreds of dive destinations around the world and poised to expand over the coming months with more dive resort offerings.

With each dive operator’s unique business model in mind, PADI Travel is available to augment, support or enhance a PADI Dive Center’s current travel program. Catering to groups and individual travelers alike, PADI Travel combines the best of online booking with concierge-level travel consultancy, offering:

• The highest customer satisfaction with expert customer support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• One of the largest online selections of liveaboards and dive destinations in the market.

• Dedicated dive travel experts with in-depth dive knowledge and experience to provide personalized advice; the team averages 2,500 dives per customer service representative, with dive experience spanning a total of 80 countries around the world.

• Eco-friendly trip options to help people dive with a purpose.

PADI Travel launches as a leading online travel provider for divers, offering a user friendly experience to research, compare and book dive vacations anywhere in the world. In today’s digital world, travelers have high expectations with respect to their ability to find information and book online. The new travel platform is made possible by integrating tried-and-tested technology and a global team of dive travel experts from Diviac, a startup dive travel company that has been successfully operating in the online scuba travel space since 2015.

There are many ways that members of the dive industry can benefit from PADI Travel:

• Liveaboards and PADI Resorts can tap into new customer sources, increase bookings and reduce administration.

• PADI Dive Centers can get assistance organizing and marketing group trips, earn travel agent commissions on trips booked for their customers with PADI Travel, or earn affiliate commissions for divers referred to PADI Travel.

• PADI Professionals can earn valuable incentives for divers referred to PADI Travel.

• PADI Dive Centers will be able to receive direct online bookings for their day trips and PADI courses (COMING SOON!).

“Travel is intrinsically linked to diving. For more than 30 years, it has been – and continues to be – an important part of the PADI organization as we seek to keep divers engaged and active,” says Drew Richardson, PADI Worldwide President and CEO. “The new PADI Travel is the natural evolution as we expand the program globally and optimize it to provide a best-in-class digital experience for dive travel.”

For those in North America who have worked with PADI Travel Network, be assured that PADI continues to enjoy a positive relationship with PADI Travel Network’s service provider, Caradonna Adventures, and will work with them throughout 2018 to ensure needs are met. Dive centers are encouraged to work with Caradonna Adventures for land-based travel needs until more dive resorts are added to the PADI Travel offerings.

Explore travel.padi.com to discover all that PADI Travel offers to the dive community.

To learn more about joining the PADI Travel affiliate program, visit travel.padi.com/affiliates. If you’re interested in listing your dive resort on PADI Travel, please contact [email protected]. To get support in organizing group trips contact [email protected].

About PADI – The Way the World Learns to Dive®
PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors®) is the world’s largest recreational diver training organization with nearly 6,500 dive centers and resorts and more than 135,000 professional members worldwide. Since 1966, PADI has remained dedicated to introducing new divers to the thrill of scuba diving and enhancing the skills of experienced divers. Issuing nearly one million certifications each year, PADI makes underwater exploration and adventure accessible to the public while maintaining the highest industry standards for dive training, safety and customer service. Committed to ocean conservation, with every diver certification issued PADI also creates a growing number of ocean ambassadors to help defend and preserve the marine environment for generations to come. For more information, visit www.padi.com.