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The global scuba diving tourism industry generates up to around $20 billion US per year, finds a study in Cell Reports Sustainability. This revenue helps boost local economies by employing local people and supports marine conservation initiatives both by raising funds and increasing public awareness.

"Scuba diving is not a fringe hobby," says lead study author Anna Schuhbauer of the University of British Columbia. "It is a multibillion-dollar pillar of the economy that can channel tourists' dollars straight into coastal communities and ocean protection."

Recent studies have shown that ecotourism, activities in which participants observe and interact with marine organisms in a way that avoids harm to marine life, can play a significant role in marine conservation, particularly within marine protected areas. In an effort to quantify this impact, Schuhbauer and her team decided to hone in on one of the most popular ecotourism activities—scuba diving.

"The global scuba diving industry has grown steadily, yet policymakers lacked any up-to-date, worldwide estimates of what the sector is actually worth," Schuhbauer says. "Most prior work stopped at local case studies or national snapshots, so its cumulative economic impact—and its potential to contribute to ocean conservation—remained invisible. Our team set out to close that knowledge gap by producing the first global baseline of dive-tourism revenues and jobs."

By surveying scuba operators across the world, Schuhbauer and her team estimated the global total revenue generated by marine dive tourism, as well as its economic benefits for ocean conservation and local livelihoods. They estimated that 11,590 dive operators across 170 countries were involved in ecotourism and hired around 124,000 people, 80% of whom were local nationals.

They also found that the global annual revenue from the estimated 8.9 to 13.6 million annual divers amounted to an estimated 0.9 to 3.2 billion US dollars per year, generating $8.5 to 20.4 billion in total. These figures highlight the global significance of scuba diving as a key component of marine ecotourism, say the authors.

The researchers hope that this information strengthens arguments for community-based management of conservation initiatives, given that the majority of ecotourism groups are employed by locals. They also note that the scope of their estimation comprises only finances related to dive trips, gear rentals, dive certifications, and associated travel and lodging but does not include broader economic impacts from gear manufacturing and sales or other revenue streams generated through international scuba associations—all of which could be included in future surveys for a more complete understanding of the economic impact of the industry.

"These figures are conservative first cuts, providing a global overview and not a detailed country-by-country analysis, so they should guide—not dictate—policy," says Schuhbauer.

In the future, Schuhbauer and her team plan to build standardized monitoring programs to make revenue and visitor data easy to track and to quantify supply-chain impact, with a special focus on post-COVID-19 pandemic trends.

"These advances will sharpen both economic and conservation decision-making," says Schuhbauer.