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What’s the right Booking Engine choices for an SME Tourism Business

Booking engines are one of the most helpful tools for SME Tourism Businesses to have. Here are 3 reasons having a booking engine is essential:

  1. A booking engine will do all the scheduling work for you and will therefore save you a lot of time. You’re likely out of the office all day leading tours and managing your team, you don’t want to then spend your evenings corresponding with potential guests and finding ways to fit them into your tour schedule. A booking engine will take this part of your job out of the equation.
  2. Having a booking engine on your website will make your customers’ experiences better. It’s a smooth journey for them, and they don’t need to wait for you or someone from your team to respond. They book their trip and know immediately that they’ve been confirmed. If you don’t have a booking software, a portion of your potential customers are likely fading out and finding other activities or booking with your competitors in the time it takes to correspond with them.
  3. If you work with travel agents, you are probably used to having to update them on your team’s availability. But with a booking engine, you can add them to your account, and the agents who sell your tickets can automatically know everyone’s schedule, freeing up time for whoever manages your team.

[Read more…]

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Buying a Scuba Dive Business in the Tropics: DUE DILIGENCE?

So what exactly is this “due diligence” we’ve all been twittering on about when we talk about buying a scuba diving business? Seems very uptight and accountant-speak to most of us and about as interesting as my Auntie Mildred’s boil on her…, yes well you get the idea…

Simply put, performing due diligence means taking an extremely good scrutinizing look at the business to see if it holds muster and actually IS what it claimed to be before you made the offer. The basic translation is:

“Has the Seller told the truth in regards to how big the business is and how much money they make, or have they told porkie-pies in the MoS or Financial Highlights” [Read more…]

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Buying a Scuba Dive Business in the Tropics: LEGALLY IT’S YOURS!

Okay, so you’ve now done your Due Diligence, and after your inspection of the dive centre and the gear, and your Accountant’s close inspection of the books is all deemed satisfactory.

You now decide that it is all hunky dory and the Buyer was overall relatively honest in their claims,  it is now time to move to next step, Exchange of Contracts and Settlement and complete the Deal. [Read more…]

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Buying a Scuba Dive Business in the Tropics: THE OFFER

Now this is the big step everyone is dancing around. The big decision!

In my experience, the decision to buy a scuba diving business happens, not over a conference table or in an office, or even in the dive centre itself. It’s an emotional decision done over a cup of coffee in the morning at home, or maybe on the porch of the hotel room at night actually in the destination.

You have all the MoS, and now a lot more info by spending a few days with the Owners and looking at the business. Probably been for a few dives on the dive boat, seen the staff doing what they do. Maybe sat round the pool and watched one of the OWSI’s do a DSD with some students.

You sit and try to analytically look at the MoS, and try to get a feel for the limited financial info you have been given. But in the end, you just decide:

“YES. This is the life i want to lead at this stage of my life, so lets work out how I can get it…”

[Read more…]

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Buying a Scuba Dive Business in the Tropics: THE INITIAL PROCESS

Buying a Scuba Dive Business in the Tropics is something that seems like a bit of a Black Art to most dive instructors and dive centre owners.

Many of them have spent the past 10 plus years in the tropics, living the good life. After a while working as a Divemaster, they progress onto instructor and spend a few years working for a selection of dive centres and liveaboards around the world.

At some point an opportunity pops up that one of these dive centres is looking for investors, or indeed looking for an all out Buyer…

Next thing that pops up is “Right, this sounds good, what do we do now and what information do we ask for now to make sure we’re not buying a White elephant?” (or words to these effects, to be honest, this is normal uttered after a few beers and has a bit more of a fruity flavour to it, lol. We are still scuba divers after all…)

This article is going to look at the All Out Purchase of a Tropical Destination Dive Centre.

[Read more…]

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