Diving chaos investigation: unqualified wild diving shops attract customers at low prices
2024-08-07
At that moment, Chen Mengmeng's mind went blank as her feet were overturned and her head pressed against the water. She struggled instinctively, but soon became stiff in all four limbs due to fear, and then her body began to "shake like chaff". She could only let the diving instructor take her to the bottom of the sea, then clip her legs on the coral, open the fish food, and take out the equipment to shoot videos. The water pressure made her ears uncomfortable, but she didn't know how to express it to the coach. She waited until she finished filming the video and the experience was over before being pulled back to the surface. The experience in Houhai Village, Sanya in January this year made Chen Mengmeng "never want to dive again in her life". Two months later, the Sanya police issued a notice that a criminal gang had illegally forced tourists to dive and take photos, revealing the tip of the iceberg of Hainan's diving routine. Many tourists like Chen Mengmeng who were trapped while diving have come forward to share their experiences. For Yang Fan, who has worked in the diving industry in Hainan for 21 years, such things are commonplace - he uses small tricks to quickly "brush customers" during peak seasons, and uses high price rebates for secondary consumption to "grab customers" during off-season. In the increasingly competitive diving industry, the lower limit of service quality is constantly being lowered. "If there are no rules, it's all about conscience." "Coaches" do not teach underwater gestures and push tourists into the water. In January of this year, signs of diving and surfing were everywhere on the beach in Houhai Village, Sanya City. During winter vacation, the night markets and bars here are bustling with activity. Chen Mengmeng has long heard of the strong atmosphere of fireworks in this small fishing village and came here with her family to "check in". Do you want to experience diving At a barbecue restaurant at the entrance of the village, the vendor warmly greeted her. If you spend an extra dollar, I will give you the barbecue restaurant 500 yuan full mirror diving for 1 hour, accompanied by 8 videos and 8 photos - Chen Mengmeng thinks this price is very cost-effective. She went diving with her father in Sanya in 2009 and spent 400 yuan. As someone who can't swim, she successfully dived. It was like opening the door to a new world, and she had been looking forward to experiencing diving again. But the water in the diving circle is much deeper than she imagined. Recommended by the barbecue restaurant owner, Chen Mengmeng came to a hidden restaurant. The store is not large, about 30 square meters, decorated in a fresh style of a seaside town, attracting tourists in and out. Chen Mengmeng put on her diving suit in the store, bought fish food, and walked to the beach with her coach. It took about 5 minutes to walk to Lighthouse Pier. The coach asked Chen Mengmeng to sit on a large surfboard and let him pull the board to swim into the sea. Chen Mengmeng's heart began to beat. The beach was a bit dirty, with some garbage left by tourists. Looking into the distance, no one was diving here. 15 years ago, she went diving for the first time by boat, and this time she was worried that her surfboard might be overturned by the waves at any time. Later, she found out that this belonged to shore diving, where divers swim into the sea on the shore to save on the cost of renting a yacht, but it was destined not to dive too deep. I don't know how to swim, can you be gentle later After listening, the coach just looked at her and said, 'If your ears hurt, hold your nose and let out some air,' without teaching any underwater gestures. After swimming for more than ten minutes, the coach stopped. After putting on the counterweight, gas cylinder, and full face mirror, and checking the equipment, Chen Mengmeng was still doing psychological construction when she felt her feet being lifted forcefully, causing her to lose balance and fall into the water. Then the coach jumped into the water, but he didn't straighten her body and let her scream, pressing her head down. In the opinion of diving instructor Yang Fan, this operation is very dangerous. When he was working as a diving instructor in a large scenic area before, he could almost encounter tourists with perforated eardrums due to diving too quickly in the company every month. Some of these tourists are due to physical fitness issues, while others are due to the coach's "brushing" behavior. In recent years, diving has become a popular experiential activity in Sanya. During the peak seasons of winter, summer, and National Day, large diving companies can receive thousands of "experience diving" tourists per day, while small companies can also meet dozens or even hundreds of tourists. Yang Fan remembers that the company promotes that tourists who experience diving should stay underwater for 30 minutes, but during peak season, tourists line up outside and the supervisor will urge the coach to quickly "digest" the customer base. The way of digestion is simple and crude. The coach needs to find a way to get the tourists to come out of the water quickly, "Yang Fan said. Tourists who experience diving rarely have diving experience. Most of them are diving for the first time, and some even cannot swim. The coach will quickly lead the tourists to dive, causing pain in their ears due to imbalanced ear pressure and prompting them to float upwards; Coaches will also find ways to make tourists' half mirrors water in, causing them to choke and become unwilling to dive again. This operation is called "brushing customers" in the industry. Yang Fan has seen the most coaches and can brush over 30 clients in a day. Diving, like other sports, is a sport with certain risks, even if it is an experience diving. Pre diving training is the foundation for ensuring safety An authoritative figure from Sanya Diving Industry Association said. Diving is divided into experience diving and diving training. The latter is more professional, and experience diving is the entry-level choice for most diving enthusiasts, and it is also the project operated by the vast majority of diving shops in Hainan. In the "Sanya Diving Tourism Service Standards" issued in 2020, it is clear that diving instructors should teach diving gestures according to the "Common Diving Gesture Graphic Symbols". They must make the participants remember the four gestures of rising, diving, OK, and ear pain, and understand other gestures such as air exhaustion, stopping, and body coldness before diving. But in order to attract customers, the basic training before diving is often simplified or simply omitted - divers only need to learn the rising gesture and tell the coach to end the diving as soon as possible. On social media platforms, many tourists commented that before participating in a diving experience in Hainan, the coach casually said a few words, and some even did not receive any safety education at all. The coach doesn't teach you how to breathe, he just drags you into the water and wants you to buy a full-length mirror, "a tourist left a message. Yang Fan said that these tricks of "brushing customers" have continued until now, and even become a "professional habit" of some coaches. Chen Mengmeng struggled to find a way to breathe underwater, but after taking photos, she was hurriedly pulled up and dived for just over ten minutes. She remembered, after surfacing, hearing the coach and another coach boasting, 'If I didn't press her, could she go down so fast?' She dared not speak and sat on the surfboard, feeling scared and nervous, nauseous and nauseous. The rapid development of the diving industry has given rise to "low-priced customer acquisition" in Hainan, and how many qualified diving coaches there are has always been a mystery. Diving coach Li Hong has encountered local fishermen with good water quality as coaches, as well as "coaches" without diving coaching qualifications. A homestay owner who works closely with diving shops said that many of them cannot obtain a legitimate diving instructor certificate. "These black coaches are very common in Sanya." Why are there so many divers active in the market without coaching qualifications? Many practitioners attribute it to the rapid expansion of the industry. When Yang Fan first entered the industry in 2003, Sanya received nearly one million diving tourists annually, and Ximaozhou Island alone could receive 200000 people, making this small island the "world's largest diving base". At that time, tourists would wear goggles and dive with gas cylinders on their backs, and the cost of experiencing "scuba diving" would be over three to four hundred yuan, with underwater photography starting at 800 yuan. According to statistics from the China Diving Association, experience diving services in China have maintained an average annual growth rate of 30% since 2006, with a revenue of 450 million yuan in 2010. According to a report by Hainan Daily in 2015, 12 diving companies in Sanya received approximately 1.5 million diving tourists throughout the year. The huge number of tourists and considerable profits attract players of all sizes. In Li Hong's opinion, the threshold for entering this industry is not high. Equipment and yachts can be rented, and coaches only need short-term cooperation due to seasonal reasons, saving labor costs. Even some personal coaches can attract "shore diving" business with just a surfboard and a set of equipment. As the number of uneven entrants increased, competition began to heat up. Non compliant coaches are just one manifestation, and another obvious change is the 'price war'. The difference between the off-season and peak season of Hainan tourism is obvious. During the peak season, clubs make a lot of money but there are not enough coaches, and during the off-season, there are not enough tourists, so they start to engage in a crazy price war to grab customers Yang Fan remembers that in the past decade, some clubs have started "zero bottom customer acquisition" or even "negative bottom customer acquisition" in order to attract customers. This is the "black talk" in the tourism industry: if a tour group receives guests for 3000 yuan but sells them to tourists for 1000 yuan, the price difference and profit in between need to be filled by taking customers to shopping stores for a second consumption. The same goes for diving. According to Yang Fan's experience, the normal market price for a potential project experience is 400-600 yuan, and the price for taking photos is 700-900 yuan. If the club sells at this price, customers can earn profits without the need for secondary consumption. But in order to attract customers, merchants have lowered prices on social media platforms, even leading to a large number of "zero yuan dives". The profits of these low-priced clubs will come from tourists' fins, bites, face mirrors, or photography services. The market price for biting the mouth is 30 yuan, some merchants will raise it to 50 yuan, and some merchants will package biting the mouth, flippers, full-length mirrors, and fish food for four to five hundred yuan. In order to attract more tourists, the operators of homestays and yachts have become salespeople of hidden shops. As long as the salesperson recommends customers to purchase the hidden shop's photo services, full-length mirrors, and fins, they can receive rebates from the hidden shop. The commission for underwater photography is the highest, even up to 60%. Therefore, rebates have become another major cost for hidden stores besides coaches and equipment. What kind of services tourists can receive at this time largely depends on whether they have purchased secondary consumption items. By inquiring with the diving shops, it was found that most of them claim that tourists can experience scuba diving for 25 to 30 minutes underwater, and can voluntarily choose whether to rent a full-length mirror. But many tourists have commented on social media that the actual diving time is less than 20 minutes and are being promoted for various reasons. The coach said he wouldn't waste twenty or thirty minutes with us in the water, implying that he wants us to buy full-length mirrors A tourist left a comment. Another tourist rented a full-length mirror after hearing that the half mirror in the store would leak water, but later found out that a diving half mirror was sufficient. Meng Lin, who has experience diving with 200 gas cylinders, still remembers her first diving experience in Hainan: at the moment when her head was pressed by the coach to 3 meters underwater, her ears seemed to explode, and she couldn't help but feel pain and quickly made an upward gesture. You feel so uncomfortable after only diving for 5 minutes, it's not suitable for diving at all The coach quickly identified Meng Lin, who was struggling to breathe. Later, after studying diving in Southeast Asia, she realized that she was most likely being treated roughly because she refused the 600 yuan underwater photography service at the time. A similar experience also happened to Xu Le. In Hainan in 2016, he also refused a 200 yuan photography service and was then pressed into the water. I didn't put on the half mirror properly, so I choked on a few sips of water and quickly went ashore. "Chen Mengmeng still remembers the barbecue restaurant owner who enthusiastically promoted diving projects in Houhai Village, Sanya. Before leaving the store, she took note of the plaque at the entrance and wanted to write a negative review on social media. When searching on the same day, it was found that this store
Edit：Lubaikang Responsible editor：Chenze
Source：bjnews.com.cn
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