Do the Paperwork
Among the first steps your customers should take in preparing for any dive vacation is to make certain they have all the necessary documentation in hand and ready to take with them. This includes:
Passport: If your customers’ travels will take them outside the USA, they need a passport. Period.
Yes, we know, several popular destinations will theoretically allow USA citizens to enter the country with a birth certificate or voter’s registration card. Trust us, this can easily cause far more problems than it is worth.
Ensuring that all your travelers have a valid passport will help you avoid anxiety, delays and stranded customers. You have to take the initiative in educating travelers about the importance of this; a surprising number of people are under the impression they can enter and exit a foreign country — or the USA — with nothing more than a driver’s license.
Increasingly, you’ll find that a number of your customers are not native-born or naturalized USA citizens. You will need to ensure that these travelers have all the documentation necessary to re-enter the United States.
Dive and Travel Insurance: Odds are, you wouldn’t dream of going diving without adequate insurance coverage. What you may not realize, however, is how important it is to make sure your customers have this insurance as well.
Imagine what might happen should a customer be seriously injured on one of your store’s group trips. Recompression therapy, treatment in foreign hospitals and air evacuation are expensive — and most likely will not be covered by the victim’s normal medical insurance. And, even though the victim (or his or her surviving family) may not want to sue to recover these costs, they may not have a choice.
The likelihood of the victim being able to successfully sue a dive operation in a foreign country may be slim. So, guess what? That leaves you. By ensuring that all your travelers have adequate insurance coverage before they go, you lessen the likelihood that accident victims will need to recover from anybody other than their insurance carrier.
Divers Alert Network (DAN) recently introduced a Travel Insurance program to help protect divers against loss due to factors such as missing luggage, cancelled flights, tropical storms, etc. Your customers may be able to obtain similar coverage from other sources as well. For the same reason you need to make sure all of your travelers have up-to-date dive accident insurance, you want to encourage them to obtain this coverage, too.
By the way, you should also make sure your travelers sign a general liability release that holds you and your store harmless for any loss customers suffer as a consequence of traveling with or through your store.
Drivers License: A valid driver’s license not only provides travelers with a back-up form of photo ID, it is essential if your customers plan to rent cars, mopeds or other motorized vehicles.
C-Card/Dive Log: Imagine taking a group to a popular destination. The evening of your arrival, you gather for an orientation from the dive operation staff. At the end of their presentation, they ask to see everyone’s certification cards. Suddenly, several of your group members panic, exclaiming “Nobody told me I’d need to show a c-card!” Who do you think is going to bear the blame for this snafu?
Yes, it should go without saying that divers should never go anywhere without a certification card in hand. Unfortunately, too many divers don’t get this message. Make sure your customers aren’t among them.
::: TOP ::: CONTACT US ::: ABOUT US :::