by Gene Muchanski
Executive Director
Dive Industry Association, Inc.

The Travel & Adventure Shows are high-end consumer travel shows that bring the excitement of adventure travel to over 300,000 attendees at seven regional events every year. The shows are put together by Unicomm, the Leader in Adventure Travel Expos. The shows are successful for many reasons.  From a consumers perspective, the shows have exciting activities, Travel Industry Speakers, over one hundred travel destination exhibitors, door prizes, booth giveaways and show only specials.  All of the shows at any given time will be bustling with activity inside the exhibit hall.  Four Theatres feature Travel Industry Experts like Samantha Brown, from the Travel Channel and Pauline Frommer, Travel Writer for Frommer’s Travel Guides.  Our own Jean-Michel Cousteau was a guest speaker at the Travel & Adventure Theatre in Long Beach and thrilled a packed audience with tales of his great adventures.  Having the Travel & Adventure Theatre, the Destination Theatre, the Culinary Stage and the Global Beats Stage inside the Exhibit Hall gives maximum exposure to the exhibits and Exhibitors. Other activities inside the exhibit hall like the Rock Wall Climbing Experience, Aerial Zip Line, Walk on Water with the Bubble Runners and the Be-A-Diver Pool adds to the excitement and experience of the Travel & Adventure Shows.

The Dive Industry Association has been an Association Sponsor and Exhibitor at the Travel & Adventure Shows since 2010.  The past five years have taught us a lot about the adventure travel industry and the type of people who attend these shows.  They are adventurous people looking to book their next adventure.  They have money to spend on vacations and they travel frequently.  Many adventure travelers are scuba divers looking for a vacation that includes diving and many are adventurers looking to add something new to their outdoor lifestyle, like scuba diving.  The shows are well advertised by Unicomm in local newspapers and television stations.  The shows draw a crowd between 5,000 and 20,000 attendees per show.

Dive Industry Association recently partnered with Unicomm to build special “Dive Pavilion” areas at each of the Travel & Adventure Shows.  Our primary focus is to bring in more exhibitors that specialize in scuba diving and diving related water sports.  The association is authorized to sell booth space in the “Dive Pavilions” to travel companies, resort destinations, dive operators and diving equipment manufacturers.  We encourage major equipment manufacturers to purchase booth space and create opportunities for their local scuba equipment Dealers to staff the booths.  Regional Sales Managers should become involved in this venture by scheduling non-conflicting times that Dealers can staff the booths. We’ve orchestrated this in the past and have been very successful with the outcomes.  We learned that attendees coming to our booth typically ask three questions:  1) Do you teach diving?  2) Do you sell diving equipment?  3) Do you sell adventure travel?  A local Dive Retailer can answer “Yes” to all three questions. The same concept works for 4 or 5 local dive operators and dive resorts to partner with their local tourist board.

Exhibiting at a Travel & Adventure Show, or any show that that matter, will only be successful if the exhibitor creates a marketing campaign that covers Pre-show, At-show and Post-show marketing.  As part of promoting Dive Pavilions at the Travel & Adventure Shows, Dive Industry Association will be conducting Pre-Show Campaigns to bring more attendees to the show and our booths.  We are working on ticket promotions to bring in more local Retail Dive Center Owners and local Divers to the shows.  We are only days away from making an announcement about working with a major social media provider to offer Free and/or discount tickets to events such as these.

The next Travel & Adventure Show is in Dallas, Texas on October 25-26, 2014 at the Dallas Convention Center.  Dive Industry Association will be at Booth TBA.  All other Travel & Adventure shows are listed in our Shows & Events page on this web site.

For more information on securing a booth in “Dive Pavilions” at the Travel & Adventure Shows, contact Gene Muchanski, Executive Director, Dive Industry Association, at gene@diveindustry.net