AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES OF SCUBA DIVE GUIDES IN MALAYSIA

Scuba diving is one of the fastest growing and most popular tourism activities, generating approximately a billion dollars for global diving destinations. Scuba diving tourists are willing to travel worldwide to experience diving activities at island destinations offering underwater attractions. Besides highlighting the uniqueness of dive sites, the performance of dive guides can influence a scuba diving tourists’ satisfaction. This exploratory study examines the influence of the dive guides’ professional competencies on satisfaction of the tourists with availing tour packages by assessing the dive guides’ service quality. This study reports the findings obtained from the responses of 345 dive tourists who have availed of diving packages in Malaysia. This study validates that professional competency among dive guides positively affects service quality and a tourists’ satisfaction. Among the findings is the importance of scuba diving operators in providing continuous practical implications to dive guides in order to help them identify their niche market of scuba diving tourists.