INDEX:
To navigate through this document easily, click on the hot links below:

A. Introduction: A win-win-win scenario -- how a group tour benefits clients, the group leader & USDT alike.

B. Air Ticket Incentives: How wholesale air prices help both group leader & clients.

C. Lodging & Diving Incentives: How group leaders earn a free land package.

D. Live-Aboard Vessel Incentives: How group leaders earn a free vessel package.

E. 14-Point Plan for Becoming a Tour Group Leader: The rewards are many.

F. Key Public Relations Issue: Why clients often fare better by booking with a group leader,
not directly with a resort or vessel. You'll need to know this answer.

G. Need a Divemaster Card?: An encouraging word for aspiring tour-group leaders.

H. Emergency Assistance Plan: Helpful model for divemaster candidates & group leaders,
based on Puget Sound hospitals & agencies.

A. INTRODUCTION
Every week at the St. Paul, MN office of U.S. Dive Travel we receive phone calls from across the USA, from Canada & also Europe, from divers interested in becoming tour group leaders for our guide service. Since 1991, we have assembled a highly-trained, dependable cadre of dive instructors & divemasters across North America & Western Europe who organize groups for us -- most from within dive clubs, dive shops or private groups of diving buddies.

Many of these well-motivated tour leaders will travel 1 to 3 times a year to tropical islands for us, taking typical groups of 8-15 divers, & often several non-diver spouses. Some groups are substantially larger. We very much enjoy our association with these tour leaders.

They work hard gathering their team, prepping the paperwork & spearheading the creative marketing necessary for groups to coalesce. That's why we reward these guides well for their labors. Because these independent contractor guides are one mainstay of our growing wholesale business, we at U. S. DIVE TRAVEL whenever possible give the group leaders free land or live-aboard packages & super-low wholesale net rates on their group's airfares.

Guided group trips prove to be a win-win-win scenario for all concerned:

• The clients get great discounts on land & air packages -- prices normally far better than what a conventional travel agency or airline office would give them if they booked apart from the USDT group. Clients also benefit from a highly motivated, professional & enthusiastic tour guide to take the planning stress off their shoulders, & to handle all the myriad travel details. This means the clients just pay & go, relax & dive -- pure & simple.
  
  
• The guide gets a personal bonus on this exotic overseas vacation -- a fair financial reward for his or her considerable investment of time & energy to gather the group.
  
  
• U.S. Dive Travel gets more new business; & yes, that makes us glad. Feel free to phone us for details, at 952-953-4124. E-mail us at: divetrip@bitstream.net.
  
  

When group leaders book through USDT
they will enjoy 4 important advantages:

1. In some select markets in the South Pacific, for example, we'll sell you the air tickets, whenever space & contracts permit, at straight wholesale rates-- plus our minimal markup -- allowing you to offer your dive buddies tremendous savings. Some trips you can mark the air tickets up as much as $70 - $80 per ticket to each client & still beat the airline's lowest retail price by $50 or more. (This volatile market changes daily, just like the stock market, amigos.) These are savings that solo clients normally could not have secured on their own in the retail marketplace. We grant these discounts only to groups of sufficient size (usually no fewer than 10 - 12 persons). This markup margin is money you can use to defray your own air ticket cost.

2. For groups as small as 8 - 10 divers, depending on the resort, or 10-18 divers for live-aboard yachts, we can give you as the trip leader a free land or vessel package.

3. As a full-service dive-travel wholesaler, we'll take most of the administrative hassles off your shoulders & do the bulk of the planning job for you. All you need to do is market your socks off, gather a group under your capable wings, give us names, dates & any destination you choose in the Pacific or Caribbean. We'll do all the rest -- group air tickets, land accommodations, diving & any side tours -- every detail honed to a 'T.'

4. What's more, we already have a thorough liability waiver, travel insurance advisory, gear & safety checklist, plus expert travel tips all printed in a handy, easy-to-follow booklet for each client.

Here's how these free-trip opportunities work in our prime bargain destinations:

B. AIR TICKET INCENTIVES
(Wholesale airfare prices vary between high & low seasons & are subject to possible change as local taxes & tariffs shift within host countries.)

Airlines, of course, can & do change their prices all the time, without warning. But clients are protected when they book with U.S. Dive Travel, if they book early enough to grab those highly prized wholesale spaces. That's because our contract net rates with certain carriers stay solid -- with set seasonal ceilings, no matter what wild gyrations hit the retail market. (Fluctuations in wholesale net rates are much less frequent.)

Feel free to call us if you need more air ticket information: 952-953-4124.

C. LODGING & DIVING INCENTIVES
(Prices & package terms subject to possible changes.)

Now, please consider these free vacation opportunities. We can offer free land packages (lodging & diving) to the leader of any independent travel group that books group air & land through us, to many of our prime destinations. That means we'd like to encourage any experienced divemaster or instructor with a dream destination to consider organizing your own group. It'll be the best & most satisfying vacation you ever experience. Here's a succinct summary of how the system works for you. These are merely helpful examples, as USDT can arrange superior group discounts at any of hundreds of resorts worldwide, in the 30+ countries we represent contractually.

Call for details: 952-953-4124.

• GUANAJA Island, in the Honduras' Bay Islands -- Group leader gets one free land package after only eight paid divers. Package includes: 7 nights accommodation in a spacious estate-view room + 3 superb meals every day (lots of fresh fruits & seafood prepared in classic Caribbean style) + 5 days of 3-tank boat diving in world-class coral sites along the magnificent Honduras reef + 1 free night dive + free boat transport to & from Guanaja Airport + all hotel taxes paid. Our research indicates that this island offers likely the best-value dive vacation in the Western Caribbean from now through the next 3 summer peaks -- at only $1397 per diver + sales tax (double occupancy) + service fee, during the low season (May 1 - Nov. 15). We've sent scores of clients here & invariably they are delighted with the colorful reefs, the warm service & the relaxed pace of Guanaja.
  
  
  
• GLOVER'S REEF in Southern BELIZE -- Group leader gets one free land package after booking only 10 divers. (These resort rules may be subject to change in super-busy seasonal peaks.) From early May through October each year the land package price at the finest dive resort on the Southern Belize Barrier Reef (normally $2,170 to $2,570 per diver per week,depending on duplex, standard, superior or deluxe cabana chosen) drops a full $200 per diver + service fee. Land package includes 7 nights (dbl-occup) in a beautiful mahogany cabana right near the waterfront + 3 superb meals per day + 3 guided boat dives each day (tanks, weights & guide are free) + 1 free night dive each week (weather permitting) + round-trip speedboat transfers from Belize City to Glover's Reef + sales tax pre-paid.
  
  
• BONAIRE -- Group leader gets one free land package after 10 divers booked. The best package price comes in May, June, September & October -- only about $800 to $995 + service fee per diver for 7 nights in a one-bedroom oceanside condo (dbl-occup) at Bonaire's finest dive resort + 1 guided boat dive each day + unlimited shore diving (best in the Southern Caribbean) + all sales tax pre-paid. Normally that package costs about $1,200 + service fee, including taxes. This is the best easy wall diving, right offshore, in the Caribbean.
  
  


• MAUI, KAUAI, MOLOKAI, OAHU & LANAI in the great state of HAWAII -- Call us for our special terms for custom group packages. After more than 25 dive trips to the Neighbor Islands since 1990 -- we've visited seven Hawaiian islands multiple times -- U.S. Dive Travel knows the best beaches, secret getaway spots, hotels, reefs, shore dives & the best dive shops across Hawaii. We have scores of friends & family on the Neighbor Islands & can help you build an outstanding group trip to Hawaii, with exceptional prices. We are among the West Coast's leading specialists for resort-based diving in Hawaii.
  

These are some of our best group-leader bargains this year. As always, we're happy to custom craft a special contract for your group to any reasonable destination, anywhere in the Pacific, Caribbean or Indian Ocean. Just call us for details: 952-953-4124.

D. LIVE-ABOARD DIVE VESSEL INCENTIVES:
Here is a capsule summary of tour-leader incentives for some of the world's top live-aboard dive vessels. Please hot-link back to the vessel pages for photos & details.

(Prices & package terms are subject to possible changes):

• MIKE BALL DIVE EXPEDITIONS: for trips of 3 - 12 nights on board the finest dive vessels that ply Australia's Great Barrier Reef & Coral Sea, normally we can give the group leader a free vessel berth (economy) after every 10 divers paid. For Mike Ball's extended exploratory expeditions to the Coral Sea, or to wild virgin sectors of the Barrier Reef, from February through June, we normally can give you 2 free berths after every 10 divers paid & 3 free berths after 20 divers paid. Call us for prices, since there's a wide array of options (budget to deluxe) aboard each vessel, with seasonal variations.
  
  
• For the "ISLAND DANCER " in Fiji, "UNDERSEA HUNTER" at Costa Rica's Cocos Island, & the "TRUK ODYSSEY," "CARIBBEAN EXPLORER + TURKS & CAICOS EXPLORER," also vessels such as OCEAN HUNTERS 1 & 3, please phone us for specific group leader incentives. We'll negotiate special terms for you, once you know exactly how many group members you have ready to make a deposit. These five-star vessels are among the world's top diving live-aboards & can be booked only with early advance deposits -- preferably never later than 8-10 months before departure. (See the Live-Aboard pages in our Web site for color photos & more detailed information on specific vessels, or call us for brochures.
  
  
• The DANCER FLEET:

(Call us about the ever-changing specials for group leaders, which we can secure from this exceptional 5-star fleet. These are among the finest ultra-luxury live-aboards in the world, impeccably appointed. With full-boat charters we normally can secure 2 or 3 free diver berths as a leader comp, depending on vessel & season. There's a port tax added to all trips. These port taxes are required by the host countries of all live-aboard tourists.)


• The AGGRESSOR FLEET:
  

(Call us about the ever-changing specials for group leaders, which we can secure from this exceptional 5-star fleet. These are among the finest ultra-luxury live-aboards in the world, impeccably appointed. With full-boat charters we normally can secure 2 or 3 free diver berths as a leader comp, depending on vessel & season. There's a port tax added to all trips. These port taxes are required by the host countries of all live-aboard tourists.)


• BILIKIKI (Solomon Islands) (For all cruises add nominal government "bed tax.") Group leader gets one free berth after 13 paid divers.
  
  

For more info on USDT's live-aboard vessel options, call: 952-953-4124.

E. The 14-POINT PLAN for GETTING ESTABLISHED
as an INTERNATIONAL TOUR LEADER for USDT:

1. All prospective group leaders for scuba-diving trips must first be formally certified as a divemaster or instructor by PADI, NAUI, SSI or YMCA, or another internationally approved dive certification agency. Your professional status must be current, with no legal or quality assurance issues pending.

2. Great News for Non-Scuba Clients: USDT is always happy to work with any person who wants to organize a non-diving group vacation to any tropical destination. For example, let's say an uncle plans a 34-person family reunion (complete with kids) for a beachfront resort in Kailua-Kona of Hawaii, highlighted by a couple days of boat-based snorkeling or deep-sea fishing. Or maybe an office professional gathers 12 co-workers for a deluxe snorkeling trip to the Belize Barrier Reef. With easygoing vacation trips of this sort, where technical liability is minimal, the group leader can ignore USDT's listed requirements # 1, #4, #5, #8 & #14. Therefore, the non-diving group organizer can enjoy the same resort or vessel discounts we offer to dive tour leaders, with almost no paperwork required. In most cases of large groups, after the group leader's trip is paid for, there still remains ample savings to share among all group members.

3. Back to dive-tour leaders: USDT needs photocopies of your passport's photo/data page, & your driver's license photo/data side, plus both sides of your professional diver certification card (i.e. divemaster or instructor). Thank you for your consideration.

4. All scuba-tour leaders must carry at least $1 million of professional liability insurance (however we strongly recommend $5 million) in your own name -- with U.S. Dive Travel & Wild Island Expeditions specifically listed as co-insured. We recommend PADI's policy. It is universally respected in the industry.

5. Prospective guides need to have completed at least 75 career dives, preferably ocean dives, & we request that your dives be formally logged & dated for USDT review.

6. We need a brief cover letter stating your intentions, summarizing your diving & international travel background, & your basic bio-data -- address, home & work phones, fax, E-mail, age, plus any health issues that may affect safety on scuba. Please list the names, phone numbers & dive shop affiliations of the scuba instructors under whom you received the Rescue, Divemaster & Instructor levels of your certification.

7. Please cite the special destination you have chosen for your group trip. Please provide USDT with a brief written plan for activities, including travel dates, side tours, preferred lodging & number of boat diving days you want USDT to book for you.

8. Apart from your instructors, please provide at least three professional references, for example employers & supervisors -- with names, addresses, phone numbers, company names & a brief explanation of your professional relationship with each person. For university students, professors & career counselors would be suitable references.

9. All tour guides must agree to abide by all Terms & Conditions of the U.S. Dive Travel booking process. (Check the "How to Book a Trip" hot link on our Home Page to review the Terms.) We ask that you require all clients in your party, including yourself -- & even non-divers -- to sign the USDT registration form, the liability release, travel insurance advisory & the PADI-approved medical checklist ( A physical exam is seldom ever needed ñ only for serious medical matters. We run a simple honor system).

10. PAYMENTS -- We ask that the tour guide, to better serve the clients, please establish a clearly separate account for your tours -- apart from your personal checking account. Or you may run the dive team's finances through the checking account of your dive shop or travel center if you own one. Then you need to funnel your clients' deposits & payments of final balance through that special dive-team account at all times, so the team's finances have appropriate, well-managed records. This guideline is extremely important, since U.S. Dive Travel is lending our nationally good name & reputation for integrity toward helping your team members book a trip. Everything you do as guide reflects on all of us. Let's do this the right way from the get-go.

• First-time tour leaders must pay deposit & final balance for lodging, air ticket, vessel & side tour bookings by cashier's check only. After one successful tour, a group leader may thereafter pay deposits & final balances, for both land & air, with Mastercard or Visa.
  
  
• For all group travel, all seasons, here's how payments work: clients pay the group leader & the leader pays U.S. Dive Travel with a single transaction representing the entire group. There are two steps only -- first deposit, then final balance due. (Again, please refer to Terms & Conditions on the "How to Book a Trip Page".) Service fees for missed deadlines will be enforced without exception, since USDT will secure the best possible prices available for you, with many extra services not usually offered by wholesalers.
  

12. We also ask that you please inform your group members that U.S. Dive Travel is compensating you for your organizing work with "group leader perquisites." You need not embellish, since these are private matters between our company & the group leader. To avoid even the appearance of improper fiscal conduct, & to cement your trust relationship with your clients, we ask that you be fully candid with them. They will understand the fairness of your leader perks. They know you worked hard for the group. The guiding principle here is this: clients who get a great price, who feel they're treated fairly & with genuine respect, will be happy clients. They will grant you the perks you have honestly earned. And they will likely return for another trip if you do a good job.

13. More than 90 days before departure, approved tour leaders need to send USDT a list of all group members, including each person's name, address, work & home phone numbers, diving certification level, last dive date, rooming preference (solo, with spouse, with friend), meal preference (regular, veggie or special-needs diet), & whether any client has a disability or medical condition that might affect scuba safety.

14. Tour leaders need to send USDT a brief summary of the trip after completion, noting any accidents or difficulties with clients, & detailing the positive points. We ask that this report be faxed or mailed to USDT no later than 10 days after return. Included in this trip summary, we request a brief review of all air, land & watersport services booked, so we can put positive pressures to bear when reforms are needed, or praise the overseas staffs when they do a great job. This feedback is essential & helps us keep improving our service, while protecting the interests of our good clients.

If you have any further questions, or need additional brochures to help you get started with your first tour group, call JOHN or SUSAN HESSBURG, U.S. Dive Travel general managers in St. Paul, MN, at 952-953-4124, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST. Best wishes.

F. KEY P.R. ISSUE: WHY CLIENTS BENEFIT in a GROUP
Always alert for a better deal, some assertive travel shoppers may challenge you as tour leader & ply you with these questions, "Why should I bother traveling with your guided tour, since you as group leader are buying both land & air reservations wholesale from USDT then marking the total package up to us as clients? Can't USDT give me the same discount deal as you got, if my partner & I just book directly with them?"

The answer is a simple & emphatic, "No." It's best to be frank with your clients. Show them this list below. If they complain, keep your TLC quotient high, but be firm on facts. Show them how you're helping them save money, even though you will mark up their package a fair & reasonable margin to defray your organizing costs. With most bookings at resorts or on vessels where USDT holds a wholesale contract, if clients don't have a large group behind them, they simply cannot match the savings that members of a group will enjoy. For small groups, the resort or vessel would never cut them a deal better than the regular retail price. (Normally, USDT defines a group as 10 or more clients plus the leader.) Here's how the system works, amigos, where USDT holds wholesale contracts:

• When any solo client, or couple, or small group books a trip through USDT, we always try to charge the lowest retail price available on the open market, plus tax & service fee. That's only fair. But couples can't hope to match the purchasing power of a group. Consider this hypothetical example. If you go to a computer store & buy a top-notch printer for your home system, you'll pay $ X. But if you buy 12 printers, one for each department of your business, you may pay only $ X minus 25%. Fair again, right?
  
  
• USDT's price structures are designed to favor group leaders & their tour members. That's because USDT is willing to sell air & land to the group leader at a per-client profit margin much lower than we could tolerate with solos, couples or small groups. If a group leader sends us lots of good people, we can afford to take a calculated loss in normal profit on each person, to reward the leader's work, since he's making up for that per-client loss with volume. Therefore, if any prospective client's vacation dates match those of a USDT group already being organized, that client would do well to join up.
  
  
• To be fair to tour organizers who devote long hours to gathering their groups, our net rate to them is a specially negotiated discount price that no solo diver, nor couple, nor any small-group of retail clients ever can secure by booking directly with USDT. It would be economically infeasible -- & as Mr. Spock says "illogical" -- to do otherwise.
  
  
• In special cases, sometimes USDT can negotiate an exceptional ad hoc discount (with a better-than-wholesale net rate) for a group leader -- with a resort, vessel or dive operation owner with whom we've enjoyed years of positive dealings -- when an unusually large number of clients is booked. Call us for details: 952-953-4124.
  
  
• How do we keep order & consistency? U.S. Dive Travel negotiates its special discount prices for group leaders on two sliding scales of reward (proprietary information): 1. The more clients a group leader signs up, the better his or her net rate will be. 2. Among our group leaders, those who have run several successful trips with USDT already, & who run their trips with minimal fuss, schedule changes & client cancellations will be given preferred net rates, or special bonuses, whenever possible.
  
  
• Clients may ask, "How can I become a USDT group leader?" Not difficult. Please refer to our easy 14-Point Plan above for getting approved as a tour leader, & administering your group. Please note that U.S. Dive Travel will not release detailed & formal price quotes over the phone, fax or e-mail to any prospective group leader until we get a list of names, addresses, phone numbers & certification levels of the potential group clients, plus travel dates, plus basic application data listed in the 14-Point Plan.
  
  
• You have our pledge that all information we request will be maintained in strict confidentiality. U.S. Dive Travel always protects the privacy rights of all our guides & clients. Only two persons, the USDT directors, have any access to your private file.

G. For PROSPECTIVE DIVEMASTERS
If you're an Advanced or Rescue certified diver & you're about to sign up for your Divemaster course, here's a little item to assist you in hitting the deck running. One requirement that PADI & NAUI, the top certification companies in North America, will insist upon is that you complete a comprehensive emergency plan for handling scuba-related rescues at your local level. It might sound easy but consider the context.

After months of slogging through your pool work & open water checkout dives with basic students, while juggling your work & social lives, & keeping the ol' dog walked & the lawn mowed, you'll likely be bushed. Trust us, we've been there. So here's a bit of good news.

Feel free to crib any ideas you need from this model emergency plan we developed for our own Divemaster course in Puget Sound. Of course, the obvious specifics will vary from city to city (emergency numbers, etc.) but this plan will highlight the basics.

Hope this encourages you to jump in & tackle the exciting Divemaster curriculum with some gusto. Don't worry, you'll do an excellent job! It's really a lot of fun & not as tough as you might expect. The challenge is stimulating. The professional diver certification card represents an achievement, & an honor, that will last you a lifetime. Go for it!

If you live in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan or Australia, call us at 952-953-4124 & we'll help connect you to a top-flight PADI instructor who can give you an excellent Divemaster course. Then once you get your Divemaster card, the hardest part is over. Just make a few phone calls to line up some dive buddies & you may be on your way to becoming one of our hard-working (& well-pampered) team of overseas tour guides. Here goes.....

H. EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE PLAN for DIVEMASTERS
IMMEDIATE FIRST AID ONCE VICTIM on SHORE:

(Treatment is the same for suspected lung-expansion injury or decompression sickness.)

1. Calm the victim, if he or she is conscious. Send somebody quickly to call "911" with details of the emergency.

2. Keep the victim's airway open. This is imperative.

3. For the first 20 minutes after the accident, place the victim head down, left side down. After that, shift the victim to a prone position flat on his or her back. Keep the victim still.

4. If victim is conscious & breathing, administer 100% oxygen through demand-regulator valve system. Keep oxygen flowing smoothly until emergency medical help arrives.

5. If victim is not breathing, & no pulse is detectable, administer proper CPR, as per rescue training (use the "A-B-C" memory jogger):

• Arousal & Airway, Breathing, Check Pulse.
  
  
• 15 compressions of sternum then two breaths, repeat indefinitely until emergency medical help arrives. If you have 2 rescuers, split duties.
  
  
• For adults, compress sternum 1.5 - 2" inward at a point two finger spaces above bottom nub of breastbone.
  
  
• Do compressions at a rate of 80-100 per minute for adults. Stay steady.
  
  

6. Protect victim from excessive heat, cold, wetness or hazardous exhaust fumes.

7. Give victim fluids -- but absolutely no alcohol, caffeine or stimulants of any kind!

When qualified medical technicians arrive, advise them that IV fluids are in order for the entire ride back to a hospital emergency room or hyperbaric chamber.

8. Arrange for immediate evacuation when help arrives. Advise EMTs to keep the oxygen flow on non-stop for the full ride back to medical facility. Just like the IVs, this is vital.