CC BY
17
Elena R. SHARKO udc 338.48
DOI: 10.24412/1995-0411-2021-1-70-80
Lomonosov Moscow State University;
Institute of Scientific Information on Social Sciences,
Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia)
PhD in Economics; Research Center for Network Economy, Analyst;
Researcher of the Department of economics; e-mail: [email protected]
FUTURE OF NICHE TOURISM: DIVING IN RUSSIAN WATER AREAS
Abstract. This article discusses the role of niche tourism as a special type of tourist attractions that form a unique tourist product. The goal of the study is to identify promising ways to boost of extreme diving tours offered in Russia, including possible ways to improve the skills of divers in order to expand the range of diving services adaptive for tourism. A systematic and situational approach, as well as formal logical analysis and desk research are the main research methods. Based on a literature review on the approaches to understanding the specific features of niche types of diving and the importance of tourist impressions in the formation of customer loyalty, the author discusses the development of such types of diving as Cave Diving and Bog Diving in Russia and abroad, as well as the main trends that affect the prospects for boost. Among these are: the search for effective combinations of regular tours with new elements of different types of diving; the popularization of extreme diving training programs not only within the framework of volunteer programs or as a personal hobby of individual clients, but also as an integral part of a tourist product with increased value for the client; the formation of diving infrastructure from the position of a tourist object. The main paths of further research are a comparative analysis of the best management practices and the development of a system of indicators for assessing the quality of a niche tourist product provided to visitors of Russia's diving centers.
Keywords: diving, customer experience, niche tourism, сave and bog diving, tourist product, extreme tourism
Citation: Sharko, E. R. (2021). Future of niche tourism: diving in Russian water areas. Service and Tourism: Current Challenges, 15(1), 70-80. doi: 10.24412/1995-0411-2021-1-70-80. Article History Disclosure statement
Received 5 February 2021 No potential conflict of interest was reported by
Accepted 25 February 2021 the author(s).
© 2021 the Author(s)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
ШАРКО Елена Романовна УДК 338.48
DOI: 10.24412/1995-0411-2021-1-70-80
Московский государственный университет имени М.В. Ломоносова; Институт научной информации по общественным наукам РАН (Москва, РФ); кандидат экономических наук, аналитик; научный сотрудник отдела экономики; [email protected]
БУДУЩЕЕ НИШЕВОГО ТУРИЗМА: ДАЙВИНГ В РОССИЙСКИХ АКВАТОРИЯХ
В статье рассматривается роль нишевого туризма как особого вида туристских аттрак-ций, формирующих уникальный туристский продукт. Целью представленного исследования является определение перспективных направлений развития предлагаемых в России экстремальных дайвинг-туров, в том числе возможных способов повышения квалификации дайверов с целью расширения ассортимента дайвинг-услуг адаптивных для туризма. Основными методами исследования послужили системный и ситуационный подход, а также формально-логический анализ и кабинетное исследование. На основе обзора научной литературы, в которой представлены подходы к пониманию специфических особенностей нишевых типов дайвинга и значимости впечатлений туриста при формировании клиентской лояльности, автор характеризует развитие таких типов дайвинга как пещерный и болотный дайвинг в России и за рубежом, а также основные тенденции, оказывающие влияние на перспективы их развития. Среди основных тенденций могут быть отмечены: поиск эффективных комбинаций регулярных туров с новыми элементами разных типов дайвинга; популяризация программ подготовки по экстремальному дайвингу не только в рамках волонтерских программ или в аспекте личного хобби отдельных клиентов, но и как неотъемлемая часть туристического продукта с повышенной ценностью для клиента; формирование дайвинг-инфраструктуры с позиции туристического объекта. Основ-ными направлениями дальнейших исследований являются сравнительный анализ лучших практик управления и разработка системы показателей для оценки качества нишевого туристического продукта, предоставляемого посетителям российских дайвинг-центров.
Ключевые слова: дайвинг, клиентские впечатления, нишевый туризм, пещерный и болотный дайвинг, туристский продукт, экстремальный туризм
Для цитирования: Шарко Е.Р. Будущее нишевого туризма: дайвинг в российских акваториях // Современные проблемы сервиса и туризма. 2021. Т.15. №1. С. 70-80. DOI: 10.24412/1995-0411-2021-1-70-80.
Дата поступления в редакцию: 5 февраля 2021 г. Дата утверждения в печать: 25 февраля 2021 г.
Introduction
In the post-covid phase of the Russian economy, tourism is once again beginning to gain momentum. Until the spring of 2020, both domestic and outbound tourism in Russia reached its peak: strategic support from the state contributed to the emergence of new vectors for the development of domestic tourism and this led to the emergence of new tourist routes, the development of author tours and the creation of new niches in tourism [14].
Tourism development gives many countries of the world the opportunity to attract capital and financial resources to the general state budget, thereby increasing cash receipts in strategic sectors of the country, according to the tourism multiplier effect, which in combination with state policies and sustainable development programs, contributes to the development of the tourism business, the creation and expansion of opportunities for tourist centers, improving the infrastructure of tourist destinations, as well as improving the standard of living of the population [1]. The state ought to regulate tourism activities in the country in accordance with the concept of sustainable development as a matter of priority.
From the point of view of marketing promotion of new niches in tourism, it is important to highlight the features and specific characteristics of each such unique niche in order to correctly orient consumers to the motives to choose a new niche for organizing their own leisure.
Diving tourism, as a new niche in Russian tourism, is becoming popular by a few reasons: first, people in general have become more likely to choose active recreation (the main motives: a healthy lifestyle, the wish to visit different parts of the world, to experience strong emotions and adrenaline-fear of heights, depths, speed, animals, dangerous food, etc.); secondly, the environmental disaster of many natural areas (previously beautiful and attractive) forces many people to visit such places free of charge and improve their condition with their work (garbage collection, cleaning of reservoirs and forests, planting of rare plants, etc.). In this regard, diving tourism can meet the needs of several segments
of tourists at once, which justifies its rapid development.
In this article, we will discuss the role of the development of diving tourism in Russia as an eco-tourism niche, which in recent years has been gaining great popularity both in foreign resorts among Russian tourists, and is characterised by an increased demand for foreign tourists, especially in the freshwaters of our country.
Diving tourism is a specialized sports and entertainment center created with a specific function, which provides an opportunity for visitors to dive into marine and freshwaters without long-term preliminary training and certification under the supervision of professional instructors in order to study and familiarize themselves with the specific features of the diving halo (alternative tourism) or to clean up the water area to improve the ecological condition (eco-tourism) [5; 21].
The structure of the article is as follows. First, we provide a brief overview of the literature on niche tourism as objects of tourism marketing, as well as structure the features and distinctive characteristics of diving tourism in the Russian reality. Secondly, we describe the promising areas of development of diving tourism in Russia and abroad. Third, we discuss the main trends that affect the future development of diving centers, especially in cooperation with ecotourism and the "green" economy. The final section provides conclusions and suggestions for future research.
Diving: environmental, social and economic aspects
Diving tourism has recently become a multibillion-dollar industry, attracting millions of people to explore the underwater world [3; 19]. The 2010 diving boom led to an increased flow of investment in a variety of products, from the retail sale of diving goods to the organization of dives in popular diving centers and little-known water spaces, stimulating the emergence and growth of the number of diving schools, diving equipment stores [4]. Like all tourism industries, diving requires careful consideration of whether it is based on the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social, and economic [7; 17]. This fact occurs in the aspect of the powerful potential that the diving tourism industry has to imple-
ment and promote nature conservation, attract tourism, generate income, improve the quality of life of people and motivate their own pride - every dive, because of its danger, is equated with an achievement [11].
Any water space, from a small pond, river and to the ocean, is actively used by people for recreation and leisure and is an attractive object of tourism. Water resources are used for the development of recreational beach, beach-bathing, water, cruise and wellness tourism, yachting and diving, surfing, windsurfing [8].
Water tour is a type of active tourism that combines all the trips associated with active ways of movement and recreation on the water. In this case, the focus is only on diving centers of tourist orientation - recreational diving - diving for tourists with the goal of obtaining pleasure and primary experience (professional diving will not be considered in this study).
Recreational diving is diving, positioned for recreation, entertainment. There are safety and accessibility at the forefront. Unlike sports (professional) diving, recreational diving removes restrictions on the level of training received by a diver in technical courses. IANTD1 and TDI2 define this type of diving as "any dive into an over-the-head environment outside of the daylight zone, any dive deeper than 40 meters and any dive requiring decompression stops"3.
Types of technical diving are Cave Diving and Bog Diving. Oppositely professional (commercial) diving, when divers perform work during dives and it is usually paid by the customer, recreational divers, on the contrary, most often pay for providing their dives.
The history of diving began in ancient times - the first dive in 1530 was officially recorded after testing the newly developed underwater bell with air inside (Diving Bell). Since then, the story has developed rapidly as the technical modernization of equipment for divers. In 1933, the first diving club in California was opened ("Bot-
1 International Association of Nitrox and Technical Divers (IANTD) is a scuba diving organization concerned with certification and training in recreational diving, technical diving, cave diving, wreck diving, rebreather diving and diver leadership.
2 IANTD RUSSIA. https://www.iantd.ru/iantd-hist-ory (Accessed on January, 10, 2021)
3 Technical Diving International. https://www.tdis-
di-russia.ru (Accessed on January, 10, 2021)
tom Scrapers"), a year later a similar diving club opened in Paris. Their main goal was exclusively underwater fishing [16]. Since diving has not only become an integral part of the underwater sport, but also an important and promising niche of the entire tourist business.
In the current conditions of oversupply in the market of tourist services, consumers are "bored" to choose among standard tourist products - new requests have formed a new niche-extreme tourism and unique types of tours (including water diving tours of all types). The existing types of diving are presented in Table 1.
Based on the studied works of different authors, we present a classification of diving, in which we have distributed all types of diving depending on the methods of diving (there are four of them), according to the degree of risk (safety of diving) and according to the degree of complexity of each type (from initial experience to professional activity) (Fig. 1).
Figure 1 shows there are all types of diving arranged in four quadrants: I - breath-holding diving, using a mask, breathing tube, and fins; II - scuba diving4; III - diving with compressed air, the breathing mixture comes from the surface through a hose, and then is transferred to the regulator; IV - diving in a special chamber. Positions 10, 11 and 12 cannot be adapted for tourism today, as they require a highly qualified diver and are characterized by a high risk of diving.
Positions 1-5 are very popular among tourists in different countries and have long occupied a significant share of water tourism. Positions 7 and 9 have become adaptive for tourism only in the last decade with the growth of the number of certified diving schools around the world - the demand for diving of increased complexity is growing, equipment is constantly being modified and becomes more accessible to the general public. Positions 6 and 8 are located at the intersection of the line (highlighted by the author in order to divide all types into adaptive for tourism and non-adaptive) and today are the subject of study, both in tourism and in the socio-ecological spheres. In this study, these types of diving are identified as new niches in the development of extreme tourism.
4 SCUBA - Self Contained Underwater Breathing
Apparatus
Table 1 - Types of diving5
Title Description Quality skills
1. Snorkeling Swimming takes place under the surface of the water with a mask and a breathing tube. This minimal equipment is enough to observe the beauty of the underwater world for a long time with minimal effort Open Water Diver (OWD)
2. Sport-diving Diving for the purpose of performing certain sports disciplines, participating in competitions, setting world records in scuba diving Advanced OWD
3. Introdive Before diving, the beginner is instructed (20-30 minutes), and in the water he is accompanied by an instructor. The dive takes place at a shallow depth (up to 5 m), so it does not require special physical training Scuba Diver
4. Para-diving Scuba diving and special equipment, scuba diving for the disabled, accompanied by an instructor Scuba Diver
5. Dive-safari Safari, a trip to visit places far from the coast or port for diving. It is characterized by permanent residence on a boat equipped for diving, a high frequency of dives (from three to five dives per day). The boat with scuba divers goes out to sea for several days: from 3 days to a week or two, during which the divers dive, in a large number of different places (sites) Scuba Diver
6. Bog Diving Scuba diving in flooded quarries, abandoned reservoirs. It belongs to the category of extreme diving. Characteristic features — pollution of the reservoir, limited visibility. The goal of the dive is to purify water reservoirs Divemaster
7. Night Diving Diving in the dark or in places where light rays do not penetrate, using additional lighting equipment and equipment. For such an immersion, you must have an admission that opens when you pass a certain course and pass an exam Divemaster
8. Cave Diving Diving in underwater caves. It is a very dangerous type of diving and makes extremely serious demands on the skills of the swimmer, the reliability of the equipment and the configuration of the equipment. Exploring underwater caves can be interesting not only from the point of view of extreme recreation, but also as a scientific study or search for historical values. Divemaster
9. Ice Diving Winter diving, which requires special skills and endurance, and of course, equipment. The dive takes place in a «dry» wetsuit - it does not allow water to pass to the body and allows you to use additional lower layers (thermal underwear or warm clothing). Divemaster
10. Deep Diving Diving deeper than 40 meters in the absence of the possibility of «direct ascent» (when there is a physical barrier on the surface); the use of more than one gas mixture during the dive (air, nitrox, trimix, heliox); the use of a closed or semi-closed cycle rebreather Divemaster
11. Chamber diving When diving, three types of cameras are used: 1) a hollow sphere made of metal-it is lowered from the ship using a cable; 2) a sphere with automatic control - no cable is required to lower the camera to a depth and lift it up, the control is fully automated; 3) a submarine that can move independently. Chamber diving allows you to withstand high water pressure and dive to a depth of several hundred meters for the purpose of exploring various depths for scientific or informational purposes Divemaster
12. Professional diving Performing professional diving work of various complexity in order to eliminate social and environmental problems, the work is fully paid Divemaster
5 Source: developed by the author based on https://colorweek.ru/vidy-i-raznovidnosti-dajvinga, https://zen. yandex.ru/media/diverblog/kakim-daivingom-zaniatsia-vidy-daivinga and https://globaldiving.ru/obuchenie/ tablitsyi-ekvivalentnosti.html (Accessed on January, 12, 2021)
Quality skills
Fig. 1 - Classification of diving types and relation to tourism (developed by the author based)
Niche tourism: challenges or unique opportunities?
S. S. Maletin defines it as "niche tourism is a type of tourism that involves the travel of tourists, whose choice of vacation is determined by a special motivation, and the level of satisfaction with the impressions received as a result of the trip" [10]. Niche tourism involves adapting a specific tourism product to meet the needs of a particular audience or market segment.
The basis of niche tourism is a special purpose of travel, which is the primary motivating factor. Such a goal may be related to an unusual traveler's hobby or activities that are practiced by a small circle of people, as well as certain destination conditions that attract niche market segments [15].
Among the distinctive characteristics of niche tourism, different authors include the following:
- focuses of niche tourism are single tourists, families or small groups of people (friends, colleagues, club members) [2];
- following the fashion (today "to get rest like everyone else" is no trend, even in the usual routes and tours, it is important to try new things, see the unique and get your own personalized experience) [13];
- concentration on impressions (today many psychological directions for personal development are focused on the "living" of individual emotions and states, so such tours are actively developing, in which a tourist can get a specific impression or "feel" a certain condition) [6];
- careful preparation and study of the place of travel (in order to "recreate" the desired impressions, the authors of the tours very painstakingly pay attention to details, elements, trifles, the algorithm of the implementation of the tourist service - if the tourist does not receive 100% of the expectation, the impression will be spoiled and the goal of niche tourism will not be achieved) [12];
- aspiration to keep impressions (knowledge, photography, painting, learning local languages - in addition to the "pure" tourist product, the tourist needs to keep the impression through experience or material things) [18].
Moreover, niche tourism allows to significantly expanding the offer for consumers - each new unique niche forms a valuable tourist product (supposing to master a new skill, to gain new experience, to "live" certain emotions, to form a special impression). At the same time, there is a mix of destinations
- instead of developing the chosen niche; tour operators combine different niches into a common product, which does not allow the consumer to separate the unique experience from the overall impression of the chosen tour.
Each new niche at the developing stage requires significant investments and costs (preliminary advertising campaign, search and study of potential consumers and segments, organization and provision of safety and comfort measures for a tourist product), but during being on the "plateau" phase, revenues increase rapidly. Also, those travel companies that acted as "pioneers" of a new niche, as a rule, become industry leaders in this case.
Cave Diving in the world and in Russia
Cave Diving is one of the most difficult types of diving in general, which consists of diving into various underwater caves and grottos. The difficulty of Cave Diving primarily lies in the fact that, if necessary, a quick straight ascent to the top is simply impossible: first you have to get out of the cave itself in conditions of limited visibility or get through different layers of water
- clear and muddy, and just after you can do the ascent to the top. Without proper Table 2 - World Top-10 the most wonderful sites for
diver skills, such extreme tourism is very dangerous.
There is a special classification of caves that may be of tourist interest to consumers:
1) coral caves are of any length, characterized by very beautiful views and inhabitants of the underwater world (as a rule, they are located in warm seas, the undisputed leader is the Red Sea);
2) glacial caves are very deep walls of ice and ice grottos, almost identical types cannot be found, as the water constantly changes the shape and relief of ice caves (widely represented in the northern seas, the Arctic is gaining popularity);
3) sea or lake caves formed as a result of the impact of the surf, tides, tides and other water currents. As a rule, they are not very deep and are characterized by a small difficulty of diving (most of these caves are found in the Dominican Republic);
4) karst caves differ in a wide variety, as well as the presence of dry and completely flooded areas (there are the most popular on the Mexican cenotes). Also, such caves include various sinkholes and mines flooded with water (for example, a Marble quarry in Karelia, Russia).
Table 2 shows the best places for Cave Diving in the world.
Cave Diving6
Title Unique characteristic Recommended time for visit Location
1. Grand Cenote Cenotes are extremely beautiful sinkholes in the ground with tree roots and lianas hanging down to the water. The cenote mystifies divers with its layer of hydrogen sulfide: this cloudy, almost mythical substance separates the incredibly clean fresh water from the salt water, located at a depth of about 30 meters below. The cave continues to fall to 60 meters May - September Tulum, Mexico
2. Indian Springs The main passageway tunnel reaches 183 meters before coming to a T-shaped intersection. There are several attractions inside the cave (The Bone Narcosis Room, The Power Room, and the Wakulla Room). The depth of the dive is from 37 to 55 meters April - October Florida, USA
3. Grand Bahama The Lucayan National Park is home to the longest freshwater cave system in the world. In addition to the fascinating mix of fresh and salt water, you can see stalactites, stalagmites and fossilized shells in the cave October - June Freeport, Bahamas Islands
4. Orda Cave The Orda Cave is the longest gypsum cave in the world and the longest cave in Russia. Located in the eastern foothills of the Urals, this cave diving paradise is filled with white walls and ever-changing landscapes thanks to the fact that gypsum dissolves quickly. This dive site is full of huge halls up to 76 meters across and tiny walkways May - September Perm Region, Russia
6 Source: developed by the author based on https://yandex.ru/turbo/megadive.ru/s/news/tpost/kprn6nla2e-keiv-daiving-10-luchshih-daiv-saitov-v-m, http://www.autotravel.ua/rus/articles/naykrashi-miscya-dlya-cave-daivinga/ and https://www.kooxdiving.com/en/top-10-best-cave-diving-sites-in-the-world/ (Accessed on January, 12, 2021)
Title Unique characteristic Recommended time for visit Location
5. Abismo Anhumas Every day, 18-25 people can descend 24 floors through a tiny hole at the top of the Abismo Anhumas to the underground lake below. Sunlight enters this lake only for a short time during the day, and the water is filled with huge shoals of fish. The crystal clear water invites divers to explore the most beautiful part of the lake, located between 15 and 25 meters December -March Bonito, Brazil
6. Chinhoyi caves The system of limestone tunnels and caves today is filled with unusually clear water. There are several entrances to the system, but the most popular is the «Sleeping Pool» with its 20-meter vertical walls and several windows that allow sunlight to enter. In one of the rooms there are dice, and in the other there are coins tossed for good luck April - May, August - September Mashonaland, Zimbabwe
7. Turtle Cave A vertical reef wall that drops down (about 700 meters), where it is absolutely possible to look into the eyes of the abyss - the dream of any diver. A popular attraction is the Turtle Cave or Turtle Cemetery. The main tunnel, about 10 meters wide, leads to the Main Chamber, where other passages diverge, leading to small chambers. The skeletons of the skull lie in different places at a distance of 100-200 meters from the entrance. In the cave there is an emergency exit - a small hole leading to the reef, it is located only 4 meters from the surface of the water March - October Sipadan Island, Malaysia
8. Lastochkino gnezdo The view of the Cape Ai-Todor and the Lastochkino gnezdo is the hallmark of the resort. But almost no one knows that under the rock with a panoramic view of the surrounding area there is another pearl - the underwater cave Swallow's Nest. This is a small, but very beautiful system of underwater caves, connected by passages between the blockages. The cave has an entrance from the cliff, but it is quite difficult to access. The dry hall allows you to take a breath of fresh underground air and admire the play of light rays. The main entrance is located at a depth of 8 meters May - October Crimea, Russia
9. Emergence Du Russel The cave of Emergence du Russel has a 4-kilometer loop that begins at a fork located just behind the entrance to the cave. One of the passages has a depth of 9 meters, and the other descends to 18 meters. While most drivers will never complete the loop, the cave attracts cave diving experts from all over the world April - October Dordogne, France
10. Nereo cave Known as the largest underwater cave in the Mediterranean Sea. The huge size, as well as the arches and tunnels attract divers from all over the world. Most dive profiles start with a 30-meter descent. A wide tunnel hundreds of meters long returns to the exit of the cave at a depth of 18 meters. As Nereo Cave is within recreational limits and quite easy to navigate, this Sardinian dive site makes a fantastic introduction to cave diving April - October Alghero, Sardinia
Table 2 suggests the optimal time for diving in these caves for tourist purposes, as for experienced and professional divers, these sites are available all year round. Quite significant for the development of cave diving in Russia is the fact that among the world's dive sites, the fourth and eighth positions are occupied by caves that are located on the territory of the Russian Federation.
It should be noting that diving for Russian tourists is a very expensive activity
(the average price per dive varies from 800 euros to 1000 euros, including equipment rental7), despite this, this type of tourism is gaining popularity in Russia. There are already a large number of dive clubs in the domestic market, offering various diving tours throughout Russia (shown in Table 3. You can dive not only on the warm Black Sea, but also in the Northern seas, on Lake Baikal, etc.
7 https://www.oladiving.ru/price/price-cave (Accessed on January, 12, 2021)
Table 3 - Regions of dive centers presence and sites for Cave Diving in Russia8
Region Number of dive centers Number of Cave Diving sites Number of the most interesting Cave Diving sites according tourists' experience
1. Karelia. White Sea 1 16 8
2. Sakhalin 1 6 4
3. Barents Sea 3 14 8
4. Commander Islands 0 2 4
5. Kuril Islands 0 2 0
6. Perm Region 2 5 2
7. Crimea 7 12 9
8. Ryazan Region 1 1 0
9. Smolensk Region 0 1 0
10. Novgorod Region 0 1 1
11. Tver Region 0 2 1
12. Moscow and Moscow Region 3 5 1
13. Kamchatka 1 19 8
14. Baltic Sea 1 6 1
15. Yaroslavl Region 0 8 1
Total 20 100 48
In total, there are 81 diving centers in Russia (data is actual on February 01, 2021)9.
A few recent studies confirm elements of experience are crucial factors in creating and maintaining successful diving tours. Therefore, the traditional diving industry should focus intensely on the empirical processes of consumers and collect detailed reviews and impressions about what impressed the most in a particular location and what was initially expected to be seen [8].
8 Source: developed by the author based on http://www.dipping.ru/regions/ (Accessed on January, 12, 2021).
9 https://akvalaz.ru/diving/kluby/rossiya (Ac-
cessed on January, 12, 2021).
Bog Diving: symbiosis of entertainment and environmental assistance to nature
In addition to the economic prospects for the development of niche diving tourism, environmental problems are also getting worse. With an increase in irresponsible drivers who do not think about the damage they can cause by unreasonable consumption of resources, the environmental situation in the regions is fading. Thus, careless tourists can bring the region center of underwater tourism to a state in which tourism, as an activity, will be absent. The problems of pollution in this case can be solved — all dives under water should be carried out only under the guidance of diving centers.
Noteworthy in recent decades, extreme tourist tours of an ecological nature have become increasingly popular - in order to clear the natural area of pollution and garbage [20].
Today volunteering with credo "Save our Planet before it's too late" is very developed, and tours in which tourists act as "saviors" of nature are very popular-from cleaning garbage on the coasts to planting rare plants or caring for rare endangered breeds of animals. As a rule, such tours in most cases belong to the author's tours, but there is a demand and it is constantly growing, so for tourism, this trend should certainly become an object of marketing and a vector of development in the near future. Therefore, such a type of diving as swamp diving should be positioned as eco-tourism: in addition to personal testing and improving the experience of a tourist as a diver with a special dive in muddy waters, it is necessary to form the goal of such a tour - the sanitization and safeguarding of the natural virgin nature of the water reservoir.
Eco-diving is one of the areas of scuba diving, which was formed within the framework of environmental tourism. One of the most important principles of eco-diving is the comprehensive conservation of resources. Today, drivers under the guidance of scientists solve important tasks aimed at preserving aquatic and marine ecosystems: cleaning the underwater depths from anthropogenic debris, mapping, etc.10
10 http://pattaya24.ru/blogs/klub-lyubiteleidaiv-inga-i-snorklinga-v-pataie/yekologicheskii-daiving-
The World Confederation of Underwater Activities - an international organization of CMAS11 - has been studying problems related to the marine environment, coastal ecosystems, and the preservation of their biodiversity for more than 50 years12.
Modern diving centers carry out a number of global projects aimed at protecting the environment. Thus, the largest international organization - the Association of Underwater Instructors - PADI13 (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) participates in the implementation of international environmental projects for the cleaning of underwater territories and coastal zones of water bodies, monitoring and mapping of areas of the World Ocean that have been subjected to negative anthropological impact14.
Based on the project "Project A.W.A.R.E."15 (Aquatic World Awareness, Responsibility and Education) PADI since the end of 1992, a non-profit charitable organization has been operating, carrying out activities for the protection of water resources, flora and fauna in 180 countries around the world [9].
This organization promotes the development of Bog Diving by promoting the purchase of diving tours through tour operators of the Project AWARE "Environmental Operators" list or through other organizations that do not harm the natural environment16.
In the ending, diving tourism is a very exciting and impressive type of recreation, allowing you to discover and explore the amazing underwater world, as well as experience a truly unforgettable experience. And all the people who were lucky enough to try it on themselves will certainly remain true to their
sohrani-okean.html (Accessed on January, 12, 2021).
11 World Confederation of Underwater Activities" in brief "CMAS". URL: https://www.cmas.org
12 About the Scientific Committee. URL: http:// www.cmas.org/science/about-sci
13 https://www2.padi.com/blog/ru/2017/09/04 (Accessed on March, 10, 2021).
14 http://docplayer.ru/32755968-Dive-against-de-bris-rukovodstvo-po-anketirovaniyuanketirovanie-morskogo-musora-dlya-dayverov.html (Accessed on January, 12, 2021).
15 https://www.projects-abroad.ru/volunteer-proj-ects/conservation-and-environment/ (Accessed on January, 12, 2021).
16 Project AWARE. URL: http://www.projectaware. org
new hobby, thereby adding to the ranks of scuba diving enthusiasts.
Conclusions and future research
Our study confirms the role of niche tourism as a prospect for the successful development and functioning of water tourism. In order to provide experiences that lead to customer satisfaction, travel companies (in this case, diving centers) must ensure that all services are of good quality, not only the entertainment part of the tourist product, but also the provision of high-quality training and training. There are many components to consider, including the physical environment, collaborative interaction with all diving stakeholders, understanding the needs and interests of the target audience, the emotional aspects of customer perception, extreme tour targets, and profitability considerations.
The main trends affecting the future development of Cave and Bog Diving are the following:
- search for effective combinations of regular tours with new elements of different types of diving;
- promotion of extreme diving training programs not only as part of volunteer programs or as a personal hobby of individual clients, but also as an integral part of a tourist product with increased value for the client;
- formation of diving infrastructure according to the tourist object (for example, the first underwater hotels for divers already exist, unique small performances are held at the final diving stations, indoor water centers are being built for mastering and training classes in all types of diving).
The analysis of the Russia's market shows that there is a huge potential for the development of diving tourism in the domestic market: the presence of certified diving training centers, a long history of the development and formation of diving, the presence of a large number of diving sites in almost all regions of the country for every taste and preferences of even an experienced diver.
At present, the market is suffering one more collapse caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the totally reorientation to domestic tourism can play a crucial role in the rapid development of niche diving tourism in Russia. Being in the same diffi-
cult situation as all diving centers in other countries, Russian diving centers can reduce the gap if they use the pause to ana-
lyze the best international examples as a reference point and try to ride new directions and niches.
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