Dive Shop Revenue 101: 5 Ways To Make More Money

You opened a dive shop to live your dream — sharing the ocean with others and spending your days doing what you love. But passion alone doesn’t pay the bills. 

Many local dive shops report profit margins of around 50% on gear sales, according to the Business of Diving Institute. But high margins on paper often don’t survive real-world challenges like small inventories, online competition, and low-profit services like air fills.

If you want to grow your dive shop’s revenue, you need a strategic plan. That means focusing on services that consistently attract customers and generate extra income. 

Learn how dive shops earn money, and five ideas to make your business more profitable.

How Dive Shops Make Money

Dive shops make money through training, experiences, and customer-facing services. However, not every category contributes equally to your bottom line.

Here’s how dive shop revenue works (and what brings in the highest margins):

• Increase margins with training and certifications: Offering open water, advanced, and specialty courses builds long-term engagement. Training accounts for around 32% of dive shop profits, making it the strongest revenue stream across the industry.

• Generate high returns through charters, trips, and rentals: Running guided dives, local excursions, and multi-day travel packages, as well as bundling trips with rental gear or course credits, raises average booking value and encourages repeat visits.

• Boost transaction size with retail gear and branded merchandise: Selling dive gear like masks, fins, wetsuits, and lifestyle items that complement diving activities. Equipment makes up around 27% of total dive store profits, and pairing it with services can increase earnings.

• Bring in recurring income with memberships and gift cards: Growing revenue through prepaid fills, loyalty perks, and services like tank refills or gear checks. These programs encourage return visits and reduce reliance on one-time sales.

Understanding which categories drive profit helps you decide where to focus and how to grow sustainably.

5 Ways To Increase Dive Shop Revenue

Once you know where your revenue comes from, it’s time to grow it. These strategies help you create more consistent income, attract repeat business, and make better use of what you’re already offering: 

1. Turn Specialty Dive Courses Into a Profit Stream

Dive certifications are a reliable source of income for most shops, but to make real gains, you need to host more than entry-level classes. In 2024, Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) shops earned an average of $186,000 more than non-affiliated centers by teaching a wider range of structured courses.

Ways to expand your course income:

• Put together bundled packages, like Open Water + Advanced, to secure future bookings.
• Promote specialty classes like night diving, nitrox, or underwater photography.
• Add orientation sessions for hesitant beginners to increase enrollment.
• Track where students lose interest and follow up to re-engage them.

Include registration through your point of sale (POS) system to make sign-up easier for both staff and students.

2. Run Regular Dive Charters With Flexible Options

Charters can be one of your local dive center’s most profitable services — but only if they’re easy to join and consistently available. Trips that match diver skill levels and interests are more likely to fill up and lead to repeat bookings.

Make your events easier to plan and commit to:

• Publish a monthly calendar with local dives, day trips, and seasonal travel.
• Schedule departures for different needs, like Saturday mornings for working divers and midweek afternoons for tourists.
• Plan themed dive trips like wreck sites, night tours, or underwater photo sessions to give certified divers a reason to return.
• Include gear rentals or course tie-ins to raise the total value of each booking.

Manage charter trip schedules and sign up with your POS to turn every dive destination into a reliable source of revenue for your dive shop business.  

3. Boost Cash Flow With Dive Gift Cards and Group Bookings

Gift cards bring in cash before the diver even walks through the door — and most recipients spend more than the card’s value. Tying them to specific services or group bookings can raise order values and attract customers you might not reach otherwise.

Make gift cards part of your revenue strategy:

• Link cards to high-value services — like training with a skilled dive professional or an intro course on local dive sites — to encourage larger purchases.
• Create occasion-based cards for birthdays, honeymoons, or graduations to give people a reason to buy now.
• Run limited-time perks (like $10 extra with $100) during peak seasons to increase the average sale amount.

Make sure your gift cards are readily available, and offer online and in store options so customers can buy them wherever they’re checking out. 

4. Reignite Interest With Past Divers — And Keep Them Coming Back

Most dive shops focus on getting people certified, then lose momentum. That’s a missed opportunity. Future bookings often come from people you’ve already trained, and staying in touch is what brings them back.

To keep your certified divers engaged:

• Send reactivation emails before dive season to prompt a return — something as simple as “Ready to dive again?” with a class or charter link can do the trick.
• Share newsletters with upcoming classes and trips to draw interest during the planning season.
• Incentivize with loyalty perks like early sign-ups, discounted charters, or exclusive events to reward returning customers.

Staying connected is good customer service — and one of the easiest ways to turn a single course into a long-term revenue stream.

5. Bundle and Upsell: Dive Packages That Practically Sell Themselves

Instead of selling everything à la carte, combine your services to make it feel like saying yes comes with extra value. Well-structured bundles help customers see the bigger picture — and often increase their total spend.

Build packages that raise the value of every booking:

• Pair gear rental + certification + dive trip into a “new diver experience.”
• Introduce a “local diver pass” that includes monthly dives and equipment use.
• Add perks like a free t-shirt or photo download for package buyers.
• Roll out seasonal bundles for travelers, like  “3 Dives + Gear for Spring Break.”

Partner with trusted dive gear manufacturers so your packages include the brands scuba divers look for, making them more likely to sell and profitable to run.

Unlock New Ways To Grow Dive Shop Revenue

As a business owner, you already know how much work goes into running a dive shop.  Increasing revenue means offering certifications, charters, and gear, but you have to have the right systems to manage bookings, rentals, inventory, and payments all in one place.

Dive Shop 360 is built for the diving industry, with tools to manage day-to-day operations and support long-term growth. It connects your in store and online inventory, tracks rentals, manages schedules, and lets customers book certifications or charters anytime. 

Built-in integrations like SmartWaiver make it easy to send digital waivers and keep everything organized in one place.

Start growing your dive shop revenue. Schedule a demo today to see how Dive Shop 360 helps you operate more efficiently, serve more customers, and build steady, year-round income.