Fewer Similan Liveaboards this year
Yesterday I wrote that Black Manta liveaboard is now diving in Indonesia not Thailand. She is not the only boat that has made the move. Also changing destinations are Queen Scuba, Mermaid 1 and Mermaid 2.
Why have these liveaboards moved from Phuket to Indonesia? For the past several years these dive boats were flagged in Thailand and dived the Similan Islands from November to May. During the Similan off season the boats would sail down to Bali and dive Komodo, returning to Phuket again in November for the new season. That was until the Indonesian government changed the law. They now require all liveaboards operating in Indonesia to sail with an Indonesian flag. So with Komodo and Raja Ampat diving becoming increasing popular with traveling divers all these boats decided to relocate permanently to Indonesia.
There are several implications to this move and it’s going to be interesting to see how it all plays out. The competition for divers in Indo has now increased massively. The traditional Indonesian dive operators really didn’t like the Thai flagged boats diving Komodo for five months of the year so I reckon they are a bit worried now that four more big and well run dive boats are going to be competing with them year round. (This is a case of be careful what you wish for as it was the Indonesian operators who lobbied the Indonesia government to only allow Indonesian flagged boats).
What does this mean for Similan Islands Diving? The first thing to say is that the boats haven’t left Thailand because of the quality of the diving. All the dive operators are committed to Thailand are have plans to build newer, better boats for the Similan Islands. However as yet only one operator has done so with the introduction of White Manta into the Similan liveaboard market.A question in my mind is whether there is a big enough market for all these dive boats in Indonesia. I can see that the Komodo bookings are good but Raja Ampat is a different story. Sorong, Ambon, Alor are all harder places to get to than Phuket or Bali. More flights are involved on hard to book Indonesian airlines. Raja Ampat trips tend to be long and therefore only of interest to really dedicated divers. This is not the case with Phuket liveaboards which are usually just 4 days 4 nights but can be as short as one night. There is a much bigger market for short dive trips with more casual divers in Phuket and Khao Lak. Thailand also has so much more to offer traveling divers besides just diving. Certainly there are lots of dedicated divers around, especially in Asia and the diving is superb, especially for underwater photographers but only time will tell if all these new boats can make a success of Raja Ampat or if some will fall away.
So for this season at least we will be seeing fewer dive boats in the Similan Islands. This is especially true of the mid price range boats. This will benefit the boats that remain. I expect Pawara to have a very good season, as well as Giamani and Scuba Explorer.
There are still plenty of budget Similan liveaboards available, particularly departing from Khao Lak but divers wanting a mid range liveaboard with double bed cabins, en-suite cabins, nitrox, hot water showers etc need to think about booking earlier this year to avoid being disappointed. This especially applies around Christmas, New Year, Easter and Golden Week busy periods. We are already struggling to find spaces over Christmas.
