Sanya to introduce new rules to regulate deep-sea diving tourism market

A new regulation to regulate the deep-sea diving tourism market in Sanya was approved recently by the Sanya government.

Deep-sea diving is the most popular water sport in Sanya as the tropical coastal city enjoys over 10 meters of water visibility, befitting diving sports in all seasons for its favorable tropical weather conditions. The sport attracts large numbers of tourists every year from home and abroad.

However, illegal commercial diving businesses have long posed safety risks to tourists and have disturbed the city’s diving tourism market.

The regulations are helpful in leading the diving industry in Sanya into a more orderly development path.

According to the new regulation, all deep-sea diving tourism operators are required to provide customers clean and dry diving suits and must teach beginners the gestures necessary for safe underwater exploration and must teach basic first aid in order to better deal with diving emergencies that could occur.

Each licensed diving instructor can teach a group with no more than 20 trainees and the whole skill training should last no less than 20 minutes. After the training, the diving instructors should let the trainees practice themselves before tourists are allowed to begin diving.

An instructor can only guide a tourist to dive underwater at a depth of up to 10 meters for less than 30 minutes at a time. The instructors are not allowed to force consumers to purchase any underwater photography services.