Solomons dive shop nominated for international award

Transcript

A small dive operation in the Solomon Islands has been short-listed for the 2016 Luxury Travel Guide Global Awards.

Dive Munda is situated in the country's Western Province and is home to world class reef, wreck and wall diving.

It was initially nominated by guests and vetted by the Luxury Travel Guide team based on service excellence, local knowledge, online visibility, marketing and branding, employee satisfaction and cultural understanding and diversity.

Owner-operator Belinda Botha told Koroi Hawkins why she thought Dive Munda had been nominated for the prestigous award.

Belinda Botha says Dive Munda has been entered in the Asia & Australasia category of the 2016 Luxury Travel Guide Global Awards with results to be announced next month.

BELINDA BOTHA: I think it's a combination of things. Number one, I think it's really for us, every guest counts. We really focus on personalised, customised service therefore any guest that comes through our door, coming to dive with us or snorkel with us, or just taken an excursion with us, is really important to us. We're a small operator and we believe what differentiates us from the next and the next is that personalised, customised service, really listening to what our guests want, what they need and then trying our best to accommodate and giving them a great fun experience at the same time. Our knowledge of the local environment, the local culture, Munda specifically, the Solomon Islands, we're really passionate about this country and we really feel that we have a fantastic product here and we really want to market and promote that.

KOROI HAWKINS: And how good is the diving in your area of the world?

BB: I don't think "good" is the right word! It's absolutely phenomenal. I have dived personally in many many places and I've lived in many places around the world and personally I think the diving here is the best in the world for a couple of reasons. Number one: phenomenal diversity. We have the opportunity to see from the small macro stuff, small little critters, right up to large, big schools of pelagics and we've got the added benefit of having a fantastic rich history of World War Two relics, artefacts and then of course our wrecks which entail the shipwrecks as well as planes, areoplanes.

KH: What would winning this award mean to you and your operation?

BB: Well, we'll be thrilled because that sort of publicity and marketing is hard to come by, so we'll be very very happy first of all but secondly I think it just reiterates, and I think this is the message that I'm really so so excited about, is it doesn't matter if you're a smaller operator. It says luxury, not that we don't offer luxurious service, but we're not per se a luxury destination. And I think it means to us people notice that if  you really truly are focused on guest services, people notice that you do make a difference. We really like to promote sustainable development. I think from our perspective protecting the oceans, it's very important and I think people notice that even though we're a small operator. So just reiterating that and also for my staff here - I'm the only expat here, all of my people working for me are from Munda - I think it would mean a phenomenal amount to them as well, knowing that somebody's noticed the hard work and the effort and the passion that they have for this business.

Belinda Botha says Dive Munda has been entered in the Asia & Australasia category of the 2016 Luxury Travel Guide Global Awards with results to be announced next month.