Business Plan info

Question
Good morning Andy,
I am planning on opening a dive shop in Thailand and have been working towards that end for 3 years gathering what I hope would be benefits to the time when i pull the trigger. The long lead time has been due to being a contractor in the sand boxes.
I am writing my business proposal/plan and need some Tech/cave diving statistics to include but have trouble finding them. Can you tell me what % of certified divers have tech rating or cave ratings?
I remember seeing some table in an articular with a break down on how far people go (% wise)
I want to focus on these areas of diving since there is no support in the area and it is a fairly well know cave diving location in Thailand.
Thank you for your time.

Answer
Hi Wesley,

Congratulations on getting closer to realizing your dream and setting up a dive business, it really is an amazing industry to be a part of.

I don't have exact statistics but cave/tec divers represent approximately 1% of the amount of divers trained.  So if there's about 1.6 million certifications issued a year, then you're probably looking at about 16000 cave/tec certs across the board.  In some areas this is much higher, Florida/Mexico yucatan for example, and in the UK tec divers make up 4% of the diving population, but that is also by nature of the conditions there.

Hope this helps, PADI marketing department may be able to help you also.

All the best,
Andy