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US-based LodgeNet is developing an application that will turn a guest's smartphone into the remote control for the television. The platform will allow for interactive channel guides to appear on the handheld and can store guest preferences that travellers can take from one hotel to another.

The LodgeNet smartphone application also will allow guests to purchase pay-per-view content from their television and then take it with them to watch on their mobile phone.

Fairmont's flagship property, The Plaza, goes one step further by providing iPads in every guest room.

customer has booked their stay over the web or call centre

which effectively automate the entire process.

Before arrival at the hotel

The mobile key version works by emitting a unique ring tone to open the room door

visitors to the Comfort Xpress Hotel in Oslo will soon be able to complete their entire stay without ever speaking to a member of staff

customer actually arrives at the property they either pick up a keycard from a kiosk in the foyer or can be sent a mobile key system provided by OpenWays

mobile app for  its technology in March 2010.

can be used elsewhere around the hotel or for in-room services.

Ariane’s system – a platform which is integrated with the hotel or chain’s back-end reservation platform.

covering areas such as restaurant bookings, leisure services including spa treatments as well as activities in the local area which can be booked through the hotel

guests can check-out from their mobile device at any time, even once they have left the property, settling outstanding charges via secure payment systems

a string of major hotel chains, including Hilton, IHG and Rezidor, to roll out various parts of its technology around the world.

I can grab one of the gratis bikes downstairs and go for a spin on the nearby bike trail into town, or take a dip in the pool that’s cleaned with saline salt solution instead of eye-burning chlorine.

Owned by Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Element is the first chain to receive an LEED-certified gold rating, the second-highest standard bestowed on a building by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).

212-room property, including saving water and electricity, recycling paper and implementing the towel and linen reuse program now common in most hotels across the country.

“It’s a 2 to 3 percent premium above the total cost of the building to go the LEED-certified route,” he says, adding that he hopes to offset that cost from the operational side in the next three to four years.

Energy savings include keeping electricity down to a minimum through natural lights and the use of CFL bulbs, low-flow showers and dual-flush toilets that save approximately 942,000 gallons of water annually at Element Lexington, and a roofing material that reflects heat from the sun, so the hotel won’t tax its air-conditioning system in the summer. Keeping with LEED standards, Element also purchases energy that comes from a green source: the wind.

Put a compost bin in the back of that megaresort in Cancun, and suddenly you have an “eco-lodge.”

Meredith Elbaum

Indeed, government incentives and big business could very well be behind this latest surge in new hotel design.

Green Seal has also been vocal in its assessment that a typical average-size lodging uses more resources in a week than 100 families use in a year.

says it’s hard to find a resort that actually practices what it preaches. “Seeing if they have LEED is one criterion, but you still have to do your research.”

“We heard from our global accounts, players like Microsoft, AT&T and Hewlett-Packard, that their goal was to find a hotel company that had some sort of green program in place,” says Brian McGuinness, “and we realized we need to do this.”

According to Arthur Weissman, this new initiative has led to an increase in revenue for hotels that join the movement. “The Doubletree in Portland, Oregon, told us they received more than $3 million in business due to their green certification,” notes Weissman.

But what about the typical traveler who simply wants a decent shower, a comfortable bed and perhaps a workout before turning in for the night? Workers who have no corporate mandate to go green are known to be extravagant when away from home, indulging in energy-chugging hot tubs and (dare I say it?) forgetting to turn off the lights and the A/C when they leave their rooms.

We need to find a balance.”

There’s certainly room for more growth in Element’s green design, such as the use of solar panels to heat the pool and the incorporation of a master switch, which many hotels in Europe already have.

The latter works by simply inserting your room key into a switch inside the room that turns on the electricity, heat and water. When you leave the room, you have to take that room key with you, thus turning off all the appliances.

“We’re just trying to do the right thing,” says McGuinness. “At the very least, we’re at the entry level: eco-friendly and not increasing the carbon footprint.” It may not be a green revolution quite yet, but it seems like a darn good starting point.

Switching to the cloud from a client server platform pays off with a big drop in both the initial capital outlay and the ongoing operating costs for the property management and other systems.

pects of a franchisee’s business, from guest check-ins and housekeeping services to billing and finances. Over time new features have been rolled into the software platform making it more robust and useful for hotel owners—it’s currently distributed in eight countries and available in four languages. And while plenty of cloud-based PMS packages are now available from third-party vendors like Micros, Maestro, and RoomKey, Choice’s internal solution has garnered its fair share of attention. “We had been getting knocks on the door from IT vendors at other hotel companies and individual Choice franchisees that own other brands, saying they were interested in our product,” says Pacious, “So we set up a new division so we could take a look at other opportunities we could develop.” This led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system. Pages: 1 2 3 4 2013-06-18 Sean Downey !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); (function() { var li = document.createElement('script'); li.type = 'text/javascript'; li.async = true; li.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//platform.stumbleupon.com/1/widgets.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(li, s); })(); inShare0 Related Articles attachment-3

his led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system. Pages: 1 2 3 4 2013-06-18 Sean Downey !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); (function() { var li = document.createElement('script'); li.type = 'text/javascript'; li.async = true; li.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:' : 'http:') + '//platform.stumbleupon.com/1/widgets.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(li, s); })(); inShare0 Related Articles Hotel Market Insight: Cleveland a

This led the company to launch SkyTouch last year, a new division that develops and markets cloud-based software solutions to hotels inside and outside the Choice system.

The cyber threat has been used to target a variety of businesses from hospitals to retailers and now the hospitality industry

, businesses need to always be ready for a breach. Every business should have an action plan in place to prevent their company from being the next victim of ransomware or any other cyber security threat.

pirated software, file attachments, web links, and suspicious emails.

important to act quickly by segmenting portions of the infected network and removing devices to try and prevent the problem from spreading.

best practices for any company to employ are regular backups and a tested disaster recovery plan

Using anti-malware software is a necessary start, but it will not stop everything – especially rogue software downloaded by employees

keep additional devices from being infected.

install ransomware protection

malicious software will continue to rise as businesses and consumers become more dependent on the internet for everyday needs.

it’s important that businesses take proactive steps to protect not only company data, but the overall integrity of the company network from hackers.

Grimes pointed out three specific technologies that foodservice operators should have on their radars: robotics, 3D printing and the blockchain.

the "seven Cs" of foodservice technology — clarity, convergence, connections, convenience, choice, consumer and commitment.

Business organizations need to have a holistic view of technology for their different departments. If they fail to do this, they run the risk of choosing the wrong system.

"People want to be able to get to their technology however they want to get there," he said, be it via a kiosk, a smartphone, a watch or a desktop.

"If you want to lower the cost of technology, go with consumer technology," he said. Many businesses already use consumer smartphones and laptops for this very reason.

Grimes insisted that many businesses continue to view technology as an overhead expense instead of an opportunity to improve service and efficiency.

Over the past year, GDS by SiteMinder powered nearly 200,000 reservations worth over $60 million in hotel revenue, showing how effective global distribution systems are in bringing guests hotels wouldn’t otherwise attract, especially from Monday to Friday when properties need business most.

Mr Lewis-Purcell has spearheaded SiteMinder’s dedicated GDS function over the last 12 months, growing the total number of GDS by SiteMinder hotel users from 250 to almost nine hundred.

GDS by SiteMinder uniquely brings cloud-based technology together with legacy GDSs that are as relevant today as they were thirty years ago, to provide hotels an incomparable total distribution platform. It’s now used by about sixty percent more hotels than our industry’s most renowned soft brands.

GDS by SiteMinder provides hotels a single point of entry to the world’s major global distribution system providers – Sabre, Amadeus and Travelport – and travel agent network. In addition to sales and marketing representation, hotel users of the GDS connection receive free consortia advice, account management and local customer support.

LEED certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, have become a hot commodity for hotels.

Hoteliers should look for modern, wireless solutions that pay for themselves. In addition, as no one knows what the industry’s problems will be in five or ten years, it’s crucial to invest in a scalable system that upgrades itself to address the problems of the future.

With the advent of the “Internet of Things” (IoT), hotels can leverage technology that tracks temperature, room occupancy and more from any web based device and adjust as needed in real time. This translates into a huge win for properties. Due to IoT, energy controls, like thermostats and sensors that have typically been commoditized are now interconnected with other systems and provide valuable data back to the hotelier.

With effective, modern technology, hotels – and guests – can supervise and implement eco-friendly efforts with little more than the tap of a tablet – incredibly easy for staff, perfectly unnoticeable for guests.

BYOD allows the guest to download an application on their personal mobile device and control their room for the duration of their stay.

Another component driving the trend is the increased adoption of “smart home” technologies. If consumers can turn down their home’s lights or thermostat with a flick of their smartphone, they expect to be able to do the same when they travel.

Guests at luxury hotels have higher expectations, and for many, energy management has become a social motivator. Often, these consumers make “green” choices at home, so they value an “eco-friendly” hotel.

hotels consume an enormous amount of energy; 50 percent more than similar sized residential buildings, despite having only about a 65 percent occupancy rate on average.

Oracle Hospitality’s OPERA Property is a comprehensive and scalable solution that comes in three levels (Premium, Standard, and Lite) and is also available for both cloud and installed deployment. Any property from boutique to chain hotels can make use of this popular solution.

InnQuest’s flagship roomMaster solution is for hotels of all sizes (great for flexibility if you see growth in your future), leading to their top three spot with 5,200 customers and managing more than 450,000 hotel rooms every day.

Charged for bookings processed through third party OTAs

Multi-Systems, Inc.’s CloudPM is fifth on this list with 5,800 customers in North America

This cloud-based property management solution has been around since 1990 and is great for hotels looking to keep costs down by bypassing the purchase of additional hardware.

RDP (Resort Data Processing) provides customized software for clients and says it can handle properties of any size, whether it be a small vacation rental or a huge resort.

For hotels, finding the right software fit is especially important, because without a suitable software solution, you’re wasting time and money—big things that take you away from your customers and keep you from providing a stellar guest experience.

Oracle Hospitality’s OPERA Property is a comprehensive and scalable solution that comes in three levels (Premium, Standard, and Lite) and is also available for both cloud and installed deployment. Any property from boutique to chain hotels can make use of this popular solution.

The four leading technologies which have showed a high adoption rate from the industry and have received attention from academia are: self-service, wireless, green, and security technologies. The advantages of these technologies for hoteliers include enhanced customer services and operational efficiency (Doyle, 2007), decreased guest wait times, more efficient methods to settle bills (Singh & Kasavana, 2005), reduction of energy costs (Meeroff & Scarlatos, 2007), and protection of sensitive customer data and credit card numbers

In addition, exploring the influential factors of security system usage will provide greater depth of knowledge with respect to why some hotels have adopted more security systems than others.

there is still a lack of understanding of the nature of risk associated with inadequate IT security, especially among operators of hotels that do not have their own IT departments.

Self-service technologies are commonly defined as devices or applications which permit users to produce a service independent from the direct involvement of the service provider (Meuter, Ostrom, Roundtree, & Bitner, 2000). The use of self-service technologies in the hotel industry has grown considerably, especially in the areas of self check-in, in-room check-out, and foodservice kiosks

IT systems refer to general support systems such as mainframe computer, mid-range computer, and local area network.

Some of the most significant wireless technology applications involve the use of mobile handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDA), tablet PCs, and cellular phones, or RFID (radio frequency identification). RFID utilizes computer chips and antennas, allowing the chips to wirelessly communicate with a receiver.

While the major usage of RFID in the hotel industry was for inventory control purposes, it also has the potential to be utilized in ways that can provide more conveniences for the guests.

Other possible uses include placing RFID tags on items of high value as a means of theft prevention or integrating tags into guest loyalty cards for easy identification

IT investment that lowers environmental impact and IT that manages the environmental impact of other systems are commonly referred to as “green technology”

Many hoteliers might think becoming more environmentally friendly will cost more for their hotels. However, it has been demonstrated that “going green” is not only the right thing to do for the environment but also provides tangible bottom-line benefits for hotels by reducing consumption of energy and water, as well as other related costs.

Some of the risk factors involved include reliability, security, and privacy issues

A hotel with more technologies being utilized will install more security systems than those with fewer technologies.

Many of these attacks involve attempts by thieves to gain access to customer credit card data, and these attempts constitute a major portion of the risk inherent in IT security

if a system is breached and the merchant is not PCI compliant, the merchant then is responsible for all costs associated with improperly used credit card information taken from that system (Kress, 2008). These losses could bankrupt a business if the security breach goes undetected for even a short time.

IT security systems are those measures taken to protect the confidentiality and integrity of proprietary data.

two main paradigms of adoption are believed to occur: bottom-up adoption and top-down adoption.

Thus, it is reasonable to assume that organizational factors (e.g., financial factor, human resource) will influence the implementation stage of security systems at a hotel.

A hotel with sufficient IT budget will install more security systems than those with insufficient IT budget.

That is, if a hotel does not have its own IT department, it will have a negative influence on successfully installing or maintaining necessary security systems.

A hotel with its own IT department will install more security systems than those without.

Overall, the state of IT spending on security continues undiminished because managed security services are required for almost every application (Communications News, 2007).

risk associated with a breach of IT systems security (e.g., network break-ins) is very high. Consequently, no sector of the business community is exempt from attacks on their IT systems, with an attack being defined as a technique used to exploit a system’s vulnerabilities.

Given the importance of security and privacy at a luxury hotel, this study expects luxury properties to have installed more security systems than other segments

Most hotel employees use their property management systems for hotel operations and should be able to check their e-mails.

To justify the low response rate, previous studies which have compared response rates of mail and e-mail for surveys were reviewed.

the large majority of respondent properties do not have their own IT departments. Second, the people making IT decisions generally do not have IT backgrounds or training. Third, the large majority of respondent properties have little more than firewalls or antivirus software to protect their proprietary data, and these systems alone are not adequate to meet PCI standards, as they do not take steps to encrypt and protect cardholder data, maintain a vulnerability management program, implement strong access control measures, regularly monitor and test their networks, and maintain an information security policy as required by the Security Standards Council.

The respondents were asked to select from a total of fourteen securities related systems

The profile of the respondents revealed that they were experienced hoteliers with more than ten years experience in the industry

Fifty-three percent of the respondents reported that they were with chain hotels that would be considered mid-range properties with an average of 175 rooms (median of 107). Over 80% of the respondents reported working in operations, while fewer than 4% reported working in either IT or engineering (Table 1).

Nearly 70% of the respondents’ properties did not have their own IT department (69.2% did not have, and 30.8% had their own IT departments, n = 234, missing data = 10).

Fifty-three percent of them (n = 244) thought the most important goal for hotel technology would be enhancing the customer’s experience.

second identified goal was utilizing technology to help generate revenue (41%)

differentiate properties from their competition (20%), to lower expenses (16%), and to increase security (6%).

Internet kiosks in the lobby represented the most frequently used self-service technology (36.5%, n = 244), followed by kiosks for airline check-in/board pass

With respect to security systems currently in use, antivirus security systems represented the most frequently used security system (92.2%), followed by hardware firewalls, software firewalls, physical security, and encrypted login security systems.

intrusion detection was the most frequently identified system (15.6%), followed by vulnerability assessment scanning (13.5%), Internet scanning (13.1%), antivirus (11.5%), digital ID server (11.5%), and nonreusable passwords (9.8%; Table 2).

Thus, the hypothesis was supported that there was a linear relationship between the three factors and the adequacy of security systems.

The positive standardized coefficient (β) of .389 indicates that there was a statistically significant (p < .001) linear relationship between IT usage (the number of wireless, self-service, and green technologies a hotel was using) and the adequacy of security systems

The study revealed certain things of interest, the most significant of which is the need for greater emphasis on IT security among hoteliers.

only about 30% of all respondents reported having their own IT departments. Since budget hotel properties are extremely unlikely to have an IT department, it is highly likely that the very large majority of IT decisions throughout the industry are being made by hotel operators for whom IT is not their primary area of concern.

Furthermore, the focus of hoteliers for future IT implementations is enhancing the guest experience (53%) and generating revenue (41%). Very few respondents (6%) identified increasing security as a 5-year IT goal.

While almost all respondents use information systems as part of their jobs, very few are trained in the development, maintenance, and secure use of these systems.

no correlation was found between the respondents’ perceived adequacy of their IT budgets and the adequacy of installed security systems, as adequacy of IT budget did not appear as a significant term in the regression analysis.

Nearly 10% of respondents do not have so much as anti-virus protection for their systems, and nearly half do not even take simple physical precautions to protect their IT systems.

we note that no correlation exists between the respondents’ perceived adequacy of their IT budgets and the number of installed IT security systems, as the number of installed systems was not a significant factor in the regression analysis.

The sample obtained in this study represented the targeted sample: over 80% of the respondents were working in hotel operations. Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to explore hotel operators’ insight of technology usage, IT budget, and security measures rather than to confirm existing theories or to generalize the results.

it is reasonable to conclude that the respondents did not have an adequate understanding of the nature of the IT security hazards facing them for the average property does not have installed systems adequate to meet PCI standards, yet they reported having adequate budgets.

In order to adequately protect proprietary data, one must have an understanding of network security, which is an understanding apart from software functionality.

Properties with their own IT departments, however, reported that they had a higher number of installed IS security systems than did those properties without their own IT departments.

roperties without their own IT departments, in particular, have a less adequate understanding of their IT security needs than may be necessary.

This study found hoteliers’ lack of attention to security provision, training in IT, and PCI compliance can place hoteliers at great risk. For example, the cost of a single incident at a noncompliant property could result in the loss of the entire business.

It will be useful to examine the reasons why luxury properties are more likely to employ adequate security measures to determine whether this greater use is attributable to better understanding of security issues or some other factor.

The study was limited by the nature of online surveys; the response rate was quite low. Future studies could test the proposed research model via paper-based mail surveys to increase a response rate.

DarkHotel hacking

Customer data/ identity theft 

Over that past few years, the industry’s most well-known brands have all been victims of cybercrime.

Cybersecurity for hotels should always include a process to mitigate any compromised systems should they go down in a DDoS attack.

intends to convince the recipient that he/she should share information

In recent years, this threat has become increasingly sophisticated, with attacks targeting those in authority. The aim is to take over a user’s email account to send bogus emails to colleagues. These emails often attempt to persuade recipients to authorize transactions, which are ordered from above.

Hotels that have fallen foul to this crime have in the past paid more than $17,000 to be able to let guests into their rooms and create electronic keys.

Phishing refers to the sending/receiving of emails that appear to be from a genuine source.

Cybersecurity issues of this nature, often result in customers being out of pocket, and the media getting involved. Which, of course, means bad press for a hotel. Furthermore, there could be financial implications for the business.

Protecting the identity and information of a customer is paramount to the success of any business and hotels ar eno exception.

The attacks use forged digital certificates to convince victims that a software download is safe.

That is often passwords and financial information; this scam is one of the oldest on the internet.

taking information and certain systems hostage. The purpose of this attack was to gain financially from those who paid the demanded figure to free their data/systems.

Every day regular items such as sprinkler systems to security cameras are vulnerable to hijack. After which, entire computer systems can be made to come crashing down.

And that means somewhere there is a weakness in the system which has been revealed by human error.

criminals use a hotels Wi-Fi to target business guests.

ncourage guests to use virtual private networks (VPN) if they plan on conducting business with sensitive data.

Especially when there are criminals from all over the world trying to steal identities, and credit card data.

his crime is forever changing.

for hotels, an almost perpetual arms-race to secure both data and networks.

Phishing refers to the sending/receiving of emails that appear to be from a genuine source

The role of dive supervision was assessed by recording dive guide interventions underwater, and how this was affected by dive group size.

Over recent decades, tourism activities benefiting from the pleasing aesthetics and biodiversity of coral reefs, primarily SCUBA diving and snorkelling, have experienced rapidly increasing numbers of participants globally

We found evidence that the ability of dive guides to intervene and correct diver behaviour in the event of a reef contact decreases with larger diver group sizes. Divers from operators with high levels of compliance with the Green Fins programme exhibited significantly lower reef contact rates than those from dive operators with low levels of compliance.

Damage to corals on dived reefs often occurs as a result of skeletal breakage, particularly in branching species (Guzner et al. 2010;H a s l e ra n dO t t 2008). Tissue abrasion can also result from diver contact (Hawkins et al. 1999), and a recent study reported a higher incidence of coral disease in areas heavily used for recreational diving

It is possible that other diver characteristics such as qualification level or dive experience may affect the ability to respond to dive briefings, although several studies have failed to find a correlation between divers’ reef contact rates and experience

Due to the difficulties of effectively addressing global stressors, an emerging recommendation is the focus of coral reef management on local scales (e.g. Anthony et al. 2014). A frequent challenge facing managers and policy makers at local levels relates to the maximisation of tourism benefits whilst simultaneously reducing its environmental impacts

Alternatively, previous experience and possible affinity and attachment to a specific dive site may influence how closely divers follow pre-dive briefings and affect their behaviour underwater, as suggested by place attachment theory

The methodologies which have been developed to minimise the environmental impact of SCUBA diving on coral reefs can be summarised as follows: (1) managing or restricting diver numbers, (2) regulating the locations in which SCUBA diving activities occur, (3) regulating the types of equipment used, and 4) implementing programmes which seek to manage the methods used by the dive industry in providing their services. Restricting diver numbers is based on the concept of a reef dive site’s ‘carrying capacity’; a level beyond which diving impacts become readily apparent.

Restriction of SCUBA diving equipment has focused on banning the use of accessories believed to increase reef contacts within marine protected areas such as gloves, muck sticks, or underwater cameras; however, such regulations are often unpopular within the SCUBA diving community

Governments and reef managers seek evidence that the effort expended in implementing programmes translates into measurable benefits; however, research into the effectiveness of such programmes at influencing diver behaviour and reducing diving impacts is limited.

In this study, we focused on dive operators participating in the Green Fins diving programme at three major dive locations within the Philippines.

Nonetheless, levels of dive supervision underwater would intuitively appear to be linked to rates of reef contact, and when examined, the willingness of dive guides to intervene in correcting diver behaviour underwater has been found to significantly reduce diver contact rates

Malapascua Island, Moalboal, and Puerto Galera.

divers may have been aware that a Green Fins compliance assessment was taking place, but they were unaware that diver contacts with the reef were being specifically recorded. Green Fins environmental assessments and diver observations were conducted simultaneously.

Dive guides and guest divers from 44 dive operators participating in the Green Fins programme were followed

Diver characteristics with potential to influence underwater behaviour were categorised as the following factors: diver qualification level (three levels), dive experience (five levels), and previous number of dives at site (three levels).

Divers were assigned a unique diver number, and then followed and observed underwater for the entire duration of their dive.

If the overall group was very large such that the dive guide could not be seen from the rear of the group, the pair immediately behind the dive guide was selected.

Compliance with the Green Fins approach was determined by utilising diver contact rates and dive guide intervention rates as at the dependent variables of interest, and by defining dive operators according to those who had received a high score (above the median score) versus those with a low score (below the median score) on the most recent conducted Green Fins assessment

The part of the body or item of equipment making contact with the reef was recorded as follows: hand, fin, knee, camera, muck stick (a handheld stainless steel or aluminium rod approximately 30 cm in length) and equipment (e.g. tank, submersible pressure gauges, octopus regulator), and multiple (parts of the body and equipment simultaneously). The time during the dive at which the contact occurred was also recorded.

If observable damage (i.e. breakage, obvious physical damage, or injury) occurred as a result of the contact this was recorded, together with the apparent awareness of the diver to the contact, regardless of damage caused.

Interventions were defined as an event in which the dive guide intervened in diver behaviour through signalling or demonstrating correct behaviour in order to minimise or prevent contact with the reef.

A total of 100 SCUBA divers were observed at three diving locations within the Philippines (Table 1). The majority (72 %) of these divers were male, and diving experience ranged from those completing diving training to those who were instructors elsewhere with experience of hundreds of dives.

Following dive completion, divers that had been observed underwater were asked to complete a survey to determine diver characteristics.

Most contacts were made with fins (45.5 %, n = 261); however, hands (19.5 %, n = 112) and dive equipment (15.9 %, n = 91) were also major contributors to the total number of contacts

Contacts made with a camera (77.7 %) accounted for the highest proportion of contacts which resulted in damage, followed by contacts made with the knee (43.3 %), multiple body and equipment parts (38.2 %), equipment (30.7 %), fins (29.8 %), hands (24.7 %), and muck sticks (23.5 %).

A total of 81 interventions were observed (in comparison to 573 reef contacts—see Fig. 4 for the distribution of contacts and interventions);

Camera systems were carried by 55 % of divers; camera-wielding divers accounted for 52.7 % of the total contacts made with the reef. Of divers who utilised a camera, 35 % carried a non-specialist compact type and 20 % carried an SLR type within a specialist underwater housing.

Mean (±SE) dive time was 49.3 ± 0.42 min. A total of 573 diver contacts with the reef were recorded during all assessed dives.

The difference in the frequency of interventions was statistically significant (ANOVA, f = 4.81, P = 0.03)

although a significant portion (36 %) appeared unaware of the contact they made with the reef.

In addition to overall contact levels, some studies have also quantified reef contacts either as the mean number of contacts per diver over the duration of a dive or the diver contact rate per minute of dive time. The mean contact rates of 5.7 contacts per dive, or 0.12 contacts per min, which we observed at dive sites in the Philippines are lower than those previously reported

All divers observed within the present study were diving with operators participating to various degrees in the Green Fins environmentally responsible diving programme.

Identifying factors and policy measures which influence SCUBA diver behaviour underwater can help coral reef managers determine where to most effectively focus effort and funding with respect to dive management. In this study, we found that 88 % of the divers observed made at least one contact with the reef at some point

Divers who are more conservation aware and who contact the reef less may preferentially choose to dive with environmentally ‘accredited’ dive operators; indeed, this assumption partially drives dive operator participation in such programmes.

Underwater interventions by dive guides have been suggested to be the most successful deterrent to diver contact with reefs (Barker and Roberts 2004). In this study, there was no significant difference in the intervention rates between dive centres of high and low Green Fins compliance. Therefore, we cannot attribute the observed difference in diver reef contact rates to differences in intervention rates between these two groups.

Studies examining the effect of carrying camera equipment on the frequency of diver contacts with the reef have produced conflicting results.

Additionally, the administration of a pre-dive briefing can influence diver contact rates underwater (Medio et al. 1997). The Green Fins programme incorporates the use of a pre-dive briefing that emphasises the importance of refraining from contacting the reef, which would be expected to result in lower diver contact rates.

A concern amongst representatives of the diving industry is the use of muck sticks to manipulate animals unnecessarily—pushing animals out of holes for better viewing, stressing animals to show customers their stress behaviour (e.g. an octopus changing colour), and physically breaking hard coral to be used in photographs.

When examining the part of the body or dive equipment which made contact with the reef, we found that the majority of contacts were made with fins, in agreement with Krieger and Chadwick (2013) and Rouphael and Inglis (1998).

It has previously been noted that dive guides customarily perform different roles at dive locations globally; at some locations, they act primarily to lead the dive group around the reef, whilst at others, pairing with and closely supervising individual divers throughout the course of a dive

this suggests that dive guides carry out the closest supervision during the initial phase of the dive and then switch to a ‘dive leader’ role at the front of a dive group.

This study provides evidence that the effective implementation of environmentally responsible practices, via programmes designed to reduce diving impacts, may translate to reduced diver reef contacts.

Many diver characteristics which might intuitively be expected to impact reef contact rates, such as level of qualification and overall experience, were not significant influencing factors in this study, and high versus low levels of Green Fins compliance did not influence the number of interventions made by dive guides underwater.

For continued economic benefit and conservation of Philippine reef dive locations, we recommend that management measures facilitate high levels of compliance with environmentally responsible diving programmes to reduce the impact of diving on coral reefs.