Combining travel and diving with DivePlanIt: a brand new publishing concept

Deb Dickson-Smith and Simon Mallender – deep and meaningful

Diveplanit is a new multimedia resource that aims to make it easier for people to plan and book a diving holiday.

This brand new publishing venture is headed up by travel writer Deborah Dickson-Smith and her partner in life and diving, Simon Mallender.

“It’s our goal to get more people diving, and we want to ensure newly qualified divers become lifelong divers by giving them the tools to get out there and start exploring our nearby underwater world,” said Deborah.

“Ultimately, it’s our goal to create more Ocean Advocates, with a greater appreciation of life beneath the waves.”

Diving Gili

DivePlanit aims to do this by providing rich media content on diving destinations, with information on the dive sites, the operators who can take you there and even a comprehensive directory of fish you might see while you’re there.

The website will also furnish readers with information how to get there, where to stay, where to eat and even what there is to do on dry land for any non-divers you may be travelling with.

In keeping with Deb and Simon’s desire to create more ocean advocates, the website will also keep readers abreast of environmental issues with suggestions on how people can help.

“This is stage one of our publishing venture. We’re working on stage two right now: going mobile. Very soon, people will be able to download DivePlanIt’s destination content to their iPhone, take it with them on their travels to use as a reference and log their dives on it.

“The app will allow people to log their dives, upload photos and effectively share a scrapbook of their adventures with their DivePlanit dive buddies as well as to Facebook and Twitter.

“We’re encouraging people to subscribe to the website so we can keep them up to date with the app development.”

To find out more, visit DivePlanIt.com