In about seven weeks from our press date the DEMA Show will take place in Orlando, Florida. Alternating with Las Vegas, the show was last held here in 2009.

Every DEMA Show is preceded by industry people wondering about the expected attendance, and this year it's mainly because of the still-sketchy national and dive economies. We surveyed the nation's dive retailers just before press time to try to determine how many will attend the DEMA Show overall, and attendance from different parts of the country. The results are compared with surveys of the last five years for the two venues.

With 60 percent of the stores saying they will attend the show, the store numbers and the number of people who are coming per store are nearing the show's prerecession levels, very likely reflecting this year's slight improvement in the dive economy. (You can especially see the recession's effect in the survey of 2009.) In fact, this year's numbers are within range of those for Orlando in 2006 and 2007. However, there appears to be less certainty based on the higher percentage of stores who say they are going to attend, but have not yet made their travel arrangements. There is still some "wait and see."

And, as always, there is the regional effect. Orlando attracts more stores from the east and fewer more-western stores than Las Vegas does. This year that regional effect is still pronounced.

This survey was conducted in the same general time frame as previous surveys relative to the show, to provide response that can be compared with surveys of the previous years. The reservation question is asked to gauge the reliability of the attendance numbers.

We would like to thank all of the stores that took the time to respond.

The Survey:

Number of stores surveyed: 1,158 Number of stores responded: 439 Percent responding: 38%

To determine…

• How many dive retailers will attend DEMA Show 2011, nationally and by region.

• How the projected attendance compares with that of prior shows.

• How many people will represent each store.

• How recently the decision to attend was made.

• When they last attended a DEMA Show.

The map and accompanying chart show projections for this year's attendance, and a comparison with the last five DEMA surveys.

We would like to thank all of the stores that took the time to respond.