Building Credibility Through Partnership: How Red Sea Global and PADI Are Redefining Diving Tourism in Saudi Arabia

For an emerging destination seeking to establish itself in one of the world's most competitive tourism regions, the right partnership can do more than generate impressions: it can fundamentally reshape how the world perceives what that destination has to offer. In the first episode of the ATM Insights series, Nick Hall is joined by Joanne Wiggan, Associate Director of Destination Development Marketing at Red Sea Global, and Ashley Levy, Director of Marketing Communications at PADI, to explore how a strategic collaboration between a global sports brand and a new destination is building credibility, challenging perceptions and championing female participation in diving. Their conversation reveals how authentic storytelling, shared values and a willingness to let partnerships develop organically can deliver results that traditional paid media struggles to match.

Building a destination brand from the ground up requires more than just exceptional natural assets. It demands credibility, and credibility in a specialist sport like diving cannot be manufactured internally. It has to be borrowed from organisations that have already earned it. For Red Sea Global, the decision to partner with PADI was rooted in three criteria that go well beyond a standard commercial arrangement: shared values, global reach and established trust within the diving community.

Joanne explains that Red Sea Global operates around three core values: people, place and planet. The alignment on the third, planet, made PADI a natural fit. As the world's largest diving organisation, PADI's mission to create "a billion torch bearers" who explore and protect the ocean mirrors Red Sea Global's commitment to regenerative tourism. Ashley describes how that shared purpose drew PADI toward the partnership, noting that Saudi Arabia's Red Sea coast offers a biodiverse and naturally resilient underwater environment that is rare in a world where healthy reef systems are increasingly difficult to find.

The partnership also addresses a specific perception challenge. Saudi Arabia is not yet widely associated with diving or water sports. Joanne notes that while the country is well known for its deserts and cities, it is not currently synonymous with world-class underwater experiences, despite having the natural assets to support them. Working with a globally recognised and trusted diving brand like PADI provides the external validation needed to position the Red Sea as a serious diving destination. The operational relationship already existed through Red Sea Global's Galaxea dive brand, which operates under PADI's regulations and quality standards. What Joanne and Ashley set out to build was the narrative layer on top of that: a brand collaboration that could tell the story of the destination and the diving experience to a global audience.

Beyond values, the question of reach mattered. Red Sea Global needed a partner that could connect the destination with diving communities well beyond Saudi Arabia and the GCC, extending into Europe, South America and further afield. PADI's global network of divers and ambassadors provided exactly that. 

The partnership's most distinctive strategic decision was its focus on female ambassadors, particularly Saudi Arabian divers Taghrid and Nouf. This was not a symbolic gesture. Ashley explains that women represent one of the fastest growing segments in diving globally, and PADI is actively working to shift the sport away from its historically male-dominated participation base. Diving, she argues, is empowering for women: it is skill-based, confidence-building and deeply connected to nature. In Saudi Arabia specifically, where female participation in adventure sports has faced historical challenges, showcasing local women leading in the sport carries particular significance.

Joanne grounds the ambassador strategy in research, citing a principle from Sport England's work on sports participation: you have to see it to do it. The single biggest driver of participation in any sport is seeing people you can relate to already doing it. This insight shaped the selection of ambassadors. Rather than choosing internationally famous influencers, the partnership deliberately included Taghrid and Nouf, Saudi divers whose personal stories, from childhood dreams to professional diving careers, could resonate with a young Saudi audience encountering the sport for the first time.

That audience is substantial. Joanne highlights that 70% of Saudi Arabia's population is under 30 years old, a demographic that is digitally savvy and capable of seeing through traditional paid media tactics. Authenticity, in this context, is not just a marketing preference but a practical necessity. The ambassadors needed to tell their own stories in their own way, and the content needed to feel genuine rather than staged. Ashley describes how sharing these stories through PADI's own channels generated direct responses from viewers who had never considered diving as something open to them, with people messaging to say they had never thought the sport was for them until they saw the ambassador content.

The approach extended beyond expert divers. Joanne notes that while experienced members of the diving community are naturally interested in reef quality and dive conditions, the broader target includes families and complete beginners. Red Sea Global offers programmes such as the bubble maker course for children as young as eight, designed to bring first-time participants into the sport. The ambassador content was intended to connect with both audiences: the dedicated divers and the young Saudi woman who had never considered diving before. 

One of the recurring tensions in destination marketing is the gap between the individual moment, the Instagram-ready image, and the fuller sense of what it feels like to actually be somewhere. Joanne is candid about this challenge, noting that in a world of thumb-stopping content, the sense of place often gets lost.

The ambassador week was deliberately structured to address this. Rather than focusing exclusively on underwater footage, the programme captured the entire visitor journey: staying at Shebara and Nujuma, two of Red Sea Global's most iconic hotel properties, from sunrise through to evening dinners, as well as the preparation, the boat trips and the dives themselves. The intention was to present a holistic destination narrative that would appeal not only to divers but to anyone considering a visit to the Red Sea.

Red Sea Sports and Entertainment operates three distinct brands: Akun for on-land adventure including mountain biking and hiking, a water sports brand for activities on the surface and Galaxea for the underwater experience. While diving was the focus of this particular collaboration, the content was designed to show that the destination offers a complete experience, not just a single activity.

Ashley reinforces this with the story of Rachel Moore, one of PADI's international Ambassadivers, who had seen a film about Saudi Arabia and Red Sea diving as a child. Visiting the destination as an adult, she described it as a dream come true and expressed a desire to relocate there permanently. For an experienced diver who has explored sites around the world, placing Saudi Arabia at the top of her list is a powerful endorsement, and it is the kind of organic, personal response that cannot be replicated through scripted advertising. 

Ashley also highlights the quality of the Galaxea dive staff as a factor in the overall experience, describing them as exceptionally well trained and experienced. For a destination building its reputation, the quality of the people delivering the experience matters as much as the natural environment itself.

Both Joanne and Ashley are clear that this initial activation was a test-and-learn exercise rather than a fully formed campaign. The results, however, were significant. Joanne reports that the ambassador content generated 10 million impressions within 48 hours, with reach extending across Europe and South America. A single TikTok post achieved 1.5 million views. There was diversity of channel engagement across platforms, and the content reached well beyond the existing diving community.

Some of the most engaging content was entirely unplanned. Joanne describes a moment where one of the ambassadors spontaneously took an eFoil under the pods at Shebara, a hotel built on stilts over the water. Nobody had asked him to do it, nobody had scheduled it, and the resulting content generated 2 million views. The lesson, as Joanne frames it, is that genuine authenticity requires flexibility. Over-planning can stifle exactly the kind of organic moments that audiences respond to most strongly.

Looking ahead, the partnership is set to grow. New resorts are opening, including AMAALA, along with additional dive centres. Joanne's commercial objectives for the next phase focus on driving length of stay and total revenue per room, ensuring visitors do not simply arrive for one night in an iconic hotel before leaving the next day. Sports partnerships directly support these tourism KPIs by giving travellers a reason to stay longer, spend more and return.

Joanne acknowledges that her commercial objectives may differ from PADI's, but argues that authentic storytelling through ambassadors has a way of satisfying both sets of goals organically. When visitors see a compelling, honest story about a destination and an experience, they are more likely to book, stay longer and engage with a wider range of activities. 

Both parties are now exploring how to scale the collaboration into a multi-channel campaign initiative with paid media amplification, building on the content and relationships established during the initial activation. Ashley emphasises that the most valuable partnerships are long-term relationships built on genuine collaboration, not one-off campaigns measured solely by immediate returns. Joanne echoes this, noting that the focus on relationship rather than pure commercial metrics was what made this partnership work, and what will sustain it going forward.

The Red Sea Global and PADI collaboration offers a clear model for how emerging destinations can build credibility and shift perceptions through strategic partnerships with established global brands. Rather than relying on paid media alone, the partnership demonstrates that shared values, authentic storytelling and a commitment to long-term relationship building can generate the kind of trust and engagement that no amount of advertising spend can replicate. For destination marketers considering similar approaches, the lesson is that partnerships built on genuine alignment, delivered with flexibility and measured with patience, are the ones most likely to deliver lasting results.

Here are the key takeaways:

1. Strategic partnerships should be built on shared values and mission alignment, not just commercial opportunity. Red Sea Global's commitment to regenerative tourism found natural alignment with PADI's mission to protect the underwater world, creating a credible foundation for collaboration.

2. Representation drives participation. By championing female ambassadors, particularly local Saudi divers Taghrid and Nouf, the partnership challenges misconceptions about who diving is for and makes the sport accessible to audiences who may not have previously seen themselves reflected in it.

3. Authentic storytelling outperforms staged content. Unplanned moments and genuine experiences from ambassadors generated higher engagement than traditional approaches, with one spontaneous eFoil video achieving 2 million views, reinforcing the value of flexibility in content creation.

4. Destinations must create a sense of place beyond the activity itself. Showcasing the complete visitor experience, from accommodation and dining through to the dive, builds a compelling narrative that supports longer stays and higher visitor spend.

5. Successful brand partnerships require patience and long-term commitment. Initial activations should be treated as test-and-learn opportunities that inform future collaboration, with both parties focused on evolving the relationship beyond a single campaign.

Looking for something else?