Economy “Titan” disaster
The dangerous fascination with extreme tourism
Status: 23.06.2023 | Reading time: 5 minutes
The US Navy apparently registered the implosion of the “Titan” on Sunday
An acoustic system in the US Navy apparently registered the implosion of the “Titan” on the day the submersible went missing with five occupants. The system perceived an “anomaly” on Sunday, the AP news agency quoted a senior Navy officer as saying.
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The Titan implosion is a horrifying example of a new way of travelling. The extreme tourism business is growing rapidly, and the trend is likely to continue despite prominent disasters. Above all, experts see a reason for this.
It was a costly disaster that the Titan’s passengers embarked upon. The ticket, which was supposed to take the five adventurous people in the OceanGate submarine to the wreck of the sunken “Titanic”, around 3800 meters deep in the North Atlantic, cost around 250,000 dollars. Since Thursday evening there has been sad certainty: The “Titan” has imploded, the five occupants are presumed dead.
The Titan’s disaster voyage is a horrific example of a new type of travel that is becoming more commonplace: so-called extreme tourism. Instead of relaxing on the beach, holidaymakers are increasingly looking for thrills. In addition to deep-sea diving, they want to climb the highest mountains in the world or be transported into space – and many are willing to pay exorbitant sums for this. According to experts, the latest drama about the “Titan” will not break the trend. On the contrary.
A recent study by the market research institute Grand View Research shows how lucrative the adventure travel business is. The industry is therefore facing rapid growth. As early as 2021, the global market volume is expected to be around 316 billion dollars. In 2030, the market is expected to break the trillion mark – that would correspond to annual growth of 15 percent.
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The development is not only being driven by the super-rich, for whom high ticket prices do not pose a financial problem. There are also more and more people who save the money for it for years. They all have a “very special tendency to take risks”, actively seek out this risk and see it as a kick, says Berlin psychology professor Birgitta Sticher from the University of Economics and Law (HWR). “It’s also about the feeling of challenge and aliveness.”
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This promises about the universe. Three billionaires are fighting with their companies for supremacy in space tourism. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his company Blue Origin have been offering ten-minute flights to an altitude of around 106 kilometers since summer 2021. Passengers briefly experience weightlessness before returning to Earth. Bezos sold the first ticket for $28 million.
The company OceanGate offered trips to the wreck of the “Titanic” – now their submersible has imploded
Source: dpa/Lindsey Wasson
Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s space company, plans to launch its first commercial flight next week. Around 800 people are said to be queuing. According to media reports, the tickets cost between 200,000 and 450,000 dollars. And last but not least, Tesla boss Elon Musk also wants to establish space tourism with his company SpaceX. A Japanese billionaire is said to have already bought all the seats for the Starship rocket’s maiden voyage. It will orbit the moon for three days and come within 200 kilometers of the surface. However, the flight originally planned for this year has been delayed.
478 permits to climb Everest
Other extreme tourists are also attracted to the mountains, albeit to the summit. Researchers used to climb Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Today there are more and more adventurers. The Nepalese government issued a record 478 permits for Everest climbs this year – a significant increase from 408 in 2021. At the same time, this season on Everest looks set to be the deadliest in history. According to current reports, 13 people died on the mountain this spring and others are still missing.
The records of the travel service provider Global Rescue, which organizes evacuations, among other things, show how dangerous extreme tourism is. In the first two weeks of June alone, they picked up two climbers from Mount Everest. One has frozen three fingers, the other suffered from lack of oxygen. Another traveler caught tick bite fever in the South African province.
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Search the Titanic
Experts are convinced that the trend towards extreme holidays will continue despite the high-profile accidents. They see the reason in self-promotion. The attraction of these expeditions is being one of the few travelers to have done so, Samantha Collum, director at US tour operator River Oaks Travel Concierge, told The Wall Street Journal. “It gives them the opportunity to brag about being somewhere that their co-workers or friends haven’t been.” Also, with social media, extreme travel has never been easier to brag about.
The craving for profiling when traveling is also reflected in another trend: so-called disaster tourism. It’s not deadly, but it’s still scary. Sensation seekers travel to places where terrible things happened in the past. The booking portal “Urlaubsguru” has compiled the ten most popular disaster locations. These include Chernobyl in the Ukraine and Fukushima in Japan, where there were devastating reactor accidents.
In Japan, tourists are drawn to the “Suicide Forest”
Also in Japan, the Aokigahara Forest attracts numerous adventurers every year. According to a Japanese legend, the dense and dark forest is cursed, Yürei spirits are said to urge visitors to commit suicide, which is why the area at the foot of Mount Fuji is also known as the “suicide forest”. In addition, the so-called Killing Fields are increasingly attracting tourists to Cambodia. They describe around 300 places where the Maoist-nationalist Khmer Rouge killed hundreds of thousands of people in the 1970s. Skulls of the victims are still on display there today.
“It helps many visitors to see these places with their own eyes and to feel the oppressive atmosphere in order to put themselves in the shoes of the victims,” writes the portal about the reasons for the bookings. “Others are just looking for that special thrill between the usual sightseeing program.”