The hubris of the Titan and the Titanic – the dark side of the super-rich seeking adventure

Some tourists focus on leisure and relaxation but most are after an “experience” that helps them create “memories to last a lifetime”. Among them are the thrill-seeking super-rich tourists who try out extremely risky adventures.

Most of these adrenaline shots are activities that would otherwise require years of training and practice but are undertaken with technology serving merely as an exorbitantly expensive shortcut.

Ominously called Titan, the submersible carrying five passengers to the wreck of the RMS Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean is now said to have imploded shortly after the expedition began on June 18.

Had everything gone well, the Titan would have returned from its underwater exploration of the shipwreck in about 10 hours. This trip is reported to have cost $250,000 per passenger.

The Titan had been built by OceanGate for the express purpose of tourism, although the company owns similar vessels and provides its ocean exploration services to researchers and other industries.

Adrenaline shots, aided by technology

Extreme tourism offers individuals the opportunity to push their boundaries and embrace adrenaline-pumping experiences, but with expensive and specialised gear stepping in for physical rigour. Tandem skydiving allows tourists to experience the exhilaration of skydiving without necessary training or certification that qualified instructors require.

Similarly, supercar...

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