Extreme tourism promises an elusive high — with a steep price and steeper risk 

Photos: AP Images

For most of us plebes, leisure time away from home usually means finding a place to relax in the abundant sun, hitting the beach, rowing around the lake, sipping ice-cold drinks, and working on your tan.

But for a growing number of wealthy individuals looking for the thrill of an unmitigated adventure — especially something their friends haven’t yet tried —those ho-hum sun-and-sand vacations no longer make the grade. Today, “danger tourism” or “extreme tourism” is driving an industry that is set to be worth a trillion dollars over the next five years. Adventurers are willing to pay big bucks to travel to remote, often dangerous, parts of the globe — cage diving with great white sharks, parachuting off skyscrapers or cliffs, journeying to the South Pole, or trekking across the African desert to see silverback gorillas. And the world’s wealthiest thrill-seekers are pushing tourism to its limits, from outer space to the ocean floor.

Of course, Torah-observant Jews may not engage in extreme sports, or any such risky behaviors, due to the mandate of “venishmartem me’od l’nafshoseichem,” and the ill-fated expedition on the Titan submersible vessel to tour the wreckage of the “unsinkable” Titanic last week is the latest example of why such conduct is not allowed. The expensive thrill turned into tragedy, as all five passengers, including the company’s own CEO, were killed. Each passenger paid $250,000 to dive down 13,000 feet to the ocean floor off the coast of Newfoundland, only to perish when the latest “unsinkable” vessel imploded from the vast water pressure due to a structural mishap.

OceanGate Expeditions, the company that owned the Titan, required participants to sign a lengthy release form acknowledging the possible dangers involved. That was after the New York Times reported in 2018 that dozens of submersible experts, oceanographers, and deep-sea explorers wrote a letter to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush expressing concern about the vessel’s safety. Rush, who perished along with the other four passengers on June 18, repeatedly claimed that increased regulatory requirements for tourist submarine and submersibles needlessly over-prioritized perceived passenger safety over commercial innovation, and that the perception of danger far exceeded the actual risk.

Much like OceanGate, the extreme tourism industry is largely unregulated. In light of last week’s disaster, experts are wondering whether increased scrutiny will now be placed on those companies that offer pricey, status-symbol trips —racecar driving on ice in Finland, pyramid exploration in war-torn Sudan, and flights to the International Space Station, to name just a few.

Bragging Rights 

Why is it that such a large and growing number of people are choosing to spend their hard-earned time and money putting themselves in peril?

“Some people don’t want to see themselves as tourists, but rather as modern-day explorers,” Phillippe Brown, the owner of luxury travel company Brown and Hudson, told the Washington Post. His company offers a wide range of trips, from expeditions to Antarctica to adventures in African jungles. Prices start in the tens of thousands of dollars and can easily reach hundreds of thousands. And he’s just one of the players in an industry that has captivated the mega-rich, who consider it passe to spend their vacations on the French Riviera or the beaches of the Caribbean. This discerning clientele seeks something that not everyone can attain.

While “adventure tourism” covers a whole range of activities that some might consider fairly pareve (think mountain biking, hiking, and wilderness camping), it’s the extreme end of the market that has really taken off, the so-called “danger tourism,” where people are willing to put their health — and possibly their lives — at risk in the name of fun.

“With the rise of social media and people hearing about all of these extremes, people just want more and more thrill,” says Arun Upneja, dean of Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration. “And the wealthy are obviously able to pay. They want to be in the news and have bragging rights. There are so many reasons people seek adventure. Once you’ve done something multiple times, you don’t get that thrill, that rush anymore. And so you seek more and more dangerous activities.”

According to estimates from the Adventure Travel Trade Association, the adventure travel industry generates a staggering $683 billion per year and is a rapidly expanding market. What was once the realm of the daring young adventurer armed with a Swiss Army knife and a tent has transformed into a vast monetary pie, giving wealthy individuals a choice of underwater voyages, land expeditions, and even space travel — and with a killer selfie that is sure to stand out amid the constant feed of their friends’ vacation snapshots.

“There are very few places on the planet that people have never been, and the demand for a unique trip increases its price and value,” according to Professor James Petrick of Texas A&M University, an expert on tourist behaviors. “People have always wanted to do something new and exciting — fighting the bad guys in battle, traveling far from home, exploring new lands. Now, instead of exploring in the name of science or fighting for a noble cause, people put themselves in danger just for the sheer thrill of it.”

And that means that catastrophes like the Titan implosion are unlikely to stop people from embarking on extreme trips — these disasters might even encourage them because they capture headlines and, according to Professor Petrick, “People have very short memories when it comes to tragedy.”

In light of last week’s disaster, experts are wondering whether stricter regulations will be placed on those companies offering pricey, status-symbol adventures

Fathoms Deep

If there’s one person responsible for popularizing the interest in the depths of the ocean, it was probably the French oceanographer and researcher Jacques Cousteau, who innovated the field of underwater exploration. Among his inventions were the aqua-lung, the “diving saucer,” a small submarine capable of carrying two people and diving to a depth of 400 meters, and the   Deepstar 4000, capable of diving to 1,200 meters.

Cousteau, who passed away in 1997, conducted over 500 dives in waters across the planet and through his writings and films, he managed to show the world, including young children, the wonders hidden beneath the waves. Several generations of children — many of them underwater enthusiasts today — grew up watching and being fascinated by Cousteau.

While Cousteau’s intention was primarily to raise awareness about the underwater world, as the saying goes, “Where there’s opportunity, there’s business.” In the mid-1980s, the Atlantis company began offering underwater trips for tourists. Although it wasn’t exactly deep-sea exploration (they only went down about 100 meters), it was nevertheless the starting point of a new tourist industry.

Today, Atlantis claims to have enabled 12 million people to experience underwater tourism in popular destinations such as the Caribbean or Hawaii, where tourists can explore coral reefs and sunken ships. Other companies took Atlantis’s cue and began offering similar services, primarily targeting families (most submarine excursions don’t dive deeper than 200 meters). Tickets generally run around $180, which, although not cheap, is much more affordable than the quarter million dollars OceanGate was charging for its exclusive clientele.

In 2012, film director James Cameron, who directed the film Titanic, made headlines when he made the first-ever dive down to the Mariana Trench, the deepest known point on the ocean floor. Cameron made this maiden voyage in a deep-sea diving submersible named Deepsea Challenger, similar to another deep-sea diving vehicle named Alvin. (Divers must use special diving machines when going deep below the ocean surface because the pressure of the water is so great — thousands of pounds per square inch — that it would crush the divers long before they’d reach the bottom.)

The depths of the sea possess an unparalleled allure, and that’s why investor and undersea explorer Victor Vescovo created his operation: For the modest sum of $750,000, one can visit the deepest point on Earth.

The Five Deeps Expedition creator is no stranger to adventure. In 2017 he completed the “Explorers Grand Slam,” having climbed the highest peak of all seven of the world’s continents, which made him the first person in history to have been to both the top of the world and the bottom of all its oceans. (When he got to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, he actually found a piece of plastic, which was a shock — he couldn’t believe there was manmade contamination in such a remote, pristine environment.)

Of course, there are more affordable diving options, where for a few thousand dollars, one can still explore some astonishing places many meters underwater. One example of a “middle ground” experience is “scUber” in Australia, a submersible that allows a passenger to visit the Great Barrier Reef for $2,000.

Out of the Comfort Zone

“If you can’t afford to go to Mars, there’s always Afghanistan,” according to James Willcox of Untamed Borders, an adventure travel company providing access to some of the world’s most inaccessible places, including the war zones of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, East Africa, and former Soviet Central Asia.

The company was founded in 2008 following a meeting in the mountains of Afghanistan between James Willcox and an Afghan guide named Kausar Hussain. Afghan tourism naturally plummeted after the Taliban took power in 1996, but since the late 2000s it had been slowly growing, with the help of a small group of Afghan tour operators determined to counter the images of conflict and poverty associated with their country. Instead, they wanted to show travelers its rich cultural history and natural beauty, such as the deep blue lakes of Band-e Amir, in the foothills of the Hindu Kush.

Willcox, who employs eight Afghan tour guides, says that a growing number of people are interested in visiting less typical tourist countries such as Afghanistan. “However,” he said, “the security situation is getting worse by the year.”

If you don’t want the heat and dust of Afghanistan, maybe the cool mountain air will refresh you. The mountains are a sought-after destination, and for just $150,000, veteran mountaineer Garrett Madison offers to guide anyone to the summit of Mount Everest.

In fact, Mount Everest became so busy in 2020, just as the first round of lockdowns eased, that people were literally lining up to get to the summit. What many don’t realize is that inexperienced climbers can encounter real risk — even death — as the terrain gets more punishing and the oxygen thinner.

Those who worry about getting stuck can always join Dan Richards’s Global Rescue club. For an annual fee, Richard and his team will bail out members who get stuck. Richards, whose team carried out 168 rescues in the Himalayas last year alone, around half of which were on Everest, says the mountain is littered with dead bodies as unscrupulous tourist agencies sell tickets to inexperienced climbers who inevitably get into trouble.

Richards, who’s been in the rescue business for almost two decades, says the last couple of years have been his busiest. Before the pandemic people were content with traditional tourist activities, but now there’s an unprecedented demand for adventures once considered beyond the pale.

“Every time I think I’ve heard of the most extreme thing there is, something new pops up,” he said.

“What people desire is a break from the mundane, to step out of their comfort zone. They seek a holiday intertwined with personal achievement,” affirmed Tom Marchant of the extreme tourism company Black Tomato, creators of “Get Lost,” a touring adventure that takes participants to unknown, uncharted destinations without knowing where they’re going or what they’ll need. “By starting with the feeling of being genuinely lost, you will set out to find your inner steel, beliefs, and passion to lead yourself to the journey’s end,” Marchant explained.

The Greatest Star

If none of these extreme tourist spots inspires you, there’s always the next frontier: outer space. But even if you have several hundred thousand dollars, you might be stuck on a waiting list.

The US Chamber of Commerce estimates that space tourism will generate an economic volume of $1.5 trillion by the year 2040. And many believe that this timeline could be accelerated.

The private space race has been dominated by heavyweights of the economic sector, people like British billionaire Richard Branson who launched Virgin Galactic in 2004. Although the company is currently grounded due to an airspace violation, Virgin Galactic announced last year that it would open space travel ticket sales to the public. The cost of a reservation is $450,000, and with a wait list that opened with paid deposits the year before, the company already counts about 700 customers and aims to have three launches sometime within the year.

Another major commercial player is none other than Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is also the founder of Blue Origin, an American aerospace, defense, space exploration company, and launch service provider. Bezos created the company with the vision of enabling a future where millions of people are living and working in space. To date he’s launched 31 people into space — including billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, who perished on OceanGate’s submersible Titan during last week’s doomed undersea trip to see the shipwreck of the Titanic.

Harding flew to suborbital space in June 2022, joining a cadre of several company employees, celebrities, and business figures. One person enjoyed the experience so much that he flew twice within one year.

And if you want to go even farther afield, there’s Tesla and Twitter owner Elon Musk’s SpaceX, a company he founded in 2002 with the goal of reducing space transportation costs and to colonize Mars. Musk himself, however, hasn’t launched into space —that’s because he’s not impressed with low-Earth orbit, where hundreds of satellites, the International Space Station, and most astronauts who have been to space have spent their time. He’s always been focused on the moon and on Mars, and believes humanity should already have a base on the lunar surface. He founded SpaceX two decades ago because he was upset at NASA’s lack of progress on a Mars mission. Musk’s goal remains reaching and building a city on Mars, and, as he often says, “making life multiplanetary.”

But how would a space vacationer get rescued if he finds himself in trouble? Dan Richards of Global Rescue says he doesn’t yet have a team in space, but he can help if your craft falls back to earth in a remote or hostile location. He has a team of ex-Navy Seals and special forces operators on speed-dial who can come and pick you up.

Sort of makes you consider heading for the beach instead.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 967)