Let me say first of all that this is not to impugn adventure travelers. And certainly not to speak ill of the dead.
But, just like the old saying of some things are better left unsaid, some things are better left undone. Cramming five people into a mini-submarine to dive more than two miles below sea level just to look at a 100-year-old wreckage is one of them.
Again, this is not to take away from the joy and the wanderlust of travel. But there needs to be boundaries and limitations. Visiting the wreckage of the Titanic is like visiting a funeral home because that’s what it is – an underwater cemetery.
It’s a thin, thin line between being inquisitive and having a free spirit, and being irresponsible. Just like it’s a thin, thin line between sightseeing tourism, and, well, something else. Visiting Stonehenge in England or the Eiffel Tower is tourism. Taking a sightseeing tour two-and-a-half miles below the ocean surface just to say you did it is not tourism.
It’s like when I used to be a sportswriter. People would ask me why so many athletes turned to cocaine or why they need seven cars. I would answer that one of the reasons could be that they don’t know what to do with all their money.
It’s new, it’s fresh, and it’s a conversation starter. And very few people can claim that they went down to the ocean floor, just like very few people can claim that they have seven cars.
To reiterate, there is a place for adventure tourism. Going to the depths of the ocean is not one of those places. If it’s an adventure you seek, go skydiving or rafting or hiking.
That’s adventure travel.
Let's leave the ocean floor alone.
What say you?
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