Despite the high cost and danger, adventure tourism services such as tours to see the Titanic wreck are still a business that attracts the world's super-rich.
The Titanic Wreck Tour is a service provided by OceanGate Expeditions, a scuba diving tour company in the US. To date, OceanGate is the only company offering a tour of the Titanic Wreck for $250,000 per person. The tourists who join this tour are all billionaires or super-rich in the world.
Despite the high price tag, participants are required to sign a document stating that the trip “may cause physical injury, mental distress, or death.” As of 2023, the company has organized 18 expeditions to the ocean floor.
Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, once said that exploring the ocean floor is a profitable business model because he realized that this place is much more accessible than space.
In addition to the Titanic wreck tour, there are many other expensive adventure tourism services in the world. Since the 1980s and 1990s, Adventure Consultants and Mountain Madness have been selling commercial trips to the top of Mount Everest for $27,000-82,000 per person.
Or a trip to Antarctica can be quite expensive. Travelers can take a private plane from Cape Town, South Africa, to Antarctica to rest in pods located in a luxury camp. Prices for this trip start at $98,500 per person.
Other challenging experiences include swimming with great white sharks in Mexico and sailing near an active volcano in New Zealand. Half a century ago, businessman Barron Hilton proposed a hotel on the Moon.
Billionaires Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson are planning space tourism in the near future.
The high-end adventure travel market is small but growing rapidly, says Samantha Collum, director of River Oaks Travel Concierge. There is a growing demand for exploration of the world’s most remote locations.
According to experts, dangerous adventures stimulate the curiosity of the super-rich, who are always interested in new things. They spend billions on travel to affirm their status.
According to the Telegraph, with rapid technological developments, adventures are being pushed to new heights. Anyone with enough time, money and training can consider themselves an explorer.
The global adventure tourism industry is expected to be worth $366.7 billion by 2022 and is expected to grow to $4.6 billion by 2032, according to a report by market research firm Allied Market Research.
Does Vietnam have adventure tourism?
In Vietnam, one of the famous adventure tours that many people know and wish to experience once in their life is the Son Doong Cave exploration tour (Quang Binh), a 6-day, 5-night journey.
According to Oxalis Company, the tour organizer, this is a level 6 tour - the highest level of adventure, according to the classification of tourism experts. Each tour is limited to 10 participants, and only 1,000 spots are accepted each year. That is because Quang Binh only allows tours from January to August each year, the rest is closed for rebalancing. The tour is often fully booked very early.
As of June 23, 850 customers have booked tours for next year, with only about 150 tickets left from June 12 to August 2024. Thus, on average, customers have to “queue” for 10 months to get their turn.
The tour costs $3,000 per person (about 72-75 million VND), for people 18 years of age and older. In addition to 10 tourists, each trip has 1 cave safety expert, 1 tour guide, 6 safety assistants, 2 chefs and 17 porters to carry luggage, food and camping equipment throughout the journey.
According to Mr. Nguyen Chau A - Director of Oxalis Adventure, from August 2013 (the time Son Doong tour started operating) to April 2022, there have been 4,327 domestic and international visitors conquering Son Doong Cave.
Before 2020, Vietnamese tourists only accounted for about 20% of the total number of visitors each year. However, in the last two years, there has been a big change - Vietnamese tourists have risen to the top of the top 10 list of visitors to Son Doong.
For example, during the Covid-19 outbreak (2020-2022), nearly 2,000 Vietnamese tourists spent 3,000 USD each to buy this adventure tour.
In addition to the Son Doong tour, the Hang Ba deep forest exploration tour has the same difficulty level and costs up to 50 million VND/person, 6 people per trip, with a maximum of only 150 guests per year.
After the pandemic, a new travel trend has emerged, for those who love adventure, want to challenge themselves and are ready to conquer harsh roads and destinations. The reward for them is unique experiences, but it is not easy for all tourists, because of the strict requirements on physical strength, time, and especially financial abundance.
For example, a company specializing in foreign adventure tours in Ho Chi Minh City is offering products in the Himalayas such as Nepal, Ladakh (India), Pakistan, with prices ranging from 40 million to hundreds of millions of VND, depending on the time and itinerary. According to the company representative, each group only has 10 guests, but 90-100% of scheduled departures are always full. In June, there were 4 Ladakh groups, and in July and August, there were 10 groups.
Or to explore the North Pole for 14 days, tourists must spend at least 230 million VND; to explore the South Pole for 18 days is 395 million VND. However, a tour group to the South Pole of a travel company in Hanoi in December has had 14 customers deposit. Even before that, this company also offered a super luxury tour to conquer the world, 15 days and 12 nights, with a cost of up to 5.47 billion VND to conquer the -90 latitude of the South Pole of the Earth.
Vietnamnet.vn
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