Titanic anniversary big money for tourism biz
Comedy, it’s said, is tragedy plus time. Though perhaps big earning potential follows the same formula.
Indeed, thanks mostly to James Cameron, everyone knows the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking is upon us, but the filmmaker’s money-grab re-release notwithstanding, what’s gone lesser reported about the commemoration is what a huge money maker it’s become.
Cottage industry upon cottage industry has sprouted around the Titanic tragedy, and it’s ratcheted up to full gear as the century anniversary approaches.
Everywhere from Belfast, where the ship was launched, to Denver, where one survivor called home, has been transformed into a tourism cash cow.
Certainly, a century after more than 1,500 perished in the Atlantic, the spectrum of how you can relive the disaster ranges from cheap to expensive, removed to intimate.
*Bing: When was the Titanic wreckage discovered?
Here’s a quick rundown of a few of the options available to history buffs wanting to experience the most notable maritime calamity of all-time:
1) “Titanic Belfast”: A whole interactive exhibit, featuring 3D projections and artefacts, is in the Irish city, where guests can walk through the defunct shipyard that built the fated ocean liner.
2) “Titanic 2012”: For a few hours after leaving the U.K., the Titanic stopped in the city of Cherbourg, France, picking up 281 passengers including an American named Margaret Brown. The French rendezvous was a mere blip on the Titanic radar, but it’s nonetheless given Cherbourg an excuse to open an exhibit called “Titanic 2012” to remember the sunken ship.
3) Cemetery tours: In Halifax, where dispatched ships recovered more than 330 bodies back in 1912, 150 of them were buried in three graveyards across the city. Tours of the cemeteries, as well as photo exhibits and a toy model workshop, are in Nova Scotia for visitors.
4) Molly Brown House Museum: A perfect illustration of how crazy Titanic fever has gotten. Molly Brown, aka Margaret Brown, the American picked up in France, survived the Titanic wreck in a lifeboat, retiring to her home in Denver after the disaster. Her story was made into the movie “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” and Brown’s house in Colorado is now a museum.
Of course, if these tours are a bit too tame to satisfy your zest for the RMS Titanic, you can also go on a 13-day excursion to the site of the sinking. There, you’ll transport on a deep-ocean vessel down to the wreckage on the floor of the Atlantic. Total cost? $59,680.
By Jason Buckland, MSN Money
Posted by: Mony, Mony, Mony | Apr 11, 2021 2:26:29 AM
Save your money on these fancy trips and go visit a funeral home every day for 2 weeks. You'll get to see all the dead people you want. Ohhh and to make believe you're actually there, you can rent Titanic movies or read a few books on the subject. Otherwise, you're only a morbid gawker like all those rubberneckers at the scene of an accident. GET A LIFE !!