The tragic deaths of five people on a tour to see the
Titanic shipwreck last week have put the risks of extreme travel into focus.
Despite the dangers, travel to out-there locations such as the South Pole,
remote mountaintops, shark-infested waters, and space is becoming more popular.
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Adventure tourism is expected to bring in more than $1
trillion of revenue globally by 2030, up from an expected $316.6 billion in
2022, according to market research firm Grand View Research.
As interest grows, so, too, will the number of search and
rescue missions, said Mikki Hastings, president of the National Association for
Search and Rescue. “Whether it is space or Everest, every person deserves to be
found,” she said.
The number of businesses aiming to mitigate the danger and
potential emergency costs of extreme travel are starting to rise. Some offer
rescue and medical evacuation from remote locations. Others are working out new
types of insurance policies for pursuits like space travel.
Traditional travel insurance won’t swoop in with paramedics
Even though it typically covers the cost of an emergency.
Dan Richards, the CEO of Global Rescue, told DealBook that he wanted to fill
that gap when he founded the emergency travel management company in 2004.
For a $360 annual fee, it provides members with evacuation
services. Upgrades, including one that promises “military special operations
veterans” will retrieve you from dangerous locations like war zones, can raise
the fee to about $1,800.
Similarly, Medjet, a medical evacuation service, sells
annual memberships, and companies such as AirMed International, SkyMed, and
others offer emergency extractions.
Travel insurance is going to spaceWith companies such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic
selling tickets for trips, the market for space tourism is expected to grow to
about $3 billion by 2030, according to estimates from UBS.
The space travel insurance market is still small, but
Lloyd’s of London, which insures space businesses, began underwriting space
travel insurance in 2021, and last year the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency,
and Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance said they would jointly develop space insurance
offerings.
Taxpayers will end up footing the bill for some rescues The cost of search
and rescue typically falls on state and local agencies, Hastings said. About a
half-dozen states have laws that allow agencies to charge a rescue recipient,
though few do, and there is no cost to those rescued by the federal park
services, for example.
Last year, lawmakers from Hawaii and Utah introduced
legislation to allocate federal funds to help states pay for search and rescue
operations, a burden that the drafters said disproportionately fell on less
populous places, but the bill failed to gain traction.
The search for the submersible last week most likely cost
millions of dollars
The Coast Guard, which led the rescue effort, has jurisdiction
over search and rescue in navigable waters in the United States and beyond.
“But that is just the definition of their mission,” Hastings argues. “We don’t
encourage charging for search and rescue because we want people to seek help
regardless of socioeconomic status.”
Richards said a client of Global Rescue had signed up for
the Titan trip, but withdrew his deposit because of safety concerns.
Although his team would have worked with international
rescuers if the customer had followed through with his plans, the company would
not have had the requisite deep-sea capabilities. There are some journeys where
risk cannot really be mitigated yet, he said, adding, “If there is an emergency
in space, no one will be able to necessarily reach people.”
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