Tourists will be able to visit the Titanic wreckage in 2021
Most people’s 2020 holidays have been rather limited – but from next year you can make up for it by visiting the Titanic wreckage.
Tickets are already being sold for tourists to be taken to the famous site between May and September 2021.
There are six dives being planned by undersea exploration company OceanGate Expeditions to visit the ship, which sunk in 1912.
The unique experience, which doesn’t seem to be as yet impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, won’t come cheap – costing $125,000 (that’s approximately £90,000).
However, as well as getting to see the well-preserved wreck, the price also includes the chance to drive a five-person submarine during the 90-minute descent as well as a stay in a private cabin during an eight-day sail from Canada.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Stockton Rush, president of OceanGate Expeditions, said: “All the bones are gone. There are no bodies down there.
“There are boots and shoes and clothes that show where people were 100 years ago, and that is very sombre.”
The dives – which will last six to eight hours a time – will be the first for 15 years, and it is hoped they will also serve as research missions to examine the sea life around the wreckage.
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Rush has revealed that 36 people have already booked their spots - however there are spaces still available.
There were 2,240 passengers and crew on board when the RMS Titanic hit an iceberg in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean while on its maiden voyage from the Southampton to New York.
More than 1,500 people died in the tragedy, which inspired James Cameron’s 1997 film Titanic, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
Many consider the shipwreck, which was discovered in 1985 by oceanographer Robert Ballard, to be a burial site.
Beverley Roberts, the descendent of a couple of passengers on the Titanic, told the BBC earlier this year that it is a "mass grave sight" that should be left alone.
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It’s estimated that only 200 people have visited the wreck, which is situated 4,000 metres underwater around 370 miles south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland.
Despite decades spent on the seabed, the wreck is still home to intact shoes, luggage, wine bottles, children’s toys.
When it was discovered, the bathtub of the ship’s captain, Edward Smith, was still impressively well-preserved.
However, recent missions have revealed that it is now gone, due to iron-eating microorganisms slowly consuming the wreck.
