At Tampa Bay Sports and Entertainment, we have been very lucky to see many things. One of those was the Titanic Experience, and we got to sit down with Gautam Chandna, SVP of Global Touring Exhibition Hub, to speak all things Titanic.
When people come to an immersion experience, they get to feel lots of different emotions and see things in a different way. The last one in Tampa was the Van Gogh experience, which felt like stepping into a painting. This is more of stepping into a tragedy. How do you keep the thought behind what happened while still giving people the exact experience?
Very good question, actually, never been asked this question before stepping into a tragedy, and yet it gives the right way to entertain. So, the story of the Titanic is that it’s a lot about love, heroism, courage, and loss in the end, right? It’s you know people who survive. You know, by luck, by God’s choice, or whatever you want to call it. But then there’s a lot that did not survive, or did, and their counterparts were lost.
What you see here is that we learn from history; it teaches us a lesson. We learn from these maritime mistakes that were not in place, these laws were not in place, and above all, what you see is. They were the wealthiest of the wealthiest on the ship, as we know, and people who were not so well-to-do were all on the same level. When nature strikes, money cannot save you. You know, it’s not money that will protect you from anything. It’s nature, and it will do its course.
Ultimately, we’re all humans. There’s a famous quote, “We’re all passengers on the Titanic. Everybody’s on the same platform, no matter how wealthy you are or what you have or may not have anything.” In the end, I think it teaches us a lot of these lessons in many different ways. That touches on our lives; as you know, we can connect with a passenger through this and learn from it.
How does this experience with the Titanic give you things that other Titanic experiences haven’t?
Yeah, so there are a few other Titanic experiences out there, and they focus on the ship, the machinery. The marvel, the engineering, whereas our experience covers that as well. But our experience is more about human lives, the passengers’ and the crew’s stories, what happened, and the fateful night. It shows you the passengers’ personal belongings, which you can then relate to. You have empathy with the passenger, one-on-one.
who survived. That’s when you come out having goosebumps or just tears as to what happened that night.
And then after that, we’ve used a lot of technology to show and connect people to empathize with the passengers and the ship, the VR. The experience that takes you down to the bottom of the ocean to the rec site, 2 1/2 miles underwater. Then you go there to see what the Titanic wreck looks like today, and it brings you back to the deck. You and your passenger then walk on the deck, going through the rooms recreated in digital format, and that is what makes it different from the other Titanic shows.
What in your gut feeling made you decide Tampa was one of those places that needed to be seen and felt this way?
Tampa, you know, right by the ocean, I guess. You know, the ocean is in the DNA of the city. Huge maritime history and Port Authority here, and also there’s that organization, the Coast Guard Cutter Tampa, that was assigned after the disaster to patrol and help with the maritime laws, so the region has direct links to the Titanic.
There are over 300 artifacts on display here. When you’re global touring like that, do you find that audiences are more connected to the artifacts, or more like digital ghosts with VR headsets? Which do you feel people enjoy more?
Again, a very good question that has never been asked before. On the digital side of things, it’s more the kids and young adults who gravitate towards it. And yes, the kids will not really understand or connect with the artifacts, such as the postcards and letters. They may not be that interested in that; they’re not into the museum. They want other things. You know, young adults and teenagers, they like the, you know, the photo OPS, the pictures, they want to share that on social media.
You see a different trend in who is actually spending time on the showcases versus who’s actually spending time on other activities they like. I think that is a very universal trend that we see all around the globe, wherever we go, that the younger generation gravitates towards the digital side of things, right? And that’s why we have those. So the story stays connected through all ages, all generations.
The grand staircase is completely iconic, particularly after the movie, which I’ve been told is much better than the movie. Walk us through the logistics of getting to that level of grandeur while still maintaining that 1912 kind of craftsmanship.
You know, the grand staircase is one of the most iconic parts of the ship, and we all know that, especially from how it was displayed in the movie. It was the centerpiece of the ship, and when you see the grand staircase. The production team and the architects have really crafted it very well to showcase it or come as close as possible to how it was on the ship. When you go through the experience, you will see that in the pictures, it looks amazing. The craftsmanship of the cherub and the steps really bring it to life. You will notice that when you go through the experience.