Airships of Guilin

Concept Presentation

The Vision

China is the world's third most visited country in the world. The number of overseas tourists was 55.98 million in 2010. Foreign exchange income was 41.9 billion U.S. dollars, the world's fifth largest in 2009. The number of domestic tourist visits totaled 1.61 billion, with a total income of 777.1 billion yuan.

According to the WTO, in 2020, China will become the largest tourist country and the fourth largest for overseas travel. In terms of total outbound travel spending, China is currently ranked fifth and is expected to be the fastest growing in the world from 2006 to 2015, jumping into the number two slot for total travel spending by 2015.

China is a world in itself from touristic perspective. It has all possible climats and geographical areas - from warm southern seas to cold north, from deserts to jungles with almost any other possible climate areaas. It has some of the most beautiful and eye-capturing landscapes in the world, which are the one of the reasons for the numbers cited above.

It also has one most uniqe and picturesqe terriories of all - magical limp moutains of Guilin.

The Vision 2

This most uniqe scenery is located around river Li near the city of Guilin to city of Yangshuo.

Cormorant fishermen on boats on river Li are amongst ones of the best recognised pictures of China.

Every year more than milion foreigners travel to Guilin region to see it's treasures. For domestinc tourism it's more than 15 milion a year.

This is a huge market and touristic infrastructure is being heavily invested in the region.

But so far the level of touristic infrastructe is not yet matching uniqueness of the site. It is not allowing to expose best of Guilin to overseas and Chinese visitors.

The river cruise with a guide is mosrt common way to see the river. Unfortunately it is not the best possible way as most there are motorboats which are making a lot of noise and smoke, which hovers over the surface of the water. People enjouy the ride and breathtaking sights of River Li - despite, not thanks to, the means thay are offered to discover them with.

'Pride of Guilin' project aims at addressing this shortcoming and allowing this most unique landscapes to be discovered and explored in equally uniqe and thrilling way- from the deck of open cabin Airship or Zeppelin.

The Vision 3

Details

Product's features and benefits

Due to uniqueness and its’ particular charm, the best possible way to discover the Guilin region is from air.

Currently there is only one such option available – using hot air baloon cruise. Baloon, which is dependant on winds and it's cost is comparable to cruise cost in Poland, which I find very unwelcoming in comparison to general prices of travelling/sightseeing in China.

Currently most elaborate and unique means of air transport designed for tourism are modern airships. They are perfectly suited to serve the purpose of tourist cruises over the River Li.

Product's features and benefits 2

They are safe to travel in, they can accomodate up to 12 passengers (depending on vessels type), are quiet, slow enough to allow full appreciation of scenery (around 30 Kts/hr) , they do not spoil natural beauty of Guilin landscapes. On the opposite - their beuty would rather add to the natural attraction.

Slight upgrade and configuration of the airship- to equip them with gondoles that would look like old-style Chinese Junk ships would strenghten all the above mentioned assets and offer trully one of the most uniqe ways to dicover and enjoy region of Guilin, and the one that would match the scenery in it's uniqueness.

Fit to Purpose

Airships can fly very low and slow, as well as high and slow, allowing passengers to fully appreciate landscapes they will fly over. They are also quiet, and thus constituting perfect vehicle for tourstim industry. Unlike hot air baloons, they are highly manouverable, allowing selection and than executing best and most picturesque routes. Due to all above characteristics, airships were always considered to be most luxurious vehicles available for human air travel and as such are a vehicles of choice for Pride of Guilin project.

If a decision is made to customize the gondole, to style it to look like ancient Chinese Junk ship – with an open deck to survey the surroundings and stylish imitation of masts, this would make it most original and most recognizable tourist attraction in the region, if not wider, making it a perfect match to Guilin scenery, Chinese traditional culture and, as a result - modern tourism business.

SafetyWhat keeps modern airships in the air is helium filled cavity to which gondole is

attached. Helium is not flammable gas to the extent it is even used for fire distinguishers. There is no danger of fire, or explosion on either the board (gondole) or of the hull.

It can operate in air conditions similar to small plane and currently it is considered to be very the safe way of flying.

Environment

Airships are among the cleanest form of transport ever. Airships have inherently low greenhouse gas emissions because of the static lift provided by the Helium gas. Noise level is low enough not to consider it, and with potential installation of solar panels environmetal impact of airships is even mpre reduced.

Customised airships would operate on the route over the River of Li (see fig XX) with short 'jumps' to lakes and mountain-packed areas..

It would be a breathtaking alternative to river cruises on motor-propelled boats, offering so much more than just this- it would offer bird's view of one of the most beautiful and touristically attractive regions. It would definitely cater for the needs of milions of peole visiting Guilin on a yearly basis.

Exemplary Airship Route

Environment continued

Being a very unique and picturesque vessels in themsels, airships of Guilin would also become a tourist attraction per se, contributing to local businesses by baiting even more peole to the area.

Having capacity to carry up to 12 passengers on one tour (depending on the Airship model), and allowing for 1 hour's ride, this would give the turanround of 96 pepole a day per one Airship. Growing the number of passengers possible to accomodate on one crusie and ensuring non-stop (in the daylihgt) operation of fleet of Airsips this should become sound business model.

If the model proves to be succesfull, similar ones could be adopted across many sites of China adding very unique – on a global scale - way of exploring some of the most notable sites of China's natual and historical heritage.

Issues to overcome

In order to achievie economic success and fully take advantage of the potential, this project would need firts to analyse and investigate ways of overcoming following drawbacks;

Capacity

Modern airships do not have large capacity in terms of number of passengers they can carry. This directly contributes to return on investment.

Return on Investment

Currently price of Airsip ride in US is from 375 to 495$ per person from 60 to 90 mins ride, in comparison to Hot Air Baloon price of 200-250$ per 60min ride, 245$ for a small plane ride.

Run Cost of Airship seems to be considerably high and this are would require further research to establish proce allowing for acceptable level of profitability.

Conclusion

This concept is just a proposal to Chinese autorities and enterprenours in the region or nation-wide.

The idea of luxourios, comfortable and airborn sightseeing of one of the most picturesque areas in the world is popping up here and there taking shape in US only so far. With customised, Chinese-style Airsips and in the region of Guilin, this idea could really can take shape. Moreover, it would have been succesfull on an scale impossible elwhere, mainly due to the character of the place. I encourage you to ponder over this possbility, and investigate this option, initially through deepend logistic, technical and economic analysis, so that this project would give bith to real and breathtaking Pride of Guilin.