Concept of Airships in Guilin, China

1. Airships of Guilin
Concept Presentation

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. The Vision 3
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.

5. Details

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. Safety
What 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.

10. 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.

11. Exemplary Airship Route

12. 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.

13. 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;

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

15. 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.

16. 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.