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Low-altitude economy + tourism: Leading the tourism industry to a new outlet

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2024-12-31

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Editor-in-Chief | Yang Ming

Editor | Jing Xiangyuan

Source | Low-Altitude Industry Circle

2024, hailed as the "first year of the low-altitude economy," the low-altitude economy has been included in the national strategic emerging industries and has become a new growth engine. On December 27, the Low-Altitude Economy Development Department of the National Development and Reform Commission officially debuted. According to the official website of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Low-Altitude Economy Development Department is a functional department responsible for drafting and implementing the development strategy and medium- and long-term development plan for the low-altitude economy, proposing relevant policy recommendations, and coordinating major issues. Among numerous application scenarios, the low-altitude tourism industry, with its unique charm and broad market prospects, has become one of the most practical and promising industries in the low-altitude economy field.

Low-Altitude Economy: New Driving Force for the Tourism Industry

1. Overview of the Low-Altitude Economy

The low-altitude economy, as the name suggests, is a comprehensive economic form centered on various low-altitude flight activities, radiating and driving the integrated development of related fields. Its related products mainly include drones, electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL), helicopters, etc., involving low-altitude flight, aviation tourism, scientific research and education, and many other fields.

2. Policy Guidance and Support

In recent years, the Chinese government has attached great importance to the low-altitude economy. Since the concept of "low-altitude economy" was first written into the national plan in 2021, the country has intensively introduced a number of policies and regulations, such as the "Several Opinions on Promoting the Reform and Development of the Tourism Industry" and the "14th Five-Year Plan for Tourism Development." The continuous release of policy dividends has provided strong support for the development of the low-altitude tourism industry. Driven by policy guidance and market demand, the low-altitude economy is becoming a new engine to promote the transformation, upgrading, and high-quality development of China's tourism industry.

Currently, 26 provinces and municipalities across the country have included the low-altitude economy in their government work reports. More than ten cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Wuhan, and Changsha, have successively introduced relevant policies and measures, providing a good policy environment for the development of the low-altitude economy. For example, the "Shanghai Action Plan for High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy Industry (2024-2027)" proposes to support the establishment of more than 10 leading enterprises in low-altitude economic research and development and manufacturing by 2027 and to build a national comprehensive demonstration zone for the low-altitude economy industry. The "Several Measures of Shenzhen to Support the High-Quality Development of the Low-Altitude Economy" mentions targeted funding in aspects such as enterprise cultivation, technological innovation, industrial application demonstration, and infrastructure provision.

Low-Altitude Tourism: Innovative Applications and New Scenarios

1. Aerial Sightseeing:

Using low-altitude aircraft such as helicopters, hot air balloons, and eVTOLs to provide aerial sightseeing services for tourists. Overlooking scenic spots from the air to enjoy a unique visual feast. Or directly participate in low-altitude flight activities to personally experience the fun of low-altitude flight. Currently, more than 100 cities across the country have launched aerial sightseeing projects, and the low-altitude tourism market in Hainan and other places is particularly popular.

2. Special Performances:

Combining modern technology with traditional art, low-altitude tourism performances, such as drone light shows and aerial stunt flight performances, have become new favorites at major tourist destinations. For example, transplanting traditional puppet theater to the air for performances has achieved a truly magical flying effect. These performances not only enhance the night tourism economy but also present tourists with a visual feast of the perfect combination of high technology and art.

3. Scenic Area Services:

Low-altitude technology has brought diversified services to scenic areas, such as drone transportation and delivery, aerial photography and videography, and customized flight routes. The introduction of these special services not only enhances the overall tourist experience but also effectively improves the scenic area's secondary consumption rate and return rate, driving the commercial activities and consumption vitality of the surrounding areas.

4. Management Upgrades:

Through real-time crowd monitoring, low-altitude rescue, and comprehensive safety monitoring, drones not only provide tourists with a safer and more comfortable sightseeing environment but also help scenic areas achieve intelligent and precise management. This marks the entry of scenic area management into a new intelligent era, bringing a better experience to tourists.

5. Flight Cinema:

In addition to traditional flight experiences, flight cinemas, as a new form of entertainment, are gradually emerging in various tourism scenic areas and city shopping malls. Through virtual reality (VR) technology and advanced immersive sensory technology, it takes the audience into a realistic aerial world, experiencing an immersive and realistic flight feeling.

Opportunities and Challenges: Development Trends of Low-Altitude Tourism

1. Market Potential:

According to the latest "China Low-Altitude Economy Development Research Report (2024)" released by CCID Consulting, China's low-altitude economy achieved remarkable achievements in 2023, with a market size of 505.95 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth rate as high as 33.8%. This data not only shows the strong momentum of the low-altitude economy but also indicates its unlimited development potential.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China is optimistic about the future market development and expects the market size of the low-altitude economy to exceed 1.5 trillion yuan by 2025. According to the visionary plan of the "National Comprehensive Three-Dimensional Transportation Network Planning Outline," by 2035, the market size of China's low-altitude economy is expected to exceed 6 trillion yuan, which will set off a new wave of low-altitude economy globally.

2. Challenges Faced:

As a new tourism method in China, low-altitude tourism, although with huge potential, still faces many challenges in market development. Higher entry barriers, limited service supply scale, relatively high consumption prices, insufficient market publicity and promotion, and insufficient innovative tourism products are all problems that the low-altitude tourism industry must face and overcome.

(1) "Large and Small", "High and Low"

• High entry barriers: Due to safety and other factors, the entry barriers to the low-altitude tourism market are high, and relevant institutional regulations are strict, making it difficult for new enterprises to enter.

• Small supply scale: The low-altitude tourism market is still in its cultivation period, with a small number of existing low-altitude tourism enterprises and a limited market supply scale.

• High consumption prices: Low-altitude tourism products belong to a niche market, and the difficulty of supply and demand matching leads to high product prices, which are difficult for ordinary tourists to afford.

• Low publicity efforts: There is insufficient cultural publicity on the safety and experience of low-altitude tourism, and the promotion of excellent project content is also insufficient, affecting market awareness and acceptance.

(2) Lack of innovative and experiential products

In terms of tourism products, current low-altitude tourism products mainly focus on aerial sightseeing tours, lacking innovative and experiential products. In fact, low-altitude tourism can be combined with the characteristics of scenic resources to launch customized products. For example, in ski resorts, foreign experience can be drawn upon, such as helicopter skiing in Colorado, USA, and British Columbia, Canada, to provide tourists with a unique downhill skiing experience.

(3) Uneven Development of General Aviation Industry

The development of China's general aviation industry is uneven, with low-altitude tourism mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions, while the development in central and western regions is relatively lagging. Therefore, to make low-altitude tourism a force leading the new fashion of tourism, more efforts need to be made in terms of balanced industrial development, product innovation, and market promotion.

3. Development Trends:

(1) Technological Innovation

Innovative technology is the core driving force behind industry development. With the rapid development of cutting-edge technologies such as drones, electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL), and electric aircraft, the operating costs of low-altitude tourism will be reduced, and the safety and operability of low-altitude tourism will be significantly improved. These technological innovations provide strong support for the expansion of the low-altitude tourism market, opening up a broader development space.

(2) Diversification of Products and Business Models

Low-altitude tourism will rely on a diversified product strategy to launch innovative products such as low-altitude flight experience courses, private customized flights, and low-altitude commuting, to meet the personalized needs of different tourists. Actively explore the new model of "low-altitude flight + tourism", and integrate deeply with local culture and history to create a series of tourism experiences with unique cultural charm and local characteristics.

(3) Policy Support and Integration of Industry and Tourism

Government policy support, such as simplifying approval procedures and optimizing airspace management, provides a solid guarantee for the healthy development of the low-altitude tourism industry. On this basis, various links in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain—from aircraft manufacturing to tourism services, from financial insurance to market marketing—need to strengthen collaboration, form industrial synergy, and jointly promote the sustainable development of low-altitude tourism and the entire low-altitude economy.

Specific Measures: Low-Altitude Economy Promotes Tourism Development

1. Promoting the Modernization of Infrastructure

• General Airport Construction: General airports and destination landing sites are the most important infrastructure for the integration of the low-altitude economy and tourism. Investment in general airports should be increased, and the landing site network should be improved, especially in areas rich in tourism resources.

• Integrated Transportation Network: Improve the connection between airports and surrounding highways, railways, and municipal roads to ensure that tourists can easily reach the low-altitude tourism departure point. Introduce intelligent transportation systems to achieve real-time updates of flight information, improve flight scheduling efficiency, and enhance tourist travel convenience.

• Scenic Route Planning: Comprehensive consideration of commercial factors, ground transportation convenience, tourist concentration, airspace congestion, noise pollution, etc. Reasonable scenic route planning can facilitate the planning and implementation of low-altitude tourism routes, promote the integration and sharing of tourism resources.

2. Expanding the Industrial Value Chain

• In-depth Layout at the R&D End: Strategically lay out the low-altitude economic equipment manufacturing industry, increase investment in the technological research and development of special aviation tourism equipment such as drones and helicopters, and strive to promote industry technological innovation to provide high-performance and reliable equipment support for low-altitude tourism.

• Multifaceted Integration at the Market End: Actively adopt multi-field integration models such as "culture + aviation", "tourism + aviation", and "sports + aviation", continuously expand the boundaries of the low-altitude tourism market, create new consumption hotspots, and inject continuous vitality into the market.

• Personalized Customization at the Consumption End: Carefully design and launch a series of customized and diversified low-altitude tourism experience products to meticulously meet the personalized needs of different consumers. Whether it is the romantic moment of an air wedding or the magnificent scenery of an aerial tour, we are committed to providing every tourist with an unforgettable aerial journey.

3. Developing Innovative Tourism Products

• Differentiated Tourism Products: Develop unique low-altitude tourism projects based on the characteristics of tourism resources, such as aerial views of cultural heritage and natural landscapes. For example, the paragliding experience project in Mengshan, Shandong, allows tourists to overlook the beautiful scenery from a high altitude.

• Three-Dimensional Experience Products: Combine low-altitude tourism with water and land tourism products to design combined experiences such as "seaplane + yacht" and "helicopter + cruise ship/yacht".

• Air-themed Activities: Develop characteristic activities such as air weddings and air concerts. Develop characteristic themed routes according to different festivals and activities, such as romantic flights on Valentine's Day and red routes on National Day.

• Aviation Tourism Towns: Plan and construct aviation-themed tourism towns to promote the characteristic development of the low-altitude tourism industry. For example, hotels in Yanqing District, Beijing, have launched helicopter transfer experience activities to increase hotel occupancy rates.

4. Optimizing the Operating Cost Structure

• Promotion and Publicity: Promote low-altitude tourism routes and experiences through channels such as aviation clubs and integrated media platforms to attract more tourists. For example, the helicopter route from Kunshan to Shanghai Pudong Airport reduces prices by increasing occupancy rates.

• Economies of Scale: Reduce costs by increasing occupancy rates and optimizing operational management, making low-altitude tourism products more affordable. For example, drawing on successful foreign cases, further summarizing and summarizing the exploration and practice results of domestic low-altitude tourism, and leading the steady development of the low-altitude tourism industry through learning from pilot demonstration results.

5. Building an Industry Regulatory System

• Safety Supervision: Strengthen the regulation and supervision of the low-altitude tourism market to ensure that projects are safe and controllable, including aircraft maintenance, pilot qualifications, and emergency plans.

• Qualification Approval: Establish and improve the qualification approval system for the implementation of low-altitude tourism projects, improve the qualifications and abilities of low-altitude tourism practitioners, adhere to the principle of holding certificates before taking up posts, and conduct safety education and training for consumers.

• Airspace Management: Issue regulations on the management of low-altitude airspace use, formulate requirements for flight altitude, airspace, and flight control, and ensure that low-altitude flights are carried out in an orderly manner.

Conclusion

The low-altitude tourism industry has reached a critical point of development and ushered in an unprecedented strategic opportunity period. With the continuous release of policy dividends and the promotion of technological innovation, the low-altitude economy is bringing new perspectives and experiences to cultural tourism, becoming a new engine for the development of the tourism industry. The low-altitude economy will lead new trends, promote the development of new productive forces, and inject new vitality and impetus into China's economic and social development. As the low-altitude tourism industry continues to mature, in the future, we will witness the arrival of a more diverse, innovative, and immersive new era of tourism.

Special Research on Investment in the Cultural and Tourism Industry

To gain a deeper understanding of the development of investment in the cultural and tourism industry, the China Tourism Academy, in collaboration with the China Amusement Machine and Amusement Park Association and other organizations, is conducting a special research project on investment in the cultural and tourism industry. All member units and cultural and tourism enterprises are cordially invited to participate in the research.

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