As an important part of the low-altitude economy, "low-altitude" and "tourism" have been developing in both directions, and have been deepening their integration in the process of development. With the accelerated application of new technologies, new materials and new energy in the low-altitude field, the new quality productivity represented by the low-altitude economy is accelerating the reshaping of the tourism industry chain and related links, promoting the acceleration of the tourism scene, and also accelerating and driving the modernization and transformation and upgrading of the tourism service industry.
Flying Yellow Mountain "mountain picker"
In recent years, with the rapid development of tourism and the intensification of the aging of the rural population, the contradiction between the shortcomings of human transportation and the growth of the demand for convenient and diverse goods supply in Huangshan has become increasingly prominent. It is understood that from April to November every year, the average daily material transportation volume (excluding engineering material transportation) in Huangshan Scenic Area can reach 15 tons to 20 tons, and the demand for material transportation in the off-season from December to March of the following year is nearly 10 tons. At present, the material transportation in the Huangshan Scenic Area is mainly based on "cableway + manpower secondary transportation", that is, the materials under the mountain are transported to the upper station of the ropeway through the cableway, and then transported to the hotels and hotels on the mountain through manual transportation. In the case of large passenger flow, there is a shortage of mountain pickers for the secondary handling of materials. At the same time, in the case of pure human transportation, the mountain pickers must rely on the trail to transport, especially during the peak tourist hours, after sharing the trail, to a certain extent, the tourist's tour experience is affected.
In the face of many limitations and challenges in the traditional "cableway + manpower secondary transportation" transportation mode, Huangshan Scenic Area began to explore another innovative solution - drone transportation.
The Huangshan Scenic Area uses carrier drones to transport supplies
In May 2023, after the approval of the Huangshan Scenic Area Management Committee, the carrier drone began to work in the scenic spot pilot, the operation line avoids the walking trail, ropeway, air traffic control and other areas, and the two ends of the line are convenient points such as service stations or scenic roads, which are convenient for connection with ground transportation, and the pilot work has achieved remarkable results, providing an effective solution to solve the transportation problems in the Huangshan Scenic Area. It is understood that in January 2024, the first drone transportation line in the Huangshan Scenic Area, the "Scenic Hot Spring-Tianhai Route", was approved for normalized operation, and the main service object is the Tianhai area. The latest data shows that the total flight time of the drone on this line is about 8 hours per day, the total number of round-trips is about 50, and each round-trip time is about 12 minutes.
On the whole, "drone transportation has cleverly solved the problem of transportation difficulties in the Huangshan Scenic Area." The relevant person in charge of the Huangshan Scenic Area Management Committee said. Taking the transportation of Guangmingding, the core of the core scenic spot of Huangshan Mountain, as an example, the round-trip time of manual handling in this area is at least 5 hours, and a shoulder transporter can only carry about 150 catties of goods per trip, and can only carry up to 2 times a day. The maximum transportation capacity of a single UAV hanging is about 60 catties, and the total daily transportation of more than three machines can reach more than 10,000 catties. This also means that the daily transport volume of drones is equivalent to the transportation volume of 30 shoulder carriers, effectively coping with the shortage of shoulder carriers (from 300-400 at the peak to less than 130 at present) and the aging population (the average age is currently 50 years old).
The landing application of UAV transportation in Huangshan Scenic Area, compared with traditional manpower UAV transportation, can reduce the comprehensive transportation cost of the scenic spot by about 1/4, so that more mountain-type scenic spots and other scene transportation demanders can see a new way to break through the terrain restrictions and solve the problem of transportation capacity and distribution shortcomings.
The "takeaway brother" who flew into the scenic spot
Urban sightseeing scenic spots are also exploring more new models of "scenic spots + drones" extension services, and through the application of drones to scenic spot distribution, it solves the practical problems that takeaway brothers cannot enter scenic spots and goods cannot reach the demand points of tourists, so as to provide tourists with more new tourism consumption and new experiences.
Tourists order takeout in the two 5A-level tourist attractions of Shenzhen Window of the World and Splendid China, and because the takeaway delivery service cannot enter the scenic spot, tourists from the Window of the World have to walk for more than ten minutes to pick up the goods at the entrance of the scenic spot. In 2022, the takeaway in the scenic spot will be directly delivered into the park by drone, and the whole process will not take more than 15 minutes from placing an order to receiving the goods, which has once become a hot local news. According to Meituan's data, during the May Day holiday in 2023, catering businesses near Shenzhen's Window of the World Scenic Area more than doubled their orders month-on-month after opening drone delivery for tourists.
In today's era of "experience is king", the scenic spot uses drones to achieve efficient distribution and provide tourists with catering and consumer goods outside the scenic spot, which not only improves the tourist experience and reduces the customer complaints of the scenic spot, but also simultaneously improves the secondary consumption rate and re-visit rate of the scenic spot, turning "flow" into "retention".
Low Altitude + Tourism:
Stand in the future and plan for the present
Hunan Xiangxi Dwarf Village Scenic Area carried out a flight demonstration of low-altitude tour project
At present, mountainous, island-type scenic spots, as well as urban sightseeing scenic spots outside the boundaries of the urban distribution system, can explore the introduction of drone delivery services, deep interconnection with scenic resources, service coordination, and better meet the new experience and new needs of consumers. Whether it is a "flying" mountain picker or a "takeaway brother", the delivery service that can only be enjoyed outside the scenic spot has been extended to the interior of the scenic spot, giving birth to more new scenes of tourism consumption and opening up a new track for the integration of tourism and transportation.
In April 2023, six departments, including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Transport, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China, jointly carried out the recommendation and selection of typical cases of integrated development of transportation and tourism. Relevant studies show that the potential consumption scale of the mainland's domestic low-altitude tourism market has reached 100 million people, however, because the mainland's low-altitude consumption market is still in its infancy, according to data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the number of domestic air tours and aviation sports in 2022 will be about 480,000. According to relevant research estimates, by 2030, the economic scale of low-altitude tourism in the mainland is expected to reach more than 200 billion yuan, and the future development space of low-altitude tourism is huge.