Curious tourists grabbed out cell phones to record the stunning show as 500 drones with dazzling lights soared into the sky at the old resort town of Shexiang in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, producing designs resembling a dragon, a phoenix, and a lotus in succession.
The local tourism firm in charge of resort administration leased drone fleets.
The company’s chairperson, Yuan Yuan, stated that the performance took place four times last month and that when it made its premiere on January 18, the number of tourists attending reached a record high of 100,000.
“Even a small squid barbecue stall raked in a revenue of approximately 8,000 yuan (about 1,127 U.S. dollars) on that day, more than 10 times the usual amount,” she stated.
According to Long Lipin, manager of Digital Intelligence Culture, a drone performance firm based in Guiyang, province, the company has performed 12 drone fleet exhibitions since August of last year, bringing in 1.55 million yuan in total income by the end of 2023.
Drone fleet performances have grown in popularity in China over the past few years, with the industry constantly growing. These performances range from official festivities like the opening ceremony of the Asian Games in Hangzhou to commercial promotions, birthday parties, and marriage proposals.
According to Lu Lingyue, general manager of a well-known drone performance firm in Jiangxi Province, east China, the company arranged 175 fleet shows in 2023—roughly twice as many as in 2022—with performances taking place in over 100 domestic and international cities.
“We are witnessing an increasing number of individual clients for personal celebrations like birthday parties and marriage proposals, beyond catering to university and corporate clients for events like founding anniversaries,” stated Lu. She also mentioned that devoted fans occasionally use drone fleets as a novel way to show their admiration for their heroes.
In honor of Tan Jianci, a Chinese singer and actor, fans arranged a 500-drone drone fleet performance on October 5, 2023, in Hengdian, Zhejiang Province. Tan and a large number of other spectators attended the event.
Multiple videos posted on the microblogging site Weibo.com show the airborne vehicles creating messages like “Happy Birthday, Tan Jianci,” as well as visual displays like an image of a man singing passionately into a microphone.
A search for “marriage proposals with drones” on Douyin, the Chinese counterpart of TikTok, returns over 1,000 short films, some of which have received over a million likes.
The low-altitude economy is among the critical growing industries that should be supported, according to the Central Economic Work Conference that took place in December 2023.
According to Lu, the Chinese government has been actively promoting the development of the low-altitude economy and has put in place a number of laws, including a temporary regulation pertaining to the management of unmanned aerial vehicles, that have helped the sector grow in an organized and methodical manner.
“We expect the market size to reach at least 4.5 billion yuan in 2024,” Lu stated.
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