High Flyers

Along the way, the craft – which is the world’s largest commercial airship – will visit many of the world’s most iconic landmarks, including Big Ben, The London Eye and Tower Bridge in London, Stonehenge, the White Cliffs of Dover, the Eiffel Tower and Versailles in Paris, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Colosseum in Rome, the Acropolis in Athens and the Great Pyramids in Egypt.

“We consider that the Palm Jumeirah is the world’s newest landmark, and we are celebrating this through a landmark journey, which over 47 days will take us over some of the world’s most famous landmarks,” says Manal Shaheen, Director of Sales & Marketing at Nakheel.

The project marks the handover of the first residences on The Palm Jumeirah, with airship due to arrive in Dubai in mid-to-late December, at the end of a seven-week journey. This weekend, it is cruising the skies above the south of France.

The Spirit of Dubai, managed by Airship Management Services Inc., operates at around 1500 to 3000ft with a cruising speed of between 30 and 50 mph. However, the airship can reach speeds of up to 70 mph – or even faster, with a tailwind. “The Spirit of Dubai is not about attracting people to any specific thing we’re selling, it’s more about celebrating the completion of the first phase of the Palm project,” expands Shaheen.

“We are not in a position or a place where we need to advertise our own properties so that people buy them, but we wanted to tell the world how far we’ve come in the five years since the Palm was announced,” she continues. “I think it’s a time for us to show the world what we’ve done, and what we’ve achieved.”

The Spirit of Dubai project is the result of a long-term strategy devised by Nakheel’s in-house marketing team. The challenge was simple: How do you go about attracting even more attention to a project already famous around the globe?

“We wanted to look at a different way of capturing the eye and getting the audience’s attention, so for a long time people at Nakheel have been looking at airships, and looking at bringing one here as an advertising medium,” says Charlie Taylor, Senior Marketing and PR Officer at Nakheel. “It was an idea that was favoured, but one that, no pun intended, never really got off the ground.”

However, initial plans for a recordbreaking fireworks extravaganza on the island were ditched when it was estimated that the debris would take up to four days to clear from the Palm after the event. By contrast, the airship idea would allow Nakheel to emphasise its green credentials – while cruising at 30 knots the Spirit of Dubai airship consumes eight gallons (48 lbs) of fuel per hour, which means that during a week of operations the Spirit of Dubai will consume less fuel than a 767 uses to simply move away from its gate to a runway.

“We want to do a big event when the Palm’s actually finished and the hotels are up, but we were still looking to celebrate the completion of the first phase. The airship idea reared its head again and we were really keen on doing it,” says Taylor.

“We looked at where it would come from, and coincidentally the route went over or close to five or so of the Wonders of the World. That’s where the concept came from, but then only one of the original Wonders still exists. We could fl y over the site of the Colossus of Rhodes, but the result wouldn’t be that great,” he continues.

“So then we thought why not go to some of the main markets that the residents come from,” explains Taylor. “On the Palm 25% of the residents are British, and there’s a further 10% from Europe then a lot from the GCC and the Middle East. That’s why we are taking this route – the Burj al Arab is an icon that is known around the world, and the Palm isn’t even open yet but it’s getting the same kind of attention. We thought that we should celebrate the landmarks of the countries where our residents are coming from.”

Taylor is keen to emphasise what amounts to a new phase in Nakheel’s marketing operations. As all the villas currently available for purchase on the Palm have already been snapped up, the Spirit of Dubai is not a sales marketing campaign, he insists.

“It’s a destination marketing campaign I guess. The first residents are moving in and in a few years’ time the first hotels will open – the tourists will come so it’s telling the world and our key markets that it is something for everyone,” he says.

“I think there’s a perception in some quarters that the Palm is exclusive, because people like the Beckhams have bought property,” continues Taylor. “Yet whilst that may be true in terms of residential property, it is also a leisure and tourism destination that anyone can go to.

“The Palm symbolizes the spirit of Dubai in terms of the no-hold-barred go-for-it attitude the emirate has, as does the airship’s journey – it is something that has never been done before.”