Soon a floating hotel that could fly you around the world

A UK-based designer has come up with a concept of a flying hotel called the "Aircruise".

Nick Talbot's design shows a vertical air ship, 30 m tall, complete with penthouse, four duplex apartments, five smaller ones and glass viewing floors.

The structure will be lifted by hydrogen and propelled by solar power, leaving no carbon footprint.

Also referred to as "clipper in the clouds'', the cruise will fly at a leisurely 145k/h, which means a trip from London to New York will take 37 hours.

"Nick's ideas are very impressive and take our thinking into the next generation of travel products,'' News.com.au quoted conference convenor Tony Charters as saying, in a statement.

He added: "It could be a very exciting leap forward for tourism, and I hope it will inspire the Australian industry to push forward with creative and innovative ideas to help reinvigorate the industry.''

The Aircruise, which will carry a maximum of 100 passengers, will take off with the aid of four envelopes on the outside, each containing modular self-sealing bags.

Tablot will present his design at the Tourism Futures conference in Brisbane from July 5 to 7.