Giant floating hotel billed as 'travel of the future'

A newly designed, modern and sleek medium of travel is currently being explored by a number of pretentious New York design firms - who bill their new 'floating hotel' as a major leap towards a more luxurious, slower-paced and environmentally friendly mode of travel. 

On the Aircruise - a towering airship packing 330,000 cubic metres of hydrogen gas, capable of lifting 396 tonnes - travellers will be able to float through the clouds, literally.

Design director Nick Talbot says guests aboard the airship can "bathe in the clouds" standing on an open air promenade deck, the size of a standard football field.

Mr Talbot, who has worked on the interiors of the world's first private spaceship to be launched by Virgin Galactic, said the concept of Aircruise is almost a romantic, philosophical statement.

"I don't know if it will ever be built", he admits.