On November 30th, Opinions on Deepening the "Internet + Tourism" Plan to Promote the High Quality Development of Tourism was jointly issued by ten departments including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the National Development and Reform Commission, in which it is proposed to optimize the "Internet + Tourism" business environment, and to promote the high quality development of tourism with digital techniques.
According to the Opinions, all scenic spots and resorts should make efforts to improve the coverage of 5G network, accelerate the intelligent transformation and upgrading of parking lots, tourist service centers and scenic area signpost systems, and promote the popularization and application of unmanned and non-contact facilities.
(Image Source: WeChat official account of MCT)
At the same time, all local governments should effectively integrate the data and information from cultural and tourism, public security, transportation, meteorology and other departments, timely release the real-time tourist volume, road traffic, meteorological warning and other information related to scenic spots based on big data, cloud computing and other technologies, and guide the optimal allocation of tourism resources.
It is suggested that scenic spots, hotels and museums should be encouraged to cooperate with internet platforms to effectively integrate the offline tourism resources and realize online ticket booking, tourism information display, cultural and tourism creative product sales and so on. Relevant departments should be supported to summarize and promote of the experience in tourism development throughout the region, advance the construction of a number of world-class tourism cities and create a batch of world-class tourism routes.
Local governments are also encouraged to support tourism innovation and entrepreneurship, guide the development of cloud tourism, cloud art performance, cloud entertainment, cloud live broadcasting, cloud exhibition and other new formats, and develop a new mode of "network experience + consumption"; guide tourism enterprises, colleges and universities, and scientific research institutions to strengthen the industry-university-research cooperation, and promote the in-depth integration of tourism online and offline.
According to the Opinions, by 2022, the application of Internet in scenic spots will be greatly improved; a number of smart scenic spots, resorts, villages and towns will be built; the total number of tourists and tourism consumption in China will be recovered to the picture as before the COVID-19; by 2025, intelligent transformation and upgrading will be generally finished in National 4A and above scenic spots, and the total number of tourists and the tourism consumption will be greatly increased.
The 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services ("CIFTIS") was held in Beijing from September 4 to September 9. As one of the eight thematic events of this CIFTIS, tourism and travel-related services was designed with a special "tourism + sci-tech" module, to show the three highlights of sci-tech enabled tourism, immersive interactive experience and brand-new scene application through 5G, 8K, big data, artificial intelligence and other display forms.
(Visitors experience immersive VR terminal in the exhibition area of tourism and travel-related services at CIFTIS)
For example, in the exhibition area of public tourism services, visitors can query the virtual tour guides, sightseeing strategies, and hand-painted maps for Beijing Class A scenic spots through mobile phones, to experience the convenience created by smart tourism and travel-related services. The Old Summer Palace was "moved" to the Haidian Exhibition Area through scientific and technological means. The audible, visual and perceptible "Digital Old Summer Palace" allowed the audience to feel the splendid civilization of ancient garden construction art without leaving home. The applet "The Grand Canal through Time and Space" was officially launched at this CIFTIS. It reproduces the vicissitudes of the Grand Canal by means of theater interpretation, 3D model demonstration and history scroll interaction. With the ancient Grand Canal "put" into the mobile phone, people can enjoy the fun of smart tourism at home.
(Image Source: The Beijing News)
During the 2020 CIFTIS, the "World Conference on Tourism Cooperation and Development" with the theme of "Rebuilding World Tourism for Prosperity" was held. Chen Jining, Chairman of the Council of the World Tourism Cities Federation, Deputy Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Mayor of Beijing, indicated in his speech that tourism is a comprehensive and resilient industry, and large-scale epidemics will lead to major changes in tourism consumption and tourism and travel-related services. However, COVID-19 has not cooled down people's passion for tourism, but has led to a new mode of tourism, which is decentralized, personalized, customized and reserved. It has brought new opportunities for tourism resumption and economic recovery.
(Image Source: World Tourism Cities Federation)
Hu Heping, Minister of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, said at the conference that enterprises, as the core of the tourism industry, should take the initiative to respond to the crisis and "create new opportunities in the crisis and make initiations during changes". Hu suggested that tourism enterprises should strengthen capacity building, plan development ideas, develop new products and explore new models during the epidemic prevention and control period. According to the changes of the epidemic, they should resume the tourism market orderly under the premise of ensuring safety. In particular, it is necessary to adapt to the requirements of informatization, make good use of new technologies such as 5G, big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, develop smart tourism, promote reserved, limited, staggered travel, and improve the quality of tourism development.
