Digital upgrade to attract more tourists

A three-year plan to develop online cultural and tourism industries was released by the city's cultural and tourism authorities today, highlighting the application of new technologies to build Shanghai into an international cultural metropolis and a world-class city for tourism.

The city will cultivate new cultural and tourism business models with online, intelligent and interactive features that take advantage of new technologies, including big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 5G plus 4K/8K, blockchain and facial recognition, according to the plan released by the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism.

The plan calls for promoting the integrated development of culture and tourism, and accelerate service and management innovations in the tourism industry.

An intelligent upgrade of cultural and tourism venues in the city will be accelerated, as will both intelligent-tourism service development and  online capabilities of local cultural and tourism-related organizations.

By 2022, the city will create a more convenient, efficient and integrated cultural and tourism public-service system.

Cultural and tourism venues in the city are required to gradually implement intelligent management, services and displays, and create digital cultural and tourism schemes that can be merged into residents' daily lives.

The city will host round-the-clock cultural festivals, games and exhibitions.

The plan emphasizes further developing city's eSports and animation industries, as well as the city's "cloud trade" platform of artworks.

It also calls for the local digital-content industry to become more competitive, as it's more deeply integrated with other industries.

An English e-version of a Shanghai map will be launched, and the construction of cultural and tourism facilities will be accelerated.

Standards covering the development and management of online cultural and tourism industries will be drafted.

Lastly, the plan encourages cultural works that tap into new technologies and embody haipai (Shanghai-style) features.