China Tourism Technology Conferences

中文摘要 ↓

China’s provinces and cities increasingly use their tourism events to launch and show off digital humans: virtual ambassadors, AI tour guides and holographic presenters. This page lists the events where such deployments are documented, in three groups: the tourism development conferences that provinces and cities convene and rotate among host localities, the national and international trade fairs where destinations and vendors exhibit, and the summits and specialist forums on digital technology and smart tourism. Entries are alphabetical within each group.

Tourism Development Conferences : Government-run conferences that a province or city convenes on tourism, usually rotating among host localities that compete to stage them.

1. Beijing Tourism Development Conference (北京市旅游发展大会) Organized by the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and City Government, this conference was held on October 24, 2024 — officially described as the first tourism work meeting convened by Beijing’s municipal Party committee and government. At the exhibition accompanying it, Mentougou District (门头沟区) presented a “文旅数智人” (cultural-tourism digital intelligent human) acting as a digital promotion officer (推介官). Built on research products from the Jingxi Zhigu (京西智谷) technology base and drawing on the district’s cultural-tourism resource database, the digital human answered attendees’ questions in real time, and the district’s official government portal called it the most eye-catching of Mentougou’s displays at the event.
2. Changsha City Tourism Development Conference (长沙市旅游发展大会) An annual municipal-level conference organized by the Changsha CPC Committee and City Government, rotating among Changsha’s districts and county-level cities since the first edition in Wangcheng (望城) in November 2022, followed by Liuyang (浏阳). At the 4th edition, opened September 26, 2025, in Ningxiang (宁乡), the tourism promotion segment used an AI digital human likeness of Ningxiang Party Secretary Zhang Zuolin (张作林), billed as an “AI Secretary” (AI书记), combined with holographic gauze projection and staged scenes to lead the audience through a “多维时空对话” (multidimensional space-time dialogue) corridor of local history; the segment was created by the drama school of Hunan Vocational College of Art. The conference follows the “holding a conference to develop a city” (办会兴城) principle of Hunan’s tourism conferences, channelling tourism investment toward the hosting locality. The 5th edition opened September 29, 2026, in Changsha County (长沙县).
3. Foshan Tourism Development Conference (佛山旅游发展大会) Held November 1, 2024, at the Qiaoshan Cultural Center in Nanhai District, this was the first meeting Foshan’s municipal Party committee and government convened on tourism development. The conference launched “Wufushi” (五福狮, Five Fortune Lions) as Foshan’s tourism digital human image ambassador (旅游数字人形象大使), alongside the “Fuqu You” (佛趣游) cultural-tourism platform, a mini-program built by Foshan’s municipal media center with the city’s culture and tourism bureau that went live the same day. A follow-up “Four Mountains Two Rivers” (四山两江) Cultural Tourism Ecosystem Conference was held May 30, 2025, in Shunde.
4. Guangxi Cultural Tourism Development Conference (广西文化旅游发展大会) Organized by the Guangxi Autonomous Region CPC Committee and Government, this conference has been held annually since 2019, usually in November, rotating among Guangxi’s prefectural cities by competitive bid: Guilin (2019), Liuzhou (2020), Beihai (2021), Chongzuo (2022), Nanning (2023), Wuzhou (2024), Baise (2025) and Hezhou (2026), with Fangchenggang named as host for 2027. At the 2022 Chongzuo edition, the “Liu Sanjie” (刘三姐) digital human — developed by Guangxi Tourism Development Group (广西旅游发展集团) under the guidance of the regional Department of Culture and Tourism and named Guangxi’s cultural tourism digital promotion ambassador (广西文化旅游数字推广大使) — appeared at the conference alongside the group’s Chongzuo Huashan metaverse project. At the 2025 Baise edition, November 23–24, the Liu Sanjie digital human was the core of a new “Sanjie Banyou” (三姐伴游) AI travel-companion application.
5. Guizhou Tourism Industry Development Conference (贵州旅游产业发展大会) Founded in 2006 with a first edition at the Huangguoshu scenic area in Anshun, this conference is hosted by the Guizhou Provincial People’s Government and rotates annually among Guizhou’s prefectural cities. At the 19th edition, opened April 10, 2025, in Anshun, the province released its cultural-tourism digital human “Huang Xiaoxi” (黄小西), developed by Moutai Cultural Tourism under the guidance of the provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, together with a Guizhou tourism industry large model and version 3.0 of “One Code Tour Guizhou” (一码游贵州); Huang Xiaoxi plans itineraries, takes bookings and serves as an AI travel companion. An upgraded Huang Xiaoxi appeared at the 20th edition, opened March 30, 2026, in Guiyang, carrying the same named digital human across consecutive annual editions of a provincial tourism conference.
6. Hebei Tourism Industry Development Conference (河北省旅游产业发展大会) Founded in 2016 with a first edition September 23–25 in Baoding, this annual conference is organized by the Hebei Provincial CPC Committee and Government, with the Hebei Department of Culture and Tourism and the host city co-hosting each rotating edition. Host cities are chosen by competitive bidding (申办制) among the province’s cities; the 9th edition was held September 15–17, 2025, with Xingtai as the main venue and four other cities as sub-venues. The conference anchors Hebei’s “Zheme Jin, Name Mei, Zhoumo Dao Hebei” (这么近，那么美，周末到河北) tourism brand campaign. At the 8th edition, held September 22–24, 2024, in Langfang (廊坊) and Dingzhou, the virtual digital human “Ji Youyou” (冀悠悠) introduced the Life Aesthetics Market (生活美学市集) in Langfang and recommended products to visitors, alongside national-brand goods, traditional costumes and intangible-heritage foods. The 10th edition was held September 13–15, 2026, in Cangzhou.
7. Hunan Province Tourism Development Conference (湖南省旅游发展大会) Annual since 2022, this conference rotates among Hunan’s cities, which apply to host. From 2025 it is held twice a year: Yueyang (spring 2025), Huaihua (autumn 2025), Xiangtan (spring 2026) and Yongzhou (autumn 2026), with Zhuzhou named for the 8th edition in 2027. Digital humans have appeared at multiple editions. At the opening of the 1st edition in Zhangjiajie on November 19, 2022, Hunan Satellite TV’s digital host “Xiao Yang” (小漾), of Hunan Radio and Television, performed the drum piece “Welcoming Guests” (《迎客鼓》) with singer A Duo. At the 3rd edition in Hengyang, opened September 21, 2024, the conference mascot “Huo Chuquan” (火出圈), modeled by Shiyou Technology (世优科技) on the fire god Zhurong, appeared as an AI digital human co-presenter and led the audience on virtual tours of three Hengyang tourism routes. Host cities have since built digital humans into their preparations: Yueyang’s “Digital Yueyang Tower” (数智岳阳楼) project recreated Fan Zhongyan and Teng Zijing as digital humans ahead of the 4th edition in May 2025, and Huaihua offered visitors an AI digital human of the Qing music scholar Pan Shiquan (潘仕权) for the 5th in September 2025.
8. Mianyang City Cultural and Tourism Development Conference (绵阳市文化和旅游发展大会) An annual conference held at a different place in the Mianyang area each year, with editions on March 23, 2023, in Jiangyou (江油) and June 24, 2024, in Zitong (梓潼). At the 2023 Jiangyou edition, held with the Li Bai Hometown Cultural Tourism Festival, the world’s first “Young Li Bai Digital Human” (全球首款"少年李白数字人") was released — an ultra-realistic figure portraying Li Bai as a student in Qinglian — and designated Jiangyou City’s Cultural Promotion Ambassador (江油市文化推广大使), to serve as a guide in Jiangyou’s scenic areas. The digital human then joined a CCTV.com livestream with host Cao Xuanyi promoting local scenery and food. A China Cultural Tourism Digital IP Industry Development Conference (中国文旅数字IP产业发展大会) was held alongside the event, discussing virtual digital humans and other digital applications in tourism.
9. Shanxi Province Tourism Development Conference (山西省旅游发展大会) Annual since October 2015, when the first edition was held in Taiyuan, this conference has evolved through four formats: conventional promotion (1.0), a televised competition (2.0), a “1+3+N” model (3.0) and rotating themes (4.0). The 2024 edition was held July 26–28 in Taiyuan, where two digital humans, “Jinjin” (晋晋) and “Yangyang” (阳阳), worked in the news center of the Taiyuan cultural tourism promotion event that opened the conference. The 2025 edition was held in Jincheng in September. The conference shares its provincial organizer — the Shanxi Department of Culture and Tourism — with the separately organized Digital Cultural Tourism Brand Innovation Conference, though the two events serve distinct strategic functions.
10. Sichuan Province Cultural and Tourism Development Conference (四川省文化和旅游发展大会) Sichuan’s annual provincial cultural tourism conference, held together with the China (Sichuan) International Tourism Investment Conference and moved between cities: Ya’an (2024, the investment conference’s 10th edition), Zitong in Mianyang (October 29, 2025) and Chengdu (September 28, 2026). The 2024 edition, held September 27 in Ya’an, signed 97 major projects worth 48.49 billion yuan. The same day in Ya’an’s Yucheng District, the 2024 Sichuan Digital Cultural Tourism Development Conference (2024四川数字文旅发展大会), guided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Department of Science, Technology and Education and co-hosted by the Sichuan Department of Culture and Tourism and the Ya’an government, featured the panda-shaped “Anyi Digital Human” (安逸数字人) in real-time interaction with presenters, demonstrating a cultural-tourism large model (文旅行业大模型) developed by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Technology Innovation Center for Visual Fusion Scene Experience (Sichuan), built by Zhisheng Integration (智胜集成).

Trade Fairs : National and international exhibitions where destinations and vendors show tourism products to buyers and the public.

11. CIFTIS Cultural Tourism Exhibition (服贸会文旅服务专题展) Held annually in Beijing each September as the cultural tourism service component of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (服贸会). The 2025 edition, opened September 10 in Halls 9 and 11 of Shougang Park, covered 11,100 square meters of indoor and outdoor space and hosted 425 exhibitors, with AI digital humans, AIGC digital avatars (数字分身) and XR virtual worlds across its cultural tourism zone. One of its focal points was the Summer Palace’s (颐和园) 3D digital human AI customer-service agent “Xiao Yi” (小颐), which generates a custom itinerary in under a second. Launched in May 2025 as the first AI digital human customer-service agent at a Beijing municipal park, it had reached version 3.0 by the fair, drawing on more than 100,000 words of content and 2,000 question-and-answer pairs and handling more than 340,000 consultations a year. The 2026 cultural tourism exhibition (September 9–13, Halls 7 and 9 of Shougang Park, 6,600 square meters, 413 exhibitors) put embodied humanoid robot docents and AI tour guides at its center.
12. China Cultural Tourism Industry Expo (中国文化旅游产业博览会) Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and inaugurated in 2024 from the merger of the China Tourism Industry Expo and the China (Wuhan) Cultural Tourism Expo, this expo has alternated between Tianjin (2024, 2026) and Wuhan (2025). The inaugural Tianjin edition, September 13–16, 2024, drew more than 2,000 enterprises across nine halls and 150,000 square meters, including a dedicated Smart Tourism Hall (智慧旅游馆), where Midu (蜜度) demonstrated a large-model “cultural tourism intelligent companion” (文旅智能伴游) system planning visitors’ itineraries. The 2025 Wuhan edition, September 12–14, covered 100,000 square meters with 2,000 enterprises and 225,000 visitors; its highlights were tourism robots and immersive experiences. The 2026 edition returned to Tianjin’s Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center, opening September 3, where AI digital humans acted as smart tour guides recommending travel routes, alongside digital human guided tours and AI travel photography.
13. China International Travel Mart (中国国际旅游交易会/CITM) Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and billed as Asia’s largest professional travel trade show, CITM has been held every year since 1998 and alternated between Shanghai and Kunming from 2001. The 2023 Kunming edition (November 17–19), co-hosted with the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the Yunnan Provincial Government, introduced a virtual digital human of the Ming dynasty travel writer Xu Xiake (徐霞客) to take visitors on a virtual tour of Yunnan. The 2025 edition moved for the first time to Hainan, at the Hainan International Convention and Exhibition Center in Haikou, December 19–21, drawing more than 1,000 travel trade representatives from 101 countries and regions; there Beijing Shansu Mofang Technology (北京闪塑魔方科技) showed a digital human AI interactive photo terminal for scenic areas that answers questions about attractions and routes around the clock and guides visitors through stylized photographs. The 2026 edition is scheduled for December 12–14, again in Haikou. As the Ministry’s own international trade fair, it is where provincial destinations present their digital tourism products to overseas tour operators.
14. China–ASEAN Expo Tourism Exhibition (中国—东盟博览会旅游展区) Held annually in Nanning, the China–ASEAN Expo stages its tourism exhibition area in Guilin, at the Guilin International Convention and Exhibition Center. At the 21st edition’s tourism area, opened September 26, 2024, Guangxi’s cultural tourism digital promotion ambassador, the “Liu Sanjie” (刘三姐) digital human of Guangxi Tourism Development Group, gave visitors one-stop travel consultation in the smart tourism service area. At the 22nd edition in September 2025, Guilin’s “Charm City” (魅力之城) pavilion in Nanning presented “Gui Linger” (桂灵儿), billed as China’s first 16K ultra-realistic cultural-tourism digital human: designed by People’s Daily Online (人民网) with film-grade 3D modeling and launched with the “AI Guilin” (AI桂林) cultural tourism large model, it changes into the costumes of the ten ASEAN countries and guides visitors in ten languages. The tourism exhibition area that opened in Guilin on September 19, 2025, added digital human tour guides. The 23rd edition opened in Nanning on September 17, 2026; its Guilin tourism area built AI digital human hosts, real-time multilingual translation and itinerary planning into its operations, and Guilin Tourism University showed a “Xiuqiu Zhixing” (绣球智行) AI virtual human travel-companion robot. Its outward, multilingual orientation toward Southeast Asian visitors distinguishes it from the domestically focused provincial conferences.
15. Guangdong International Tourism Industry Expo (广东国际旅游产业博览会/CITIE) Held annually in Guangzhou in the second week of September at the Canton Fair Complex and organized by the Guangdong Provincial Cultural-Tourism Development and Support Center (Guangdong Xinghai Performing Arts Group), CITIE is a major trade-fair-format event within the provincial tourism industry calendar. The 2024 edition (September 13–15) introduced a zone for new tourism technologies where Guangdong Mobile, China Telecom, FanTuo Digital Creation (凡拓数创) and Quwan Technology (趣丸科技) showed digital humans, metaverse and AI applications for smart tourism. At the 2025 edition, Bangyan Technology’s NuwaAI platform (邦彦技术NuwaAI) released a custom digital human for the expo. The 2026 edition, September 11–13, drew more than 1,200 exhibitors from nearly 50 countries and regions, with China Telecom again presenting AI digital human explainers. The expo provides a recurring commercial showcase venue where digital human vendors targeting the tourism sector can demonstrate products to industry buyers, distinguishing it from the government-mobilization format of the provincial development conferences.
16. ITB China China’s edition of the international travel trade show, held annually in Shanghai each May; the 2025 edition ran May 27–29 at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition & Convention Center. On Hubei’s “Zhiyin Hubei” (知音湖北) stand, the foreign-language interactive digital human “Chu Yin” (楚音), from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s key laboratory for light-and-shadow interaction at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, represented the province’s technology among twelve digital applications on a stand that held more than 200 trade meetings with travel buyers from about 30 countries. ITB China functions as a key commercial exhibition venue where tourism digital human products gain international trade-facing exposure. The 2026 edition, May 26–28, drew more than 900 exhibitors from 85 countries and regions.
17. Shenzhen International Cultural Industries Fair (深圳文博会/ICIF) Billed as China’s leading cultural industry fair, with cumulative turnover above three trillion yuan, and held annually in May in Shenzhen. The 21st edition, May 22–26, 2025, set up its first AI exhibition area, with more than 60 AI companies; exhibits included XVERSE (元象)’s large-model Li Bai digital human acting as an AI travel guide, alongside humanoid robots and the digital restoration of ancient books and cultural relics. The 22nd edition in May 2026 covered 160,000 square meters with 6,312 exhibitors and again included an AI exhibition area.

Summits and Specialist Forums : Policy summits and dedicated digital human, XR and smart-tourism events.

18. Digital China Summit Digital Culture Sub-forum (数字中国建设峰会·数字文化分论坛) Held annually in Fuzhou since 2018, the Digital China Summit added a dedicated Digital Culture sub-forum at its 6th edition in April 2023. During the 8th Summit in April 2025, a digital culture zone in Hall 9 of the Straits International Conference and Exhibition Center featured a Mei-school Peking Opera digital human of “Mu Guiying” (穆桂英): visitors wore capture devices to take on the digital Mu Guiying’s form and perform excerpts of Mu Guiying Takes Command (《穆桂英挂帅》) in sync with live opera performers — a format that functions simultaneously as cultural tourism experience and digital human technology demonstration. The same zone showed AR travel-companion glasses, AI travel assistants and a digital-twin virtual tour of the Palace Museum’s Hall of Mental Cultivation (养心殿). At the 9th Summit, April 29–30, 2026, China Digital Culture Group (中国数字文化集团) showed AI digital human applications for cultural tourism in the experience zone.
19. Digital Cultural Tourism Brand Innovation Conference (数字文旅品牌创新大会) Organized under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and co-hosted by Shanxi Province’s Department of Culture and Tourism and the Taiyuan Municipal Government, this conference has been held in Taiyuan in both 2023 and 2024. It focuses specifically on the intersection of digital innovation and cultural tourism branding, making digital humans a central rather than peripheral theme. At the 2023 edition on March 21, at the Jinyang Lake International Conference Center, Shanxi’s first ultra-realistic virtual digital human “Qingniao” (青鸟) — modeled on the bird motif of the Jinhou Niaozun (晋侯鸟尊) artifact — was unveiled as Shanxi’s official cultural-tourism virtual star ambassador (山西文旅虚拟星推官); the project was initiated by Shanxi Zhisheng Media Technology (山西智胜传媒) and the character built with Shiyou Technology (世优科技). The Dunhuang-inspired virtual digital human “Tianyu” (天妤) of Yuanyuan Technology (元圆科技) also appeared in a video on the entrance-area LED cube at the same event. The 2024 edition, held August 22 in Taiyuan, released fifteen Shanxi cultural tourism digitalization innovation cases spanning AI, the metaverse, virtual humans and immersive performing arts, among them Qi County’s Wang Wei city digital human (祁县王维城市数字人). In 2025 the event was held as the Digital Cultural Tourism Brand Innovation Carnival (数字文旅品牌创新嘉年华) on August 29 in Taiyuan, releasing twelve further innovation cases. Though sharing an organizer with the Shanxi Province Tourism Development Conference, this is a distinct event series focused on digital technology branding rather than the province’s signature annual tourism development convening.
20. First China Digital Human Conference (首届中国数字人大会) Organized by the Internet Society of China (中国互联网协会), the inaugural edition was held September 23–24, 2024, at the Zhongguancun National Innovation Demonstration Zone exhibition center in Beijing, under the theme “Digital Human Applications and the Future” (数字人应用与未来), and brought together digital human developers across industry sectors. Its tourism dimension was embodied by “Sulin” (苏琳), a 3D intelligent digital panda built by China Telecom’s Sichuan company with the China Telecom AI Research Institute, with Aba Prefecture in Sichuan as the pilot. Sulin recognizes multiple dialects, carries Aba’s local cultural knowledge and interacts with visitors; it is a project of the digital human application joint laboratory China Telecom set up with the Internet Society of China, and belongs to the “TeleTrip-星辰文旅” cultural-tourism product line of China Telecom AI.
21. Nanchang VR/AR Industry Expo (VR/AR产业博览会), World VR Industry Conference The VR/AR Industry Expo is a core part of the World VR Industry Conference, organized by the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Government and first held in Nanchang in 2018. The 7th expo, opened October 18, 2025, at the Greenland International Expo Center in Nanchang’s Honggutan District ahead of the October 19–20 conference, covered more than 20,000 square meters with more than 100 exhibitors. Tourism was a leading theme: the Tengwang Pavilion scenic area’s “Millennium Preface Tengwang Pavilion” (千年一序滕王阁) large-space VR experience, built with Blue Universe Digital Technology and China Mobile (Jiangxi) Virtual Reality Technology, was the centerpiece, and visitors could talk with AI digital humans of historical figures such as Li Bai. Jiangxi officials at the conference cited the Tengwang Pavilion scenic area’s AI digital human guide as a deployed application, and China Unicom showed a cartoon AI digital human already guiding visitors at the Jiangxi Provincial Museum and the Jiangxi Science and Technology Museum.
22. Smart Tourism Conference (智慧旅游大会, CTA) Organized by the China Tourism Association’s Smart Tourism Branch, this recurring specialist conference focuses on the intersection of digital technology and tourism operations. Its 6th edition, held October 17, 2024, in Shanghai jointly with the first Low-Altitude Tourism Practice Seminar, took digital humans and intelligent customer service among its themes. Mofa Technology (魔珐科技) — known formally as MoFa (Shanghai) Information Technology Co., Ltd. (魔珐（上海）信息科技有限公司) — supported the conference and presented 3D digital human solutions for tourism, with case studies including the Qimen (祁门) tea virtual human “Qunfang Zui” (群芳最) and a 3D digital tour guide for Nanjing Culture and Tourism Group’s Yangtze River cruise. The conference functions as a practitioner-oriented forum where tourism operators encounter applied digital human products rather than headline mascots, making it a key conduit between digital human vendors and the tourism destination management sector. The 7th edition was held July 8, 2026, at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre.
23. Smart Tourism Development Conference and Showcase (智慧旅游发展大会/智慧旅游示范展示活动, MCT) Organized by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s Resource Development Department with a host province or city, this annual government event releases the annual National Smart Tourism Development Report (全国智慧旅游发展报告). The 2023 edition, the Smart Tourism Development Conference and Smart Tourism Showcase, was held November 22–24 at the Nanjing International Expo Center with the Jiangsu Department of Culture and Tourism; the 2024 edition, held as the Smart Tourism Showcase, took place November 22 at Shougang Park in Beijing’s Shijingshan District with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism and the Shijingshan government, where more than 40 companies showed 48 projects. Among them was “Wenbo Jingling” (文博精灵), a holographic interactive box presenting lifelike holographic historical figures — a deployment model that treats the digital human as a museum docent technology rather than a tourism marketing character. As a Ministry-organized event, its digital human deployments carry institutional endorsement with sector-wide signaling value. The 2025 showcase was held October 28–29 in Wuxi with the Jiangsu Department of Culture and Tourism and the Wuxi government.
24. World Internet Conference Wuzhen Summit (世界互联网大会乌镇峰会) Held annually in Wuzhen, the water town in Tongxiang, Zhejiang, the summit has made the town’s scenic area part of its program. For the 2024 summit, the Tongxiang Municipal Government and Alipay launched “Tong Xiaowu” (桐小乌), billed as China’s first combined conference-and-tourism AI agent, serving attendees and tourists across the summit venues and the scenic area, with digital human explainers among the on-site services. At the 2025 summit in November, which set up a committee on the digitization of cultural heritage, a digital human of the Qing scholar Ji Xiaolan (纪晓岚) guided visitors through a mixed-reality reconstruction of the Wenlan Pavilion (文澜阁) and its Siku Quanshu (《四库全书》) in the “Wenlan Chongguang” (文澜重光) project of Zhejiang Library and Ant Group volunteers. The 2026 summit is scheduled for November 2–5.