Shanghai Disneyland, Communist Party museum among pilot sites for hi-tech immersive tourism

Disneyland and the official museum of the Chinese Communist Party are among China’s first batch of tourist sites tasked with developing “smart tourism” that offers immersive experiences using advanced technologies, as the country seeks to boost domestic travel.

A total of 24 tourist attractions across mainland China, including Shanghai Disneyland and the Museum of the Chinese Communist Party, which opened in June last year, will be the country’s first official trial sites for smart tourism, China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on Thursday.

The initiative was launched in March this year, when the ministry started accepting applications from companies interested in operating pilot schemes.

Those qualified should be offering “hi-tech and interactive” attractions based on new generation information technologies including 5G, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI), the government body said.

The 24 pilot sites will receive “guidance and support” from the culture and tourism ministry in areas including company development, talent training and publicity, the ministry said.

One of the attractions offered by the Communist Party museum is a “Long March immersive experience”, based on the military retreat undertaken by the Red Army in the 1930s.

China’s recent efforts in boosting its tourism industry include plans for the sector to incorporate a range of advanced technologies. In a five-year plan for the country’s travel industry published in late 2021, the State Council said that China should speed up the use of technologies including big data, cloud computing, blockchain and 5G.