During the National Day holiday, a wave of new AI-driven cultural tourism scenarios appeared across Zhejiang, ranging from ancient pagodas that can hold conversations and museum systems that can identify artifacts, to immersive XR storytelling and county-level lightweight cultural tourism entrepreneurship models. AI is pushing Zhejiang's cultural tourism beyond the traditional sightseeing framework, exploring a new path where technology empowers cultural heritage and digital tools activate the tourism economy.
When artificial intelligence deeply intervenes in the cultural tourism industry, Zhejiang is answering a deeper question: what exactly has AI brought to "Poetic and Picturesque Zhejiang"?
From "viewing scenery" to "entering scenery": AI makes millennia of cultural heritage within reach
For a long time, artifacts, ancient texts, and historical anecdotes have largely been locked away in display cases and archives, creating a barrier between preservation and public dissemination. Today, artificial intelligence has opened a channel between cultural resources and ordinary people, allowing dormant cultural genes to "speak up." During the National Day holiday, tourists took photos with "Feng Xiaotao" in Fenghua, Zhejiang. (Photo provided by Fenghua Cultural Tourism Group)
Hangzhou's city cultural tourism intelligent agent "Hang Xiaoyi" integrates Hangzhou's Wuyue historical anecdotes, cuisine, and city stroll routes, allowing tourists to start a conversational journey at any time and generate personalized tour plans based on individual preferences. The Leifeng Pagoda's AI digital IP "Lei Xiaofeng" has built a dedicated knowledge base, enabling the thousand-year-old pagoda to cite classics and engage in cross-temporal conversations with visitors. The West Lake Museum, in conjunction with Zhejiang Province's important cultural gene map, launched the "AI Identifies Artifacts, Exploring 'Why Zhejiang'" activity, where tourists can scan QR codes and take photos to understand the Wuyue stories behind artifacts, packing rich regional civilization into their phones.
Moreover, during the National Day holiday, more museums and ancient villages launched AI companion tours. The Southern Song Dynasty Deshou Palace introduced the XR immersive exhibition "Mountains and Seas of Song," where visitors donning headsets can return to the Lin'an City of eight hundred years ago and personally experience the Southern Song tide-watching stories. At Xikou in Ningbo, the AI intelligent agent "Feng Xiaotao" serves as a personal tour guide, allowing tourists to receive narration of historical sites and recommended photo spots with a single voice command. On October 4, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, humanoid robots performed ancient-style dances. Photo by Wang Gang.
The transformation brought by AI is not about replicating artifacts with digital technology, but about converting fixed cultural materials into interactive, conversational, and customizable experiences, lowering the threshold for cultural understanding. Artifacts are no longer just exhibits behind glass cases; history is no longer just text in books. Cultural heritage is moving from static preservation to continuous growth, allowing ordinary people to touch Zhejiang's cultural roots anytime and anywhere.
From "sightseeing" to "creativity": AI reshapes cultural tourism production methods
If cultural revitalization is the "first layer of change" brought by AI, then the transformation at the industry level is even more profound. In the past, the core of tourism was "seeing scenery and taking photos." Under the AI wave, tourists' identities have shifted from bystanders to story participants, and the production, marketing, and consumption chains of the cultural tourism industry are being reshaped.
In Zhejiang, AI short dramas and XR immersive storytelling let tourists step into the story. Jiande's low-altitude tourism projects open up the landscapes of western Zhejiang from a different perspective. The "one person + AI" OPC lightweight entrepreneurship model significantly lowers the threshold for county-level cultural tourism entrepreneurship, enabling rural resources to be converted into cultural tourism products at low cost, driving traffic and income growth for rural cultural tourism. On October 1, the "First National Human-Machine Interaction Games" was held at the Wensan Digital Life Block in Hangzhou. Photo by Wu Junyi.
During the National Day holiday, new digital cultural tourism formats continued to unleash consumption vitality. Hangzhou's Wensan Digital Life Block presented robot opera performances and human-machine interaction competitions, with robot dogs and humanoid robots taking the stage, attracting large numbers of family visitors. The Grand Canal Hanggang Park Cyber Roaming Carnival created human-machine interaction scenarios on top of industrial relics, giving old factory buildings new life through AI.
Data is the most intuitive proof of industrial vitality. In the first half of this year, the location of Grand Canal Hanggang Park — Gongshu District in Hangzhou — recorded revenue of 21.61 billion yuan from cultural enterprises above designated size, a year-on-year increase of 18.2%, as digital cultural tourism scenarios continued to release economic momentum.
In addition, AI is generating new jobs, new products, and new business models: creators use AI to rapidly generate scripts, short videos, and digital IPs; county-level operators rely on large models to quickly produce guide content and plan themed routes; tourists are willing to pay for immersive storytelling, personalized companionship, and digital cultural creative products. The "ceiling" of the sightseeing economy has been broken, and the experience economy and creative economy have become new engines for Zhejiang's cultural tourism growth.
From "early piloting" to "institutional supply": behind the "AI + cultural tourism" transformation is a systematic layout
Facing the "15th Five-Year Plan," Zhejiang has proposed building a high-level cultural powerhouse and tourism powerhouse, vigorously implementing the three-year action of "Data Elements × Cultural Tourism," and building a highland for "Artificial Intelligence + Cultural Tourism" development.
Zhejiang's exploration has always adhered to one bottom line: technology serves humanity and culture, not the other way around. AI is not simply about stacking cool equipment, but about leveraging Zhejiang's rich cultural foundations — including Song Dynasty aesthetics, Wuyue culture, the Grand Canal, and Liangzhu — to activate local cultural genes with digital tools, while balancing artifact safety, cultural authenticity, and public dissemination.
Nationwide, many places are deploying AI cultural tourism, but Zhejiang's unique advantage lies in the combination of its digital industry foundation, rich cultural resources, and county-level innovation vitality, forming a multi-level testing ground from urban scenic spots to rural ancient towns, from large museum venues to small micro-entrepreneurship entities. On the one hand, Zhejiang relies on platforms such as "You Zheli" and "Hi You" to iterate cultural tourism large models and build a provincial-level cultural tourism digital foundation. On the other hand, it encourages county-level small and micro entities to travel light, using low-cost AI tools to revitalize local culture, achieving host-guest sharing and cultural tourism enriching the people.
Technological iteration never stops, but the essence of tourism is the encounter between people and landscapes, between people and culture. In Zhejiang, AI gives wings to cultural tourism, with the main purpose of enabling more people to understand Jiangnan's cultural heritage and fall in love with this land of mountains and rivers.