On October 9, at a press briefing held by the Anhui Provincial Government Information Office about the 15th Anhui International Culture and Tourism Festival, reporters learned that the festival’s opening ceremony will be held in Huangshan on November 15, and that, for the first time, a conference matching technology-enabled elements with cultural‑tourism development will be held.

The 15th Anhui International Culture and Tourism Festival is hosted by the People’s Government of Anhui Province and jointly organized by the Anhui Provincial Party Committee Publicity Department, the Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, and the Huangshan Municipal Government. South Korea has been invited as the guest of honor. Representatives of sister-city governments, diplomats from multiple countries stationed in China, heads of international tourism organizations, major domestic and foreign tour operators and investors, and heads of culture and tourism departments from key domestic source markets will also gather in Huangshan.

The festival will include eight events, among them the opening ceremony, an inbound tourism conference, the technology-enabled cultural-tourism development elements matchmaking conference, and a cultural-tourism industry-chain matchmaking conference. The inbound tourism conference will invite more than 300 international tourism organizations, agencies and tour operators, and will promote international routes such as the "World Heritage Tour" and the "Beautiful Anhui Health & Wellness Tour." The "One Million Inbound Visitors to Anhui" initiative will be officially launched to accelerate the construction of a world-class tourism destination.

Notably, this is the first time Anhui is holding a cultural-tourism industry-chain matchmaking conference with "industry chain" as the theme. The conference has identified tourism performances, immersive experiences, cultural-tourism equipment, and cultural and creative industries as the main tracks for industry matchmaking, and has listed project operations as a key investment target. The information of high-quality investors and suppliers will be collected nationwide, and product supply-and-demand handbooks will be compiled and distributed to facilitate business matching for enterprises.

Technology is a major highlight of this year’s festival. For the first time Anhui will host a conference specifically for matching technology-enabled elements with cultural-tourism development, showcasing a series of cutting-edge technological applications. New tech-enabled cultural-tourism products such as "AI tour guide devices" and "intelligent cultural relics inspection equipment" will be launched on site, and new "culture & tourism + technology + creativity" integration scenarios will be introduced, covering areas including low-altitude tourism, immersive tourism, and cultural relics monitoring and restoration.

At the matchmaking conference, leading culture-and-tourism technology companies and relevant organizations from inside and outside the province—such as iFlytek, EASPEED Tech, and Zhejiang Dafeng—will present product supply and demand and conduct project roadshows focused on the application and needs of technology in culture and tourism. The conference will publish the "Technology-Enabled Culture & Tourism — New Supply and New Demand Matchmaking Handbook," introduce 20 new business formats and scenarios combining culture & tourism, technology, and creativity, demonstrate applications of technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and the metaverse in the cultural-tourism field, and release the list of Anhui Province’s 2025 cultural and tourism digital innovation practice cases.

Source: Hefei Evening News