The 2023 Hunan Cultural Tourism Industry Expo will be held from September 15 to 17 at the International Convention and Exhibition Center in Chenzhou City. 

 

The Expo will showcase the latest technology, creative ideas, and achievements of the digital cultural industry. Through new technologies such as CNC water curtains and AI, it will bring an immersive and interactive experience, leading visitors to travel through Tianmen Mountain, stroll along Xiaodongjiang River, and soar over Dongting Lake.

 

Since its establishment in 2010, the Hunan tourism expo has become one of the professional cultural and tourism exhibitions with a large scale, good market transactions, new display formats, and strong leading roles in the central region. 

 

This year’s Expo takes “new technology, new cultural tourism, and new consumption” as its theme, highlighting the empowerment of technology for cultural and tourism innovation, showcasing new products, cultivating a professional exchange and cooperation platform for Hunan's cultural and tourism industry, and improving the quality of development and level of external cooperation of Hunan’s cultural and tourism industry.

 

Since this year, Hunan has focused on new cultural and tourism consumption to promote the rapid recovery of the tourism industry. In the first half of 2023, Hunan 

achieved foreign exchange earnings from inbound tourism of $47.3455 million, a year-on-year increase of 22 times.

 

From January to June 2023, the total number of tourists received in the province was 292 million, and the total tourism revenue was 437.246 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 68.27% and 67.33%, respectively.

 

Behind the robust recovery of the cultural and tourism market, it is inseparable from the support and driving force of digital technology. The Hunan Museum uses technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital wearables to create an immersive interactive museum for learning and experience.

 

The Tanhe River Bronze Museum relies on a 5G cloud network base to showcase bronze cultural relics, combined with spatial computing capabilities, and digitally displays national treasures for the first time in Hunan. 

 

The Shazhou Red Tourism Industry Park uses technology such as 3D projection, scene restoration, and virtual cinema to reproduce the touching story of “Half a Quilt”, spread Red culture, and help targeted poverty alleviation.

 

Zeng Lixin, Deputy Director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Science and Technology, said that in recent years, Hunan Province has continuously accelerated the integration of science and technology with culture and tourism, actively used AI technology to empower cultural and creative content production, cultivated AI cultural and creative new formats, and continuously enriched “virtual reality + cultural entertainment” products and services, thereby enabling Hunan’s cultural and tourism resources to come alive through virtual reality technology, and enhancing the digitization level and immersive experience of offline entertainment.

 

The exhibition area of this Expo is about 60,000 square meters, with six exhibition sections including domestic and foreign characteristic tourist destination image exhibition areas, new outdoor cultural and tourism equipment exhibition areas such as water, low altitude, and outdoor, immersive and digital cultural and tourism new project and new format exhibition experience areas.

 

Nearly 1,000 companies are expected to participate in the Expo, and nearly 50,000 visitors will go to the Chenzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center for the exhibition.

 

In addition, the Expo will also set up multiple “cross-border” trading zones, aiming to break down barriers and provide efficient matchmaking and ordering services platforms for travel merchants, technology equipment, digital technology, local specialty products, and other supply and demand enterprises inside and outside Hunan Province.

 

Zhang Xihui, Deputy Director of the Hunan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, said that the Expo will upgrade public consumption, create new hot spots, and set off a new wave of cultural and tourism consumption, thus promoting Hunan’s transformation from a province with abundant cultural and tourism resources to a strong province in cultural and tourism economy.