The development of digital tourism in China

Abstract

Under the tide of information and globalization, modern information technologies such as computers, the Internet, mobile communications, the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality are developing rapidly, and the tourism industry has entered the digital era, and the tourism industry is also undergoing digital transformation. The development of digital tourism in China has gone through several iconic stages: the embryonic era of digitalization (1980-1996), the era of digital development (1997-2006), and the era of digital acceleration (2007-2023). Driven by digital technology, the digitalization of the tourism industry is developing towards higher quality, higher efficiency, and more intelligence. Many problems and challenges have also been exposed in the development process, such as the intensified fragmentation of tourism digitalization resources, the restriction of digital technology development, the large gap in digital application talents, the coordination of digital sharing and property rights protection, digital employment and industrial transformation, etc. Based on the actual development of China’s tourism digitalization, this paper puts forward the integration of tourism digitalization resources, the innovation and transformation of digital technology, the training of digital talents, the definition of digital property rights, and the concrete and feasible ways to solve the social problems derived from digitalization. In order to provide policy suggestions and decision support for the stable, efficient, and sustainable development of China’s tourism industry digitalization. With the deep integration and flexible application of 5 G, big data, artificial intelligence, internet of things, virtual reality and other technologies in the tourism industry, it will actively empower the rapid development of the tourism industry, further improve the quality of tourism services and deepen the digital transformation of the tourism industry.

Keywords:

• China
• tourism
• digitalization
• development process

SUBJECTS:

• Tourism Management
• Tourism Development/Impacts

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Pier Luigi Sacco, Humanities, IULM University, Milano, Italy

1. Introduction

The development and progress of information technology has led to the innovation of products and industries(Porter & Heppelmann, 2014). With the advent of the Internet, traditional media has undergone a huge transformation, and traditional print media has gradually shifted to digital media(Hoffman, 2000). In addition, the emergence and development of modern information technologies such as mobile communications, Internet of Things, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality have greatly changed the operating model of traditional industries (Sziva, 2016). Tourism is no exception, with the development of digitalization, tourism has ushered in a new era of digital tourism (Happ & Ivancsó-Horváth, 2018).

According to ‘The hague declaration on tourism’ (1989), The World Tourism Organization and the Inter-Parliamentary Union introduced a definition of tourism in 1989, stating that ‘tourism is a service industry that includes the free movement of all persons away from their places of residence and place of work, as well as those established to meet the needs arising from those movements’. The digitalization of tourism is precisely the digitalization of tourists, tourist destinations, tourist sources, transportation and other objects and processes involved in the tourism industry, as well as the digitalization of tourism management, tourism marketing, tourism services and other tourism links before, during and after the tour (Benyon et al., 2014). Through the comprehensive application of remote sensing technology, geographic information system technology, multimedia technology, Internet of Things technology, global positioning system technology, virtual simulation and other modern information technologies, the monitoring and management of all aspects of the tourism industry is realized to serve the intelligent decision-making of tourists, enterprises and governments.

The essence of tourism digitalization is to enhance and improve the efficiency of tourism management, the effectiveness of tourism experience and the quality of tourism services through digital technology. The development of digital technology has brought major opportunities for change to the tourism industry, and with the assistance of digital technology, the development model of tourism enterprises, tourism products and services, tourism experience, business ecosystem and tourism destinations are undergoing earth-shaking changes. The digitization of all processes and industrial chains in the tourism, hospitality and catering industries, data transmission, distribution and management, electronic marketing including online marketing, online transactions, electronic data interchange, management systems and automated data collection enable the management, decision-making and services of the tourism industry to maximize efficiency and effectiveness (Schoefer & Buhalis, 2003; Sion & Cezar, 2013). Digitalization has also changed the traditional roles of tourism producers and consumers, enabling the emergence and development of new roles, relationships and business models. The rise of digital platforms has increased the variety and number of travel products, services, and experiences, accelerating the pace of economic transactions, market awareness, and feedback (Dredge et al., 2019). These transformations have enabled all sectors of the tourism industry to meet consumer demand to the greatest extent, while contributing to the development of new markets, bringing new opportunities for the long-term development of the tourism industry, but at the same time, it has also brought some challenges to the tourism industry. While opportunities and challenges coexist, actively promoting the digital development and transformation of China’s tourism industry can ensure that China’s tourism industry has global competitiveness.

There are fewer review papers on the development of tourism digitization in China, the main innovation of this paper is to analyze the tourism digitization related papers from 2000 to 2022 with Zhi.com as the database, conduct bibliometric analysis on them, and divide the process of tourism digitization into four phases based on the results of the analysis, and analyze the main features and the development status of each of its phases. It is pointed out that the development of tourism digitization in China has entered a new stage, and digitization will be integrated with experience economy, which becomes the direction of tourism digitization development under the new stage. The purpose of this article is to analyze the development situation of domestic and foreign tourism digital, clarify the challenges and opportunities facing the digital development of tourism in China, and how these challenges and opportunities affect different stakeholder groups, and give feasible policy recommendations on how to deal with these challenges and opportunities, so as to provide decision-making support for the digital development of China’s tourism industry.

2. Bibliometric analysis and paper selection criteria

This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of papers related to digital tourism. The CNKI on digital tourism was used as the object of the study. Among the existing studies related to digital tourism, the following three search terms are often used in this field. 1:(‘digital tourims’ OR ‘tourism digitalization’). 2:(digital OR tourims OR tourism OR digitalization). 3:(digital OR digitalization) AND tourism. In past studies focusing on the digitalization of tourism, the last scenario is commonly employed (Madzík et al., 2023). Therefore, we used the search formula ‘(SU = Digital OR SU = Digitalization) AND SU = Tourism’ to retrieve the literature. In order to improve the accuracy and reliability of the results of the literature analysis, we cleaned the initial 7229 documents obtained. Firstly, we limited the literature release date to 2000-2022. secondly, we limited the source of literature to academic journals and removed articles from sources such as dissertations conference papers. Finally, to further improve the quality of the selected papers, we removed non-core journals. As the CN-KI database is a database containing multiple sources of literature, in order to improve the quality of the acquired literature, after the above process we finally acquired 351 pieces after removing a large number of non-journal literature and non-core literature (Figure 1).

Figure 1. PRISMA flowchart.

The results of the bibliometric analysis are as follows: A total of 351 literatures are finally obtained. Overall the literature related to digital tourism shows an upward trend, 2001-2018 is a slow rising period, and 2018 to 2022 shows a rapid growth. For example, there was only three related literatures in 2001, and the related literatures has grown to 15 in 2008.The decade of 2001-2010 was during the hot construction of China’s Internet infrastructure, which provided an opportunity for the development of digital tourism. Various types of tourism portals have been established, in addition, with the national level of guidance and support is also inseparable, the government opened the China Tourism Network, catering to the trend of the times, blowing the horn of tourism digitization. By the second decade of the twenty-first century, the amount of related literature issued increased steadily, maintaining an annual average of about ten articles. Since 2018, the number of digital literacy and tourism related literature issuance has risen rapidly, from 15 articles in 2018 to 85 articles in 2022. With the development of Internet technology, AR, VR, IoT and other technologies, the scope of the digital use of tourism has been unprecedented, and tourism digitalization has ushered in a real digital stage. This is the basis for the rapid increase in publications.

The main themes of digital tourism related papers are as follows: digital tourism, digital economy, tourism, tourism digital footprint and so on. In addition to the above themes, the remaining themes reflect many sides of digital tourism such as the quality development, rural tourism, digital transformation, etc., presenting a multi-directional and multi-level development (Figures 2 and 3).

Figure 2. Number of papers 2000-2022.

Figure 3. Number of papers by main topics of papers 2000-2022.

3. The digital development process of tourism in China

3.1. The age of embryonic digitalization: digital access (1980-1996)

In the early 1980s, computer technology began to be gradually applied to China’s tourism industry. In 1981, China International Travel Service introduced the PRIME550 super small computer system from the United States (Zhou, 2019), which was applied to the management process of tourism financial management, tour group data collation, and tourism data statistics. This marks the advent of the embryonic era of digitalization of China’s tourism industry. Subsequently, the hotel industry, air passenger transport industry, tourism enterprises, etc. have gradually introduced information technology into daily hotel management, ticket management, and digital management of tourism enterprises by introducing foreign information management systems, building computer booking systems (Gilbert, 1993) and building enterprise office automation systems (Zhou et al., 1997) Under the background of the development of tourism informatization, the National Tourism Administration has also carried out a series of preparatory and operational work of tourism informatization system. In 1990, the National Tourism Administration invested more than 10 million yuan in the construction of computer rooms and tourist information networks, and established a tourist information center. In 1994, with the approval of the Central Organization and Office, the International Tourism Administration Information Center was officially established, which is specialized in providing management services and technical support for the informatization of the National Tourism Administration and the tourism industry. At the same time, the digitization of China’s cultural and tourism resources has also begun to develop, of which the Dunhuang Research Institute is one of the earliest units in China to start the digital protection and utilization of cultural heritage. The digital heritage protection and utilization project of ‘Computer Storage and Management System research of Dunhuang Frescoes’ (Fu et al., 2020; Ke et al., 2006; Sun et al., 1997; Zen et al., 1997), initiated in 1993, has carried out several key research projects, focusing on coordinating and solving the contradiction between promoting and inheriting Dunhuang culture and art and reducing humanistic damage. The main driving force of the digitalization of tourism industry at this stage is the tourism informatization policy and practice of China National Tourism Administration. In addition, there are also the attempts of tourism digitalization carried out by leading tourism enterprises such as China International Travel Service, Jinjiang Hotel and Spring International Tourism Group (Zou & Chang, 2019). With CD-ROM discs, multimedia technology and Internet technology as the main support, it has opened the development process of digital access to tourism in China. Limited by the level of information technology and tourism access at that time, the level of tourism informatization at this stage was still relatively low and was still in its infancy.

3.2 The age of digital development: Digital construction (1997-2006)

In 1997, The digitalization of tourism in China ushered in another important period of development - the era of digital construction (Ya et al., 2008). In this year, The China Tourism Network (www.cnta.gov.cn) was officially opened (Xu & Kruse, 2002) and then China’s tourism informatization construction began to develop in an all-round way. By 2000, there were 502 comprehensive tourism websites, 22 tourism enterprise websites and 34 hotel enterprise websites in the mainland (Yuan & Chen, 2009). The National Tourism Administration (CNTA) also launched the ‘Golden Travel Project’ to promote the comprehensive construction of tourism informatization (Xing, 2003), and focused on the construction of ‘three networks and one database’, namely the construction of office automation network, business management network, public service network and comprehensive tourism information database (Li, 2004). At the same time, it has established a four-level computer network from top to bottom covering the national tourism departments, provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government), key tourism cities and tourism enterprises. At the end of 2002, the construction of supervision information system for national scenic spots began (‘The ministry’, 2007). Since 2004, national scenic areas represented by Jiuzhaigou and Huangshan have been included in the digital scenic area demonstration project (Chuantong, 2010) further strengthening the cultivation and guidance of digital scenic area construction. After this stage, China’s tourism information system has been developed in an all-round way, laying a solid foundation for the accelerated development of tourism digitalization in the next stage.

3.3 The age of digital acceleration: Digital decision making (2007-2017)

In 2007, the first Apple phone was released (Goggin, 2009). The emergence of smart phones has made digital information acquisition, digital transactions, digital management, etc. more convenient, which also means the advent of the era of digital acceleration in the tourism industry. In 2010, the concept of ‘smart tourism’ was first proposed by Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province (Zhang & Linao, 2012), and the construction of ‘smart tourism’ projects has been actively carried out across the country. In January 2011, the National Tourism Work Conference proposed to use informatization to promote the transformation of tourism into a modern service industry (Shao, 2011). In 2014, The CNTA took smart tourism as the propaganda theme of ‘Beautiful China Tour’ (Li et al., 2014). In 2015, the Data Center of the CNTA was established to promote the reform and development of tourism statistics and data systems. In the same year, the State Council issued ‘the Several Opinions on Further Promoting Tourism Investment and Consumption’, which clearly put forward the construction goals of smart scenic spots and smart villages, and since then, China’s tourism digitalization entered the fast lane of development (Chen, 2015). In March 2017, the CNTA announced ‘The 13th Five-Year Plan for National Tourism Informatization’, which aims to promote the innovative application of information technology in all areas of tourism (Deng & Li, 2012). In August 2019, the Digital Cultural Tourism Integration Innovation and Development Conference was held, and pointed out that the era of digital cultural tourism in China has arrived.

3.4 The age of further development: Digital experience(2017-2022)

In 2018, the Ready Player One directed by Spielberg was released, the movie tells the story of the future of the very advanced virtual technology, in the game adventure. The release of the movie once again triggered a discussion on the concept of virtual worlds. 2019 around the concept of ‘script killing’ fire, by the end of the year, China’s national script killing store from January’s 2,400 soared to 12,000 in December. The popularity of script killing reflects the current shift in people’s consumption pattern, from physical consumption to experience consumption, and people are more willing to pay for a good experience. The concept of meta-universe emerged to cater to the needs of people in pursuit of the ultimate experience, its concept is the superposition of multiple underlying technology integration, its essence is the next generation of the Internet. With the development of scientific and technological means of progress meta-universe from the concept gradually had a prototype, and there is a preliminary application in tourism. 2019 after the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, China entered a state of control, the flow of people is restricted. During the epidemic, online activities, online shopping, cloud exhibitions and online museums supported by new technologies were developed, directly stimulating the development of digital tourism.

4. The current situation of digital development of China’s tourism industry

4.1. Digitization of tourism resources

Digitization of tourism resources, that is, the use of high and new technology to convert various information of objective world tourism resources into digital signals with digital equipment (Mustafaeva et al., 2020). Digitalization can make the census of tourism resources more detailed, more direct, and more abundant in use. In order to ensure the effective protection and rational utilization of tourism resources, the digitization of tourism resources is a top priority.

4.1.1. Digitization of cultural tourism resources

Cultural tourism resources are facing many problems, such as some monuments have lost their original appearance due to poor protection and repair (Liu, 2017), and some intangible cultural heritages have been lost for a long time, social concern is not high (Wang, 2015), and are endangered (Cheng & Ling, 2013). At present, the rapid development of information digitalization is an opportunity for the sustainable development of cultural tourism resources (Ren, 2018). The digitalization of cultural resources in China began in the early 1990s, and with the help of key technologies such as digital modeling, virtual restoration, digital display, digital replication and storage (Zhuo, 2013), important achievements have been made in the digitalization of cultural resources. Since 1999, the Palace Museum has been able to provide visitors with a full range of information services such as information, guided tours, and time-space travel by establishing an image database, opening the ‘Digital Palace’ website, and carrying out digital surveying and mapping (Feng, 2018; Fu & Chen, 2010; Jia & Wang, 2011; Li et al., 2014). Qin Shi Huang terracotta warriors and horses Museum used panoramic photography and virtual reality to provide digital information for public visits and academic research, and used computer restoration technology to solve the problem of cultural relics restoration (Tang, 2017). In addition, cultural heritage management units such as hemudu cultural sites, Wuling regional cultural sites, and Yuanmingyuan sites are vigorously promoting digital strategy research (Lu & Diao, 2007). Digital protection has become the consensus of more and more responsible departments of cultural heritage.

4.1.2. Digitization of nature tourism resources

China’s natural tourism resources are widely distributed and changeable, and the traditional way of tourism resources investigation and management based on investigation team is inefficient and not well monitored. The digitization of natural tourism resources is to use satellites, space shuttles, unmanned aerial vehicles and space-based platforms to use modern remote sensing and GIS technology to conduct real-time investigation and monitoring of the attributes and temporal and spatial distribution of tourism resources, timely discover the potential natural hazards of tourism resources (Dong et al., 2020), and provide technical support for the protection and emergency management of tourism resources (Wang, 2018). In addition, on the basis of the survey, a tourism resource database is constructed to help the digital management and high-quality development of tourism resources (Wang, 2019). For example, experts and scholars at home and abroad used remote sensing images such as TM, SPOT, CBERS, and Landsat to investigate the resources of tourist destinations such as Huangguoshu Scenic Area and Sanya, laying a foundation for further rational planning and utilization of regional tourism resources (Wang et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2003). In addition, remote sensing technology also has the ability to discover and observe new tourism resources. Discoveries of sinkhole resources in Guizhou, historical sites in Tunisia, and ancient waterways beneath the Sahara have relied on satellite imagery, optical remote sensing, and microwave remote sensing techniques (Deng & Guo, 2010; Wang & Luo, 2020; Zhao, 2013). Existing research proves the feasibility and appropriateness of using modern technology in the investigation, mining, monitoring and protection of tourism resources, and the application of remote sensing, GIS, databases and other technologies can provide a strong impetus for the prosperity of tourism.

4.2. Digitization of tourist attractions

Digital scenic spots are to achieve the goal of ‘digital resource protection, intelligent operation and management, industrial integration and networking’, relying on modern information technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, streaming media, etc., through the efficient collection and processing of scenic spot resource allocation, tourism activity information, geospatial information, and provide decision-making and service functions for the construction and management of tourist attractions (Dang et al., 2011). The forms of digital scenic spots are diverse, mainly through the scenic spot geographic information system, digital monitoring system, electronic ticket system, intelligent command center, LED outdoor screen, tourism consultation system, automatic voice tour guide system and digital marketing system (Xu, 2017). China has been committed to the construction of digital scenic spots. In 2000, Dunhuang of China and Mellon Foundation of the United States decided to jointly build a ‘digital virtual cave’. At the end of the same year, China’s Palace Museum and Japan’s Letterpress Association jointly carried out ‘Research on the Digital Application of the Palace Museum’s Cultural Heritage’ (Huang, 2003). In 2002, the pilot work of the national scenic spot supervision information system was launched, laying a solid foundation for the current construction of digital scenic spots. In 2004, the digital scenic spot demonstration project represented by Jiuzhaigou and Huangshan Mountain was constructed to guide the construction of digital scenic spots, and to develop in the direction of scientific protection, normative management and experiential development of tourism scenic spot resources (Mu et al., 2016; Shao et al., 2010). Digital technology provides a source of power for the upgrading and replacement of tourism resources, and promotes major innovations and changes in the management and development mode of tourist attractions.

4.3 Digitization of online travel

Tourism e-commerce is a manifestation of the application of digital technology to business management and operation processes. The third wave of informatization is coming, information is not only a new element and new resource for the development of the tourism industry, but also promotes the emergence of new tourism industry organization models and products. Under the guidance of the concept of ‘smart tourism’ and the tourism development planning policy, and driven by the tourism market, the service model of the tourism industry is also undergoing digital transformation (Ren, 2013). On the basis of the rapid development of the Internet and mobile communication technology, tourism e-commerce enterprises have begun to emerge (Meng, 2017). Internationally, a large number of online travel companies such as Epidea, Tripadvisor, Priceline and so on have emerged (Law & Chen, 2001; Oconnor, 2010; Raju & Zhang, 2010). Correspondingly, China’s tourism e-commerce has also continued to grow, and tourism electronic marketing channels such as comprehensive portals, tourism vertical search engines, tourism online stores, SNS, social networks, and microblogs have been produced and developed (Lin & Guo, 2008). OTAs such as Ctrip, Fliggy and Meituan are growing rapidly. At the same time, OTAs have also accelerated the development of the digital process of scenic spots in terms of channels, operations and products through docking scenic spots. In 2018, the penetration rate of China’s online travel market reached 36.9%, a record high. The airfare (83.1%) and train tickets (75.9%) markets have reached a high level of networking, and there is still considerable room for development in the accommodation (35.7%) and vacation markets (‘China Online’, 2018). Over the years, the online travel industry has continuously integrated and explored offline traffic, forming a network profit model of product segmentation, platform construction, and resource integration, and completely changing the traditional form of tourism operation that relies only on flyers and sitting shops (Xiao & Liang, 2018).

4.4. Digitization of the hospitality industry

The digitalization of China’s hotel industry started relatively late. It wasn’t until the 1990s that information technology was heavily invested in hotels. It has experienced several stages of development, such as mechanization, automation, networking, and collaborative intelligence (Liu, 2017), which has upgraded the hotel industry from a mechanical manual operating system to a computer system; the development of manual devices to automated devices; the marketing model has changed into an interconnected network marketing model; and the hotel’s external and external business has gradually moved towards coordinated development (Qu, 2018). Since its development, the operational efficiency, service functions, marketing means and industrial synergy of the hotel industry have been further developed, and smart hotels have come into being. Relying on modern information technology such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things, and taking intelligent terminal equipment as the carrier, the smart hotel realizes the efficient management of the hotel through digitization and networking, and provides personalized and humanized services for customers. Smart hotel construction involves smart services, smart management and smart marketing (Chi et al., 2020). Driven by the development of information technology, the hotel uses intelligent equipment to create a personalized and humanized check-in environment and enhance the intelligent experience of customers (Cui & Yin, 2019). Hotels can provide personalized services according to the characteristics and preferences of customers, and use big data and digital marketing to achieve precision marketing (Wang, 2019).

With the continuous upgrading of consumption, digital management methods have become one of the core competitiveness of today’s hotel development. Smart hotels have developed rapidly with their advantages of efficiency, convenience, strong interaction and customization. In 2016, the first ‘unmanned intelligent hotel’, Le Yi Zhu, was established in China, realizing a fully inductive intelligent hotel. In 2018, Alibaba Group launched the ‘Hotel of the Future’, FlyzooHotel, to provide users with a full-process ‘brush face’ accommodation experience. In 2020, a sudden COVID-19 hit the hotel industry hard, but it also spawned new market demand such as ‘contactless service’ (Yang, 2012). The overall development of smart hotels is on the rise.

4.5. Digitization of tourism traffic

The digital system of tourism transportation is a comprehensive system that integrates information processing, communication, control and electronic engineering technologies (Cai et al., 2019), which provides reasonable solutions to many current tourism traffic problems. Tourism traffic digitalization can use artificial intelligence to achieve intelligent planning and monitoring of traffic roads, optimize the allocation of traffic resources, and feedback the optimal travel plan. In addition, it can also help the intelligent supervision and scheduling of public transportation, use the global positioning system and passenger flow IC card, grasp the travel route of the vehicle and the passenger flow of different road sections, and based on this intelligent scheduling of trains, reasonably plan the traffic route, and meet people’s travel needs (Zheng & Zhu, 2018). Not only that, but it can also promote the emergence of new intelligent transportation methods such as unmanned driving and autonomous driving. For example, China’s Nanxun Ancient Town launched an automatic scenic tour system to cover the various navigation needs of tourists and enhance the tourist experience (Zhang, 2019). It can be seen that the intelligent tourism transportation system can not only improve the safety of tourism transportation, but also enhance the sense of tourism experience, which not only wins time and economic benefits, but also drives the upgrading of related industries (Wang et al., 2005).

5. Challenges of digital tourism development in China

5.1. Fragmentation of tourism digital resources

At present, the level of digitization of tourism resources is still relatively low, and the digital coverage is also narrow (Wang, 2014). There are still a large number of tourism resources with conservation and utilization value that have yet to be digitized, such as some important material and intangible cultural remains. In particular, natural tourism resources have good digital conditions, supported by a large number of satellite and drone image data, Internet of Things images and video data. Natural resources census, land use survey, illegal building supervision, agricultural monitoring and other fields have done a lot of practice in the digitization of natural resources, and technical methods have become mature (Chen et al., 2019; Li, 2017; Sun et al., 2018; Wu et al., 2016). However, there are relatively few cases of good digitization of tourism resources, and the level of digitization of natural resources lags significantly behind other industries and fields. The traditional tourism management creed of emphasizing development over protection and efficiency over supervision has led to a weak awareness of the protection of tourism resources, which directly affects the process of digitizing tourism resources. At present, the digitalization of tourism is facing the problem of fragmentation of resources. Digital tourism resources are scattered in a dotted manner, and there is a lack of unified digital information database integration between tourism digital resources, resulting in the inability to exchange and connect data between tourism resources that have completed digitization, which seriously affects the digital integration of tourism resources and their optimal utilization. In addition, there is a lack of data interoperability channels between hotels, scenic spots, and travel agencies, a digital gap between the industrial chain, and the inefficient use of data resources, which cannot be truly applied to the integration and optimization of various tourism links such as food, housing, travel, travel, shopping, and entertainment. The fragmentation and isolation of tourism digital resources affects the protection and optimal allocation of tourism resources, limits the sharing of tourism resource data, and the coordination and cooperation of the tourism industry chain, which affects the operational efficiency and service quality of the tourism industry to a certain extent.

5.2. Technical constraints on tourism digitalization

Modern technology is the basis for the digital development of tourism. At present, tourism digitalization is still subject to the constraints of core technology, virtual reality artificial intelligence still has a certain technological upward space, and the quality of tourism digitalization needs to be improved (Huang, 2017). In addition, information technologies such as the Internet of Things, cloud computing, VR technology, and 5 G have higher requirements for the network foundation (Dong et al., 2016); however, China’s tourism infrastructure is relatively lagging behind, and there is still a lack of third-party technical service providers that can provide integrated services such as planning and design, digital marketing, digital operation, and digital supervision. In particular, affected by the economic level and the demand of the tourism market, the process of tourism digitalization in China has developed unevenly. At present, the level of tourism digitalization in the eastern region is at the forefront; however, the inland region of the northwest is facing obstacles such as technology, capital and network foundation, and its tourism digitalization process still needs long-term planning. Furthermore, the lag in the transformation of information technology and tourism applications is also a major problem (Wang et al., 2016). The current digital work is carried out on the basis of the traditional tourism system, and the inherent mechanism and model of the traditional tourism system are relatively mature, so the resistance to digital transformation still exists. How to comprehensively and effectively and quickly apply emerging digital technologies to the tourism industry is an urgent problem to be solved.

5.3. The problem of tourism digital talents

Digitalization is the product of the combination of wisdom and technology, and the promotion and implementation of its process are inseparable from the talents of tourism digital innovation, development and application. However, at present, there is still a large talent gap in the digital transformation of the tourism industry, which requires a large number of tourism professional and technical personnel and elite talents in information technology, especially in network technology, data storage, information processing, software development, e-commerce, virtual reality, artificial intelligence and other aspects of professional technical talents. In particular, tourism requires the comprehensive use of various technical elements, and the demand for compound talents has emerged. However, there is a lack of investigation and involvement in digital technology in the tourism talent training system, only a small number of courses on big data and smart tourism, especially the lack of comprehensive and systematic tourism digitalization special courses, and the corresponding application practice courses are even rarer (Qin, 2019; Yao et al., 2018). In addition, at present, the government lacks a special training program for such talents, and also lacks corresponding talent introduction policies, which is not attractive enough for cross-professional comprehensive tourism digital talents, and is not conducive to the growth and cultivation of tourism digital talents. What’s more, there are still a small number, unscientific system, and imperfect configuration of tourism digital talents in tourist attractions, travel agencies and tourism suppliers. In general, the existing talent problems such as the lack of digital talents in tourism, insufficient policies for talent cultivation and attraction, and imperfect post settings in all aspects of the tourism industry have undoubtedly seriously affected the development of tourism to a higher level such as intelligence, service and experience.

5.4. Tourism digital sharing and property right protection

The purpose and original intention of the digitization of tourism resources is to realize the protection, inheritance and utilization of resources, but in the process of resource sharing, there are problems such as the definition and protection of property rights of digital achievements (Xiao & Wang, 2016). Intellectual property rights regarding the digitalization of tourism have been controversial (Wang & Diao, 2019). Tourism resources themselves are worldly, historical, and belong to the people, and they have the nature of public rights, but cultural heritage also has a certain private nature under the national, local and other protection systems. The nature of this combination of public and private rights is mostly reflected in management and protection, and is relatively open in intellectual property rights. However, after digitizing tourism resources, such as oral historical audio, digital images, and virtual reality digital achievements of cultural relics, etc., contain a part of the investment in manpower, intelligence, technology and equipment, so there is a certain degree of private ownership, and the definition of their property rights needs to be further clarified. In addition, due to the special nature of digital achievements, there is a risk of being copied, adapted or even distorted, and the protection of property rights of digital achievements is also an urgent problem to be solved. The use, transformation and division of stakeholders in tourism digitalization also need to be regulated. The definition and protection of tourism digital property rights is directly related to the healthy and steady progress of China’s digital tourism industry, and is one of the driving forces for promoting the digitalization process of tourism in China.

5.5. Social issues in the digitalization of tourism

The digital revolution has created new jobs, but the problem of ‘skilled unemployment’ is also emerging (Ma et al., 2019). According to the relevant statistics of THE United Nations Trade And Development Organization, the total employment of telecom enterprises and traditional enterprises basically remained stable from 2010 to 2015, indicating that digitalization has little impact on the total employment (Yun, 2018), but its impact is mainly reflected in the increase of high-skilled jobs and the decrease of low-skilled jobs. The digitalization of tourism will undoubtedly put forward higher requirements for practitioners, and the demand for talent training and on-the-job training will increase accordingly, which requires relevant government departments, tourism enterprises, and tourism education industry to make more efforts in policy guidance, talent training and re-education. At the same time, for those who are difficult to receive digital training or to improve their technical level in the short term, the employment pressure is also significantly increased, and they even face the dilemma of unemployment. Coordinating the continued employment and reemployment of these practitioners is an important task to maintain people’s livelihood and maintain social stability. Digitalization has set off a wave of innovation in the tourism industry, and traditional enterprises are also facing digital transformation problems, with difficulties in terms of capital, talent, technical support and organizational management. Therefore, coordinating and guiding the digital transformation of enterprises within the tourism industry is also the key to maintaining a healthy tourism industry and continuously moving towards a higher level.

6. Suggestions for the digital development of tourism in China

6.1. Strive to promote the integration of tourism digital resources

Due to the lack of integrated and unified resource management, resource sharing mode and policy measures in the process of tourism digitalization, the phenomenon of islanding and fragmentation of tourism digital resources has led to the integration and utilization of resources, which is one of the problems that need to be solved urgently in the process of tourism digitalization. First of all, it is necessary to achieve data integration and open up channels for sharing tourism resources. Under the premise of overall planning and coordination of interests and rights of all parties, resource integration channels between tourism destinations can be opened through sharing policy guidance, so as to fundamentally solve the problem of isolated and fragmented tourism resources and realize the mutually beneficial sharing of digital tourism resources. Second, industry consolidation needs to be achieved. Using heterogeneous data sharing technology to build inter-industry tourism resource data sharing platform and database, by standardizing the digital resource sharing mechanism, realize the industry sharing of information resources, and provide the possibility to realize the overall management and optimal utilization of tourism resources. Third, value chain integration is needed. Through dredging the upstream and downstream value system of the tourism industry, and on the basis of sharing and interworking of tourism digital resources, the whole industry interworking of the value chain is actively promoted. The sustainable utilization of tourism resources can be realized only by focusing on the tourism digital resource system, paying attention to the internal and external relations between resources, creating an open and harmonious environment for resource sharing, and achieving resource intercommunication, resource complementarity, resource sharing and resource mutual benefit.

6.2. Accelerate the innovation and transformation of tourism digital technology

The innovation and transformation of digital technology is the fundamental force to promote the digitalization of tourism. First of all, digital technology innovation should be promoted actively. Actively promote the development of emerging technologies such as 5 G, Internet of Things, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, phantom imaging, and dome imaging, and provide new growth points for tourism digitalization. Second, pay attention to the transformation of digital technology in the tourism industry. With the help of high-tech means, the tourism resources are recreated to create an immersive tourism experience. The use of digital technology to help tourism product development, destination image shaping, precision marketing and customer feedback and other links, to achieve the organic combination of tourism and technology. At the same time, relevant policies should be formulated to provide more support for the development and transformation of tourism digital technology and actively promote the construction of smart tourism. As the development direction of the tourism industry, digital tourism reflects the characteristics of the era of combining tourism and technology. While promoting the economic growth of tourism, it’s necessary to create cultural tourism products with high technical content and high intellectual input vigorously, prosper China’s cultural tourism production, and enhance the competitiveness of China’s cultural tourism industry.

6.3. Attach importance to the cultivation of tourism digital talents

The progress of the tourism industry is inseparable from innovative management concepts, sophisticated science and technology and perfect talent training programs. Digital talents are the source of power, intellectual support and service management guarantee for the digital development of the tourism industry. First of all, it is necessary to adapt to the process of rapid informatization of the tourism industry and adjust the talent training program in a timely manner. In different stages of tourism vocational education, tourism professional education and tourism graduate education, comprehensive courses in tourism digital service and management should be added to make talent training adapt to the process of tourism digital development and narrow the gap between talent training and industry demand as much as possible. Second, formulate reasonable policies for the introduction and cultivation of talents, and establish a tourism digital talent training base. Formulate talent incubation plans for different aspects such as the introduction, cultivation and placement of digital talents, so as to attract digital tourism talents in the tourism industry and cross-professional and comprehensive tourism to all aspects of the tourism industry, and to improve technology, provide services and open up roads for the digital transformation of China’s tourism industry. Finally, for tourism scenic spots, hotels, travel agencies and other industrial links with more digital applications of tourism, more tourism digital posts should be added and the comprehensive digital talent reserve should be increased. Actively exert the energy and wisdom of digital talents to illuminate the way for the digital development of the tourism industry.

6.4. Protect the property rights of tourism digitalization

Improving the intellectual property protection of tourism digital technology and digital products plays an important role in ensuring the sustainable development of tourism industry digitalization. First of all, it is necessary to clarify the definition of tourism digital property rights, clarify the relationship between primitive culture, tourism digital products and later mixed digital products, determine the principle of priority protection of original products, clarify the infringement damage compensation system, and protect the intellectual property rights of tourism digital products. Second, establish a classification and protection system for tourism digital property rights, and build a classification protection system for tourism digital technology, tourism digital products, and tourism digital resources. Strengthen the protection of patent rights in digital technology, and clarify the criteria for determining infringement; clarify the property rights relationship of digital products, and give the owners of digital product property rights the status of subject property rights; give reasonable property rights protection to tourism resource databases, discrete digital resources, etc. Third, improve the tourism digital property rights protection system, improve the quality and efficiency of judicial trials, and use intelligent means such as big data and cloud computing to solve practical problems such as the variety of types of tourism digital property rights, the large number of them, and the complexity of the subjects of rights, and improve the pertinence and efficiency of property rights protection. Finally, strengthen the communication and cooperation on the protection of tourism digital intellectual property rights at home and abroad, and improve the sharing and internationalization level of the protection of tourism digital property rights. Only on the basis of sound protection of tourism digital property rights can the development process and development level of China’s tourism digitalization be further advanced.

6.5. Strive to solve the social problems derived from the digitalization of tourism

The development of digitalization has brought certain social problems such as employment and industrial transformation to the tourism industry, and it is the key to ensuring the steady development of tourism to coordinate and solve the social problems derived from tourism digitalization. First of all, establish a sound system and system of vocational ability improvement such as pre-job training and on-the-job training, and improve the digital business level of tourism practitioners through vocational ability training, so as to meet the needs of tourism digital development. Secondly, vigorously promote the digital transformation and upgrading of the tourism industry, optimize the industrial structure of the traditional tourism industry by means of digitalization, improve the resource matching ability and information integration ability of the traditional tourism industry, and provide new growth points for the development of tourism. Finally, the development of tourism digital economy in northwest inland region should be actively promoted to promote regional development with digital tourism and narrow regional tourism economic differences. Actively develop the sharing economy, promote the integration of resources, coordinate the interests of all social parties, and ensure the comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of tourism.

6.6. Government guidance, social co-creation, and public participation

The digitalization of China’s tourism industry is inseparable from the joint participation of the government, enterprises, the public and other social forces. First of all, the digital development of tourism is inseparable from the guidance of the government. The government can point out the direction for China’s tourism digitalization by establishing a diversified tourism digital support system, formulating tourism digital work systems and norms, and guiding tourism digital development projects. Secondly, the digital development of tourism is inseparable from the cooperation and co-creation of all sectors of society. Scientific research institutions and high-tech enterprises provide technological impetus for tourism digitalization, tourism talent training institutions such as universities provide talent guarantee for tourism digitalization, and public welfare social institutions such as museums and libraries and social groups also can contribute to tourism digitalization. Third, the development of tourism digitalization is inseparable from the active participation of the public. Actively stimulating the public’s enthusiasm for participating in the digital tourism experience is the guarantee for the sustainable development of tourism digitalization. On the basis of the government’s guidance and guidance, all sectors of society have been actively mobilized to jointly promote the digital development of China’s tourism.

7. Conclusion and discussion

By reviewing the literature, this paper finds that the process of tourism digitization in China can be roughly divided into four stages. The first stage, 1980-1996, is the embryonic period of tourism digitization, during which the tourism digitization process was led by the government in construction, supported by multimedia technology, CD-ROMs and the Internet, during which foreign systems such as ticketing and hotel management were introduced. However, the level of tourism digitization in this stage was low due to the limitations of technology and tourism access. The second stage 1997-2006 is a brand new stage of digitization of China’s tourism industry, with the comprehensive development of tourism informatization construction mainly based on web portals. This stage laid the foundation for the next stage of de-emphasis and accelerated development of tourism digitization. Stage 3 2007-2017 The emergence of smartphones and the development of mobile Internet have improved the quality of information and expanded the popularity of digitization, making the fruits of Internet construction a benefit for everyone. The government guided the development of tourism digitization in a timely manner and clearly set out the construction goals of smart scenic spots and smart villages, and the development of tourism digitization entered the fast lane. Phase 4 2017-2022 With the development of AI, VR, AR, IoT, cloud computing, blockchain and other technologies, tourism digitization has shifted from a single service function to an interactive experience, offering the emerging concepts of virtual tourism and meta-universe tourism (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Structural system.

With the transformation of tourism digitization process, its encompassing tourism industry categories and the degree of digitization is also deepening, from the digitization of tourism resources to the digitization of tourism support services such as the hotel industry, and ultimately into the tourism resources, tourism scenic spots, tourism transportation and online tourism and other fields. The development of tourism digitization in China also has many problems, which can be divided into two categories: one is the lack of hard technology. Digitization is a technology-oriented development process, the generation of new technologies and the level of existing technologies are fundamental factors that limit the upper limit of digital development. For example, the initial stage of tourism digitization is dominated by the use of CD-ROMs and hard disks, which are mainly used to store and extract information, and their functions and the convenience they can provide are very limited. Another aspect of the lack of technology is the lack of talents, or to be more precise, the lack of talents serving the tourism industry. Tourism is an industry with its own uniqueness, and digitization requires hard technology, while the talents applicable to the digital development of tourism are comprehensive talents combining the two. Another type of problem is the lack of institutional, tourism digitization is not a new industry, but it has the characteristics of real-time updating and iteration, the replacement of the system is far from keeping up with the replacement of technology. As a result, the ownership of property rights after digitization and the fragmentation of digital resources have arisen. As a result, we propose targeted countermeasures. To summarize, tourism digitization involves multiple subjects, and requires the government to guarantee the convenience of the system, formulate policies and regulations in a timely manner, and supervise the development of the industry. It is also necessary for relevant enterprises to increase technical investment and improve the applicability of technology in tourism digitization.

Tourism digitization has been an important development direction in recent years, and a power source for the tourism industry to improve its effectiveness and provide high-quality products. This paper econometrically analyzes the literature in China from 2000 to 2022 by means of a literature review, delineates the stages and makes recommendations. A framework is given for a systematic study of the development of tourism digitization in China. However, this paper has some limitations in literature search and analysis. The papers selected in this paper are from academic journals and do not include conference papers, books, reports, dissertations, etc., which may result in some excellent research results not being included.

8. Outlook

With the development of digital technologies such as 5 G, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and virtual reality, the digital development of China’s tourism is about to usher in a development stage of improving quality and efficiency. Such as in 2019, the Palace Museum launched online cultural relics library. On the basis of the public 1.86 million pieces of basic information about the collection, the first batch of 50,000 pieces of high-definition digital images were selected and released to the public to activate the value of digital cultural relics; Gulangyu Island slow play park VR experience museum, launched a new type of cultural excursion, the experience museum integrates a panoramic experience, interactive experience, theater experience, and other forms of experience, so that the audience can be immersed in the world of comics, and have the form and awareness of the comics images to interact with, so that the visitors to experience the charm of cultural creativity in person. High-bandwidth, low-latency, multi-connection 5 G communication technology will bring a new digital experience to tourism. The upgrading of AI, machine learning and other technologies will bring intelligent services to tourism. The development of Internet of Things technology will achieve comprehensive perception of tourist destinations and real-time, all-weather tourism monitoring. The development of VR and AR technology will also provide a surreal and immersive experience for tourism. The comprehensive application of digital technology will enrich the embodiment of tourism and promote the new upgrading of tourism products. The use of information technology will provide an integrated programmatic strategy for tourist destinations. Digital products such as future scenic spots, future hotels, and future cars will provide a new carrier for China’s tourism industry. The new digital tourism based on digital technology will give a new definition to China’s tourism industry, plug in the wings of China’s tourism development, and let us look forward to the new scene of China’s future digital tourism!

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Beijing Natural Science Foundation “Research on Instant Recommendation of Tourist Attractions from the Perspective of Smart Customization” (grant number: 9234026), National Social Science Foundation “Research on Spatial Optimization and Layout of Ecological Tourism Corridor in the Yellow River Basin” (grant number: 23CGL028), the R&D Program of Beijing Municipal Education Commission (grant number: KM202210031001), Excellent Young Talents Program of Beijing International Studies University (grant number: BJTD22A002), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number: 4207119), General Project of the National Social Science Fund of China in the field of art “Research on the Coordination Mechanism between Heritage Protection and Tourism Utilization in National Cultural Parks” (grant number: 21BH157), Beijing Social Science Fund Decision-making Consultation Key Project “Research on the Construction of the Main Functional Area of the Beijing Grand Canal National Cultural Park” (grant number: 23JCB012), and the Beijing International Studies University school level research project (grant number: KYZX23A021).

Notes on contributors

Li Ying

Li Ying, PhD, Associate Professor at Beijing International Studies University, with a research interest in the application of new tourism technologies.

Qiu Ziyi

Qiu Ziyi, Master’s degree, student at Beijing International Studies University, with a research interest in digital tourism.

Hao Shizhuan

Hao Shizhuan, Master’s degree, student at Beijing International Studies University, with a research interest in ecotourism.

Li Yan

Li Yan, PhD, Associate Professor at Beijing International Studies University, with a research interest in tourism digitization.

Zou Tongqian

Zou Tongqian, PhD, Professor at Beijing International Studies University, with a research interest in tourism planning.