Xinhua News Agency, Shenyang, May 6th (Reporters Wu Jiangmin, Zou Mingzhong) “Please design a travel route for me in downtown Chengdu on May 5th, which requires avoiding the crowds and allowing me to experience local characteristic culture and taste authentic cuisine.” Hu Yao, a college student from Shenyang, typed this sentence on her mobile app. In less than 10 seconds, a travel guide covering off-peak routes, restaurants, and ticket discounts was generated.

On social platforms, there are hundreds of thousands of notes related to topics such as “Using DeepSeek to create travel guides” and “AI-customized travel”. The itinerary plans in these notes not only include arrangements for scenic spots, dining, and accommodation, but also offer suggestions on how to avoid congestion, save expenses, and what to wear during the trip. Generating travel guides, providing online guidance, and offering personalized recommendations… AI is becoming the “new guide” for young people’s travel.

A screenshot of the AI-customized itinerary page of an online travel platform. Issued by Xinhua News Agency

“There are too many travel guides online, and it’s hard to tell which ones are true or false.” Hu Yao said that in the past, when she traveled with friends during holidays, from screening scenic spots to planning routes, from booking homestays to finding delicious food, she often had to spend two to three weeks in advance to make plans. For someone like her who lacks travel experience, AI is equivalent to a strategy assistant, enabling her to quickly get started and saving her from the trouble of staying up late to browse travel guides.

Wang Xiaoyu, a specially appointed expert of the World Tourism Cities Federation, analyzed that many “post-90s” and “post-00s” tourists like to plan self-guided tours or road trips by themselves. AI-customized travel can meet their personalized and diverse needs, and adjust and formulate exclusive plans according to specific requirements at any time.

The reporter’s search found that since this year, many cultural and tourism platforms in different places have announced the launch of AI recommenders. In Shenbei New District, Shenyang City, the local cultural and tourism department has accessed the AI data model, combined with the local cultural and tourism think tank to build an intelligent module, which can dynamically generate travel routes according to the number of people, taste preferences, and destinations, and answer online questions such as “how to play”, “where to eat”, and “where to stay” for tourists.

Many online travel platforms such as Fliggy, Mafengwo, and Tongcheng Travel have successively launched related AI products. The reporter saw on an online travel platform that in addition to planning itineraries, relevant AI products can also recommend hotels, restaurants, and characteristic experience halls according to the user’s real-time location, and users can make one-click reservations on the travel guide generation page.

The “Report on the Development of Smart Tourism in China 2024” released by the China Tourism Academy shows that the new breakthroughs in artificial intelligence technology have accelerated the digital and intelligent upgrading of the tourism industry, bringing new opportunities for the development of smart tourism. Generative artificial intelligence will have a significant impact on tourism content creation, tourism analysis and prediction, tourism data analysis, and personalized marketing, and is becoming an important force driving industry transformation.

Beijing Shilv Technology Co., Ltd. is an online travel platform that specializes in providing AI-customized travel. Relying on its independently developed AI model in the tourism field, it can not only provide full-process services from making travel guides to one-click purchases, but also offer services such as real-time menu translation, generating Vlog copywriting, and intelligent photo retouching.

“Since the launch of our digital platform more than a year ago, the number of users has exceeded one million, and we are continuously expanding to more destination cities.” Meng Ye, Vice President of Beijing Shilv Technology Co., Ltd., said that AI-customized travel will not be limited to search and travel guides, but will be an intelligent housekeeper integrating travel planning, transaction closed-loop, real-time service, and social sharing.

“The integration of artificial intelligence and cultural tourism is a major trend in the development of the cultural and tourism market.” Wang Xiaoyu said that AI-customized travel has reshaped the tourist experience and also helped the cultural and tourism industry achieve efficiency improvement and sustainable development. For these online travel platforms, how to make good use of AI as a tool, get closer to the personalized needs of tourists, and provide accurate and reliable information is a new topic.