Tourism sector goes digital amid epidemic

Digitalization, together with capital, knowledge, innovation and other factors, is activating traditional culture and tourism resources, which forms new engines of the industry, said Dai Bin, head of the China Tourism Academy.

In recent months, a large number of tourist sites started to respond to the latest live-streaming craze by allowing eager tourists trapped at home to turn to online guided tours to catch a glimpse of the early spring.

Livestreaming platforms and travel agencies team up with tourist sites to make online sightseeing more accessible. Celebrities from popular social media platforms are invited to spice up the tours.

On April 15, Ke Jie, the 22-year-old known as the world's best Go player, attracted over 3 million viewers in less than two hours in a travel promotion livestreaming in the city of Lishui, east China's Zhejiang Province.

Since March, museums, galleries have staged online exhibitions of their rare treasures on popular livestreaming and video platforms such as Mafengwo.com and Kuaishou.com in an attempt to get a slice of the potentially lucrative market.

"As the epidemic weakens, the contained travel demand will be released gradually, and business players who have embraced digital market strategies will be the first to see success," said Zhao Lei in charge of Fliggy.com's consumer operations, an online travel agency owned by Alibaba.