The Grand Canal is a historical picture scroll bearing the Chinese cultural genes.
Ningbo is the only estuary at the southern end of the Grand Canal, and is the key node of geographical river and sea combined transportation and cultural radiation of east and west.
In the country to promote cultural and tourism integration development, the development of Zhejiang poetry road culture with important period of strategic opportunities, completes the grand canal poetry road Ningbo period brigade fusion work, not only can give full play to the leading role of the development of tourism culture, promote tourism supply side structural reform, tourism economy high quality development, and can give full play to the spread of tourism to poetry road culture function, promote modern coastal metropolis cultural soft power.
Since 2018, the provincial party committee, the provincial government put forward to build “four road”, academia around poetry road culture protection of communication, IP design, resource development, innovation path, the distribution of the road of eastern poetry, spatial planning, tourism development, brand construction, the formation of the qiantang river road, oujiang landscape poetry road literature geographical form and evolution, new media research, formed a batch of valuable academic achievements.
However, the existing research does not have much emphasis on the Grand Canal poetry road, lacks the discussion on the integration of culture and tourism, and has not yet analyzed the impact of new technological factors.
With the culture and tourism industry “on the cloud with numbers to assign wisdom” has gradually become a consensus, information enables the Grand Canal Poetry Road, Ningbo section of culture and tourism integration is particularly urgent.
I. Resource dimension: information-supported cultural and tourism resources census database and VR panoramic museum
Ningbo section of the Grand Canal, contains 34 of the world cultural heritage “Grand Canal of China”.A 4-kilometer river, along with 3 world-class heritage sites, 11 national heritage sites, and 9 provincial-level heritage sites, gathers historical and cultural cities and towns along the route, carrying a heavy urban memory and rich cultural and tourism resources. Driven by digital technology and creativity, the content of cultural tourism resources is gradually integrating with high-tech forms. Specifically, it is necessary to fully explore the relics of water conservancy projects, ancient villages, towns, cities, bridges, and other types of heritage (including intangible cultural heritage inheritors) resources along the line, compile a cultural and tourism resource map in a categorized manner, and establish a cultural and tourism resource census database for the Ningbo section of the Grand Canal Poetry Road. Furthermore, emerging technologies such as AI, the Internet of Things, and 5G will be utilized to accelerate the digital reshaping of museum resources, supporting applications such as voice recognition, 3D imaging, and panoramic virtual exhibition halls. Digital services such as virtual lectures, cultural popularization, and human-machine interaction will be provided to enhance the exhibition and collaborative management of museum groups such as the Hemudu Site Museum, Tianyige Museum, Ningbo Museum, and China Port Museum. The museum will showcase the culture of the Neolithic Age, book collection culture, Yangming culture, and maritime culture in a three-dimensional manner, and a VR panoramic museum will be built for the Ningbo section of the Grand Canal Poetry Road.
2、 Product dimension: Information technology helps cloud entertainment and immersive cultural and tourism product innovation
On the basis of integrating cultural and tourism resources, relying on information technology to innovate the cultural and tourism product architecture of the Ningbo section of the Grand Canal Poetry Road, we strive to promote the online and offline integration of the “Looking at the Sea Along the Canal” IP. Based on typical historical events and characters from the Ningbo section of the Grand Canal Poetry Road, create tourism and performance works related to the canal’s commercial circulation, cultural exchange, and other related landscapes, and simultaneously build online theaters and digital theaters. Supported by 5G and 4K/8K ultra high definition technology, with a focus on intangible cultural heritage such as Yue Kiln celadon and Shili Red Makeup, integrating fashion originality and folk handicrafts from the canal basin, the creation, production, and display of modern craft gifts containing canal heritage elements will be expanded to the cloud, cultivating a group of cloud performance products suitable for online viewing, dissemination, and consumption. Support a group of high-level scenic spots, historical and cultural blocks, cultural theme parks, tourism characteristic towns, etc. to use cultural resources to develop immersive experience projects and complexes such as script killing, situational dramas, 3D projection shows, etc. Guide and support AR/VR, digital twins, holographic interactive projection, light and shadow shows, intelligent wearable products, and create a new ecosystem of immersive scene experience and night cultural tourism economy.
3、 Public service dimension: Informationization promotes the optimization of cultural and tourism public services in the Ningbo section of the Grand Canal Poetry Road
Innovate the smart tourism public service model for the Ningbo section of the Grand Canal Poetry Road, build a cultural and tourism public service cloud platform that integrates big data, industry supervision, public services, and marketing promotion, integrate into the Zhejiang Smart Culture Cloud and Poetry and Painting Zhejiang Comprehensive Tourism Information Service System, and promote service integration into the “Zhejiang Fun” APP. Consumers can enjoy “one-stop” public digital cultural and tourism services at their fingertips. Effective.Integrate information on culture, tourism, transportation, meteorology, surveying and mapping, and promote the application of technologies such as geographic information systems, remote sensing, video surveillance, and the Internet of Things. The system integrates the comprehensive information of various cultural venues, scenic spots, traffic, catering, entertainment, shopping and tourist centers, traffic stations, toilets, disaster prevention points and other public service facilities within and around the block park in the Ningbo section of Shi Road, the Grand Canal, to achieve full coverage of activity booking, cultural worship, cultural and creative fashion, electronic (audio) maps, public opinion analysis, flow monitoring, guidance and diversion and other modules. Introduce tools such as facial recognition, QR code recognition, AI intelligence, and contactless payment in various cultural and tourism scenic spots to achieve functions such as contactless entry, intelligent tour guides, and contactless services.
4、 Marketing dimension: Informationization driven cross-border integrated marketing of cultural and tourism in the Ningbo section of the Grand Canal Poetry Road
Carry out an online promotion campaign for the theme tourism of the Ningbo section of the Grand Canal Poetry Road, combining social e-commerce, online live streaming, influencer sales, short videos, mini programs, and other online new economies to promote key cultural venues, tourism villages and towns, and cultural and tourism boutique scenic spots along the route. Make full use of new media channels (“Double WeChat, One Douyin, One Bilibili, One Live Broadcast”), hire professional companies to operate the Ningbo section of the Grand Canal Poetry Road brand, carry out multiple forms of cultural and tourism IP image promotion, and promote a branded IP matrix. Build a professional team to create their own content, tell the brand story well, cultivate cultural and tourism experts, accumulate private domain traffic, and form fans to jointly create brand value. Based on the construction of a smart cultural and tourism big data platform, carry out algorithm driven LBS precision marketing; Based on the geographical distribution of target customers, carry out a new interactive marketing strategy of “activity+content+scene+circle”, cooperate with online tourism platforms (OTAs), and expand brand influence. Encourage cultural and tourism workers and intangible cultural heritage inheritors of the Grand Canal to carry out online exhibitions on live streaming platforms, and encourage cultural venues, scenic spots, and restaurants to open online flagship stores to achieve functions such as member management, reservation group buying, cultural and creative fashion, and sales of geographical indication products. [This article is the interim achievement of the Provincial Soft Science Research Program project “Research on the Impact Mechanism of Technological Innovation on the Integration of Zhejiang’s Cultural and Tourism Industry” (No. 2021C35115).]
(Author’s affiliation: Sino French Joint College of Ningbo University, East China Sea Strategic Research Institute)