Guidelines for Digital Upgrade of Inbound Tourism and Consumption Released

The 2026 APEC Smart Tourism Seminar was held in Hangzhou from October 28 to 30, 2026. According to an October 30 report, the seminar opened on October 29 under the theme "Tourism Services in the Age of Artificial Intelligence," and was co-hosted by the World Tourism Alliance and Beijing International Studies University. Nearly 100 government officials, experts, scholars, and enterprise representatives from APEC economies attended and held discussions on topics including large language model-supported tourist satisfaction assessment, cross-border tourism facilitation, and responsible artificial intelligence. At the seminar, the "Guidelines for Digital Upgrade of Inbound Tourism and Consumption: AI Empowerment + Financial Practice Manual" was released. The guidelines were commissioned jointly by the China Financial Education Development Foundation and Visa and compiled by the Digital Culture and Tourism Research Center of Beijing International Studies University. They provide systematic reference for small and micro tourism-related enterprises from two aspects: application of lightweight AI tools and payment facilitation. They recommend establishing a diversified payment system of "foreign card acceptance + mobile payment + cash as a fallback," and include innovative practices such as Visa's "tap-to-pay and instant tax refund." The guidelines have currently been released on-site at the seminar.