Recently, Chongqing Cultural Tourism Liangjiang Group and Meituan Travel signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties will engage in deep collaboration over the next three years focusing on four key areas: online booking, AI digital applications, industry talent cultivation, and brand building for the industrial chain. This cooperation marks a significant step in the digital transformation journey of a local state-owned cultural tourism group.
The cultural tourism consumption market is currently undergoing profound changes. With the emergence of new holiday patterns like spring and autumn breaks, tourist demographics and consumption behaviors are shifting significantly. Besides traditional business travel and banquet clientele, local and surrounding "food-driven travel" groups, as well as non-local young tourists, are becoming new major forces in cultural tourism consumption. The Chongqing cultural tourism market demonstrates strong vitality; in 2024, its expressway network density ranked first in Western China, and the convenient transportation network has brought a large number of non-local tourists from within the "2-hour traffic circle."
Liu Dengwei, Member of the Party Committee and Deputy General Manager of Chongqing Cultural Tourism Group, stated that the cultural tourism market is transitioning from being previously "driven by business travel" to being "driven by local experiences and new tourist sources." The hotel and catering industry urgently needs to adapt to this new situation by actively expanding into local community, surrounding tourist source, and non-local tourist markets, while consolidating traditional customer bases. According to platform data, in the first 10 months of 2025, order volume for four-star hotels in Chongqing increased by over 20% year-on-year, and the "accommodation+" model in high-star hotels showed strong development momentum.
According to the cooperation agreement, Meituan will leverage its platform data and technological capabilities to help Chongqing Cultural Tourism Group improve the quality and efficiency of its online operations. Regarding AI applications, Chongqing Cultural Tourism Group will utilize Meituan's hotel merchant-side AI products to achieve comprehensive enhancements in operational decision-making, service efficiency, and staff training. Li Jinfei, Vice President of Meituan and Head of Hotel Travel, stated that they will fully leverage the kinetic advantages of "food-driven travel" to form differentiated service capabilities through multi-business collaboration.
Industry experts point out that after 2025, the domestic hotel and travel industry will fully enter the "AI era," where data-driven decision-making capabilities and the depth of ecological collaboration will become key to industry competition. This strategic partnership provides a new model for traditional state-owned enterprises to deepen digital reform and opens new pathways for exploring the integrated development model of "cultural tourism + technology + consumption." Through resource sharing and capability complementarity, both parties will jointly promote the high-quality development of Chongqing's cultural tourism industry.
Editor Ⅰ: Zhang Congxiao
Editor Ⅱ: Bao Gang
Editor Ⅲ: Liu Guosong
