At the event, the People’s Government of Suzhou, China Tourism Academy (Data Center of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism) and China Telecom signed an agreement to launch cooperation in accelerating Suzhou’s development towards an exemplary city in “platforms and demonstration for tourist flow control and intelligent services in cities during holidays” under the country’s Science and Technology Innovation 2030 -- Major Project of “New Generation of Artificial Intelligence”.

The signing ceremony for 17 cultural tourism projects with a total investment of more than RMB7 billion was held. These projects are expected to promote development of tourism-focused hotels, digital culture and intelligent cultural tourism services.

Several leading Chinese travel agencies and international tourist services companies signed agreements with Suzhou Culture and Tourism Federation to carry out cooperation that is expected to further boost the cultural tourism in Suzhou.

The Suzhou Cultural Tourism Innovation Research Institution, Suzhou Cultural Industry Investment Promotion Center and Suzhou Culture and Performing Arts Brokerage Company were established.

The East Taihu Lake Eco-tourism Resort was declared a national-level resort, while Suzhou Silk Museum and Museum of Wu were declared first-class museums.

The Suzhou White Paper on Tourism Development and the Suzhou Policies for High-quality Development of Tourism were released.