HONG KONG, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tencent Cloud today announced its signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Tourism and Sports Bureau, aiming to revitalize Seoul's inbound tourism in the post-pandemic era and build a smart tourism ecosystem. The MoU marks Tencent Cloud's second Korean tourism revitalization project following its cooperation with Incheon Tourism Organization for smart tourism solutions last month.
Both parties plan to create a Seoul travel app for Chinese tourists as well as a smart tourism solution through Tencent Cloud's artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in Weixin Mini Program. The Seoul Metropolitan Government's Tourism and Sports Bureau promotes the digitalization of its tourism services via Tencent Cloud to strengthen the competitiveness of Seoul tourism and enhance its service quality. Through customized Seoul tourism information and services for Chinese tourists using Tencent Cloud's high-performance cloud computing and AI technology, the Tourism and Sports Bureau aims to increase the influx of Chinese visitors to Korea, helping to regain vitality after the spread of COVID-19 and making Seoul a global tourist city.
The one-stop Seoul city travel app for Chinese tourists links the city's online and offline public and private tourism services. With customized travel products and services, the app is set to provide a variety of information from hotel reservations in Seoul to car rentals, tourist maps and GPS, online shopping, tourist ticket purchases, visa issuance and tax refunds. Restaurants and attractions in Seoul can also be found using the real-time AI recommendation function, making travel much more personalized and convenient by scanning the Weixin QR code after purchasing an online ticket and entering tourist attractions without the wait.
In addition, Tencent Cloud will also build a Mini Program, leveraging Weixin's user pool of 1.2 billion monthly active users and digital marketing service capabilities to connect local merchants and Chinese tourists in Seoul. Through it, travelers can also use hotel favorites, weather information, tourist attraction search and travel guides, discount coupon downloads, travel directions and travel tax refund services.
The two parties will also promote mid- to long-term exchanges and cooperation measures for the early recovery of Seoul tourism. Apart from helping foster Seoul tourism startups, Tencent Cloud is also set to participate in various marketing activities such as creating better tourism infrastructure creation, tourism advertisement and influencer activity support.
Zhao Jiannan, Commercial Vice President of Tencent Cloud, who visited Korea to sign the MoU, said, "Tencent Cloud provides industry-specific technology platforms and solutions based on high-performance cloud and advanced IT technology to support the accelerating digital transformation of organizations and companies around the world. Following the agreement to build a smart tourism solution with the Incheon Tourism Organization last month, this cooperation with the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Tourism and Sports Bureau helps to further attract Chinese tourists and enhance the convenience of tourism after COVID 19. We will actively support it so that it can establish a growth engine."
Joo Yong Tae, General Director of Tourism and Sports Bureau of Seoul Metropolitan Government, said, "A combination of Seoul's attractive tourism content and Tencent Cloud's innovative technology will be the new starting point in smart Seoul tourism. We will start to create a smart digital tourism environment through this MoU, which will contribute to meeting the surging demand in the Korea-China travel industry once the travel condition between the two countries resume as normal."
Globally, Tencent has conducted various collaborations for digital innovation in the tourism industry and provision of end-to-end tourism services. GO-Yunnan, a smart tourism app jointly developed by Tencent Cloud with Yunnan, China in 2018, surpassed 7 million users and 12 million cumulative downloads as of September last year. In 2019, it also launched 'My Helsinki', a one-stop city tour app based on the Weixin Mini Program in Finland and Helsinki.
Last year, Tencent Cloud achieved the Korean Information Security Protection Management System (K-ISMS) certification, a Korean government-backed certification that helps Korean organizations consistently and securely protect their information assets, proving that the information security management systems and capabilities developed by Tencent Cloud comply with relevant Korean laws and standards.
The MoU with the Seoul Metropolitan Government's Tourism and Sports Bureau adds to Tencent Cloud's growing list of tourism-related initiatives, including its work with Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism), South African Tourism, Tourism New Zealand and YESMILANO, all aimed at bolstering efforts to further reach and cater to Chinese inbound visitors.
Operating in 27 regions and 62 availability zones worldwide, Tencent Cloud is a secure, reliable and high-performance public cloud service provider with advanced infrastructure, with a wide range of market applicability and experience.
About Tencent Cloud
Tencent Cloud is Tencent's cloud services brand, providing industry-leading cloud products and services to organizations and enterprises across the world. Leveraging its robust data center infrastructures around the world, Tencent integrates cloud computing, big data analytics, AI, Internet of Things, security and other advanced technologies with smart enterprise scenarios. At the same time, we provide a holistic smart enterprise solution for sectors including finance, education, healthcare, retail, industry, transport, energy and radio & television.
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