NEWS: Shanghai Launches AI Travel Concierge for Tourists
Shanghai is rolling out 100 AI-powered terminals at airports, hotels, attractions and other key tourist touchpoints, offering visitors help with planning, translation, bookings and payments.
Shanghai has launched 100 AI-powered tourist service terminals designed to give visitors a one-stop travel assistant for everything from sightseeing and dining to transport, ticketing and payments.
Named ‘Hu Xiaoyou’, the AI travel concierge can answer questions, provide navigation and location services, offer real-time multilingual assistance and create personalized itineraries based on travellers’ interests.
The terminals are being deployed at key visitor touchpoints including airports, hotels, tourism information centres, event venues, major business districts and scenic areas. Volunteers will also be available to provide additional assistance.
Hu Xiaoyou draws on a database covering more than 84,000 cultural, commercial, tourism, sports and exhibition resources across Shanghai, allowing it to recommend experiences beyond the city's headline attractions.
The system is connected to more than 20 platforms, providing access to around 14,000 ticketing and shopping links. Visitors can also search information on more than 20,000 restaurants and 7,500 hotels and homestays, potentially moving from planning to booking in a single journey.
Breaking language and payment barriers
The service is particularly geared towards international visitors, offering simultaneous interpretation in 10 languages: Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish, Thai, Russian and Arabic.
Payment is also designed to be easier for overseas travellers. The integrated Meet China international card payment terminal supports payments in more than 120 currencies, without requiring visitors to download an app, create an account or link their cards to a local platform.
Shanghai officials said the Hu Xiaoyou network will continue to expand citywide, giving more visitors access to AI-powered travel assistance as the city seeks to make exploring Shanghai more convenient, personalised and accessible.
