A fourteen-day “Vietnam-China Cross-Border Tourism AI Empowerment Cooperation and Exchange Programme” has concluded in Nanning, Guangxi, bringing together nearly 30 tourism officials from four northern Vietnamese provinces and their Chinese counterparts. Co-hosted by Guangxi’s Department of Culture & Tourism and the culture-tourism departments of Quang Ninh, Lang Son, Cao Bang and Tuyen Quang, the initiative explored how artificial-intelligence tools can streamline entry formalities, personalise itinerary design and optimise destination marketing along the busy Sino-Vietnamese frontier. Lectures and case-study sessions covered China’s “Easy Visit Guangxi” one-stop travel platform, AI-driven crowd-management at border crossings and predictive analytics for hotel demand. Delegates toured the China-ASEAN AI Innovation and Cooperation Centre in Nanning and field-tested smart-tourism applications in Liuzhou, Guilin and Hechi—including facial-recognition e-gates that cut average clearance time by 40 percent.
For travellers eager to take advantage of these AI-enhanced crossings without getting lost in paperwork, VisaHQ offers a quick, end-to-end solution: its portal (https://www.visahq.com/china/) lets individuals and corporate travel managers check requirements, file e-visa applications and track approvals for China and other destinations, turning the promise of seamless smart tourism into a practical reality.
The programme also wove in historical diplomacy: participants retraced President Ho Chi Minh’s wartime routes through Guangxi, underscoring the “comrades-and-brothers” narrative that still shapes bilateral people-to-people ties. A cross-border product-design contest on 18 April crowned Quang Ninh’s team for an AI-guided “two countries, six days” itinerary that can auto-adjust to weather, crowds and transport delays. For global-mobility and travel-risk managers the takeaway is twofold. First, China’s land borders—long overshadowed by its big coastal airports—are being digitised at speed, promising faster passenger throughput once full post-pandemic volumes return. Second, Guangxi is positioning itself as the laboratory for ASEAN-facing smart-tourism pilots; companies running manufacturing or mining projects in the region should expect more app-based entry requirements and data-sharing protocols. Organisers say the next edition, slated for October 2026, will invite Lao and Thai border provinces, potentially expanding the AI model to the wider Mekong corridor. Pilot e-visa corridors and joint marketing of “rail-plus-road” routes leveraging the China–Laos railway are already on the agenda.