Visitors enjoy Jinhua's night tourism during the National Day holiday. [Photo/Tide News]

Jinhua, Zhejiang province, reported strong growth in its cultural tourism market during the National Day holiday, with the city's 93 A-rated scenic areas and five provincial-level tourist resorts receiving 7.26 million visits from Oct 1 to 7, and average daily visits up 18.3 percent year-on-year.

The city launched a new cultural tourism brand covering six lakes to offer visitors more choices: Jinman Lake Park featured a market with intangible cultural heritage crafts, local snacks, and specialty drinks, while Jinli Lake held pet-themed and fishing activities.

For night tourism, Jinhua launched "Night Tour in Jinhua" series combining Wuju Opera and Jinhua ham with night tour resources across its counties and districts. 

During the holiday, the new "Jin Xiaoyou" AI travel assistant offered visitors convenience and surprises, letting users check parking lots, restrooms, and public transportation, and providing guided tour routes, dining and accommodation recommendations, event information, and shopping spots.

At Shuanglong Scenic Area, an AI system cut holiday queuing from 3 to 4 hours to under 30 minutes by using smart check-in machines that display entry batches, estimated wait times, and visitor numbers in real time. Visitors could also interact with robots and robotic dogs, try robot-made drinks, and use AR and VR to learn about local culture.