Shanghai advisors propose new measures for international tourists

Political advisers in Shanghai have recommended the adoption of comprehensive, systematic measures, including the improvement of multilingual services across various scenarios and promoting the construction of international-friendly tourism products, to enhance experience for inbound tourists.

The advisers have submitted several proposals in this respect during the ongoing annual sessions of the city's legislative and political advisory bodies, which will run through Saturday.

In her proposal, Gu Weiling suggested the development of a city-wide action plan for the construction of an international language environment to optimize bilingual and multilingual services across all tourism-related sectors. Such an action plan should include making a unified standard in translation expressions and unifying foreign language signs in public venues.

"Shanghai must also facelift the tourism information service centers throughout the city by benchmarking against the world-famous tourist cities, and information there needs to be presented in at least four languages simultaneously," said Gu, who is also director of the Shanghai Putuo District Administration of Sport.

These centers are also suggested to provide updated tourism information manuals, public transportation information and maps in multiple languages and in both print and digital, interactive versions, she said.

In another proposal, some political advisors said that a number of artificial intelligence-powered digital guide tools that can meet tourists' diversified needs for cultural and tourism information have become preferred official tourist guide apps in cities, such as New York, London, Paris and Tokyo.

They suggested that Shanghai unveils a similar App that is multilingual and integrates AI so that inbound travelers can obtain more information about the city's urban history, architecture and culture among others.