An alliance for integrated cultural and tourism consumption in the Yangtze River Delta was formed as a fruit of the second Yangtze River Delta International Cultural Industries Expo.

Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Hefei, Suzhou, Ningbo, Wuhu, and Xuhui district of Shanghai—seven cities and one district in the Yangtze River Delta—signed agreements with Alibaba’s Digital Media and Entertainment Group, working together to speed up the integrated development of cultural and tourism industries.

In the next three years, Tmall Culture will cooperate with 10,000 cultural brands from both the Delta area and anywhere else in the world, to provide consumers with numerous cultural derivatives from museum treasures.

According to Tan Chongjun, Deputy Dean of the AliResearch Institute at Alibaba Group, on Tmall and other platforms, promoting commercialization of cultural and creative ideas through technology has made prominent progress. The page views of the Palace Museum and Dunhuang Academy on Tmall have surpassed half the number of visitors to all China’s museums. As Tan said, the data shows that online marketing of brands and goods has a broad room for premiums, which can help museums and other institutions to reap more revenue and social benefits.

Due to people having more money and education these days, people are paying more attention to mentally and culturally stimulating cultural consumption. Therefore, China's culture and tourism industries are facing a huge opportunity.

Relevant preferential policies rolled out by the government have also accelerated the introduction of digital technology in cultural and tourism industries, added Tan. Especially in the Yangtze River Delta, the digital economy is developing at a large scale, accounting for more than 40% of the regional economy. The total volume of the region’s digital economy takes up nearly 30% of the country’s total, providing a broad space of development for the region’s future of digital culture and tourism.