Mutual Empowerment Pathways in Digital-Intelligent Culture and Tourism

Against the backdrop of the rapid convergence of the digital economy, the experience economy, and artificial intelligence, the relationship between the culture and tourism industry and digital-intelligent technologies has shifted from the one-way application of technological tools to mutual empowerment. From the perspective of the interactive evolution between information technology and the culture and tourism industry, this article reviews four stages of development: informatization, digitalization, digital intelligence, and reverse empowerment. It argues that culture and tourism are further evolving from a field of technological application into a domain for data assets, experiential scenarios, and algorithmic validation. The empowerment of culture and tourism by digital-intelligent technologies is mainly manifested through three pathways: immersive interactive experiences, intelligent governance, and personalized services. Conversely, the reverse driving force of culture and tourism for digital-intelligent technologies is reflected in the provision of high-quality cultural data assets, the formation of real-world service feedback loops, and the validation of embodied intelligence in non-routine spatial contexts. This article focuses on how the integration of cultural data with multimodal large models can support scene understanding, intelligent guidance, interactive storytelling, and personalized experiences. It further analyzes the challenges faced by personalized services in terms of privacy, bias, explainability, and service trustworthiness.