At a results-sharing event on digital culture and tourism projects in Fujian Province, experts noted that empowering the development of culture and tourism with digital technology cannot rely solely on piling on technologies; it also requires a complete industry ecosystem. The event discussed the challenges faced by some digital culture and tourism projects that require substantial investment but deliver few visible results, emphasizing that technologies such as artificial intelligence should be deeply integrated with culture and tourism scenarios to support sustainable project development.

The focus of this discussion was how technology investment can translate into practical value for culture and tourism services. For digital culture and tourism projects, deciding which technologies to introduce is only part of the development process. More important when assessing results is whether the technology meets the needs of specific scenarios and can continue to play a role as the project operates. Investment scale or technology configuration alone is not enough to demonstrate a project’s actual value.

From this perspective, building an industry ecosystem means taking a closer look at how technology development, content provision, and day-to-day operations work together. For example, whether artificial intelligence applications address clearly defined needs related to sightseeing or cultural experiences, whether the relevant content can be maintained over time, and whether issues identified during operations can inform product improvements are all useful ways to assess how well technology is integrated with real-world scenarios. Without these connections, even deployed technology may struggle to deliver lasting value.

The gap between investment and results in some projects should not, at this point, be attributed simply to a particular technology or a single part of the process. The discussion supports the conclusion that the evaluation of digital culture and tourism projects should extend beyond development investment to include actual use and ongoing operations, and that the role of the industry ecosystem should also be assessed in this context.

Going forward, it will be worth monitoring whether these projects demonstrate clearer results through ongoing operations, including whether the technology is actually used, whether content and services are updated continuously, and whether the various parties involved can establish stable collaboration. These indicators will help determine whether scenario integration and ecosystem development have genuinely translated into the ability to operate projects sustainably.