A visitor looks about Yili's industrial tourism project. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Dairy giant Yili Group's "Yili Grassland Milk Culture Tourism Area 5G+ Smart Tourism Pilot Project" was recently honored nationally.

It was selected as the only project in Inner Mongolia autonomous region to be included in the first batch of national "5G+ Smart Tourism" application pilot projects.

This was jointly announced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Information and Communication Development Department.

It makes the company the only manufacturer in the dairy industry to get onto the list.

Yili says it has always been committed to creating an intelligent interactive global industrial chain online – and upgrading consumer interactions through new technologies offline – promoting the panoramic and intelligent evolution of the global dairy industry supply chain.

The Yili Group Headquarters is now a national 4A-level tourist attraction. Since the launch of its industrial tourism in 2002, the total number of visitors received by Yili's HQ and its factories across the country has exceeded 267 million person-times.

A man explores Yili-style industrial tourism. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

As one in the first batch of "5G+ Smart Tourism" application pilot projects in China, Yili – in collaboration with China Telecom – is leveraging the 5G network and integrating new generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, the internet of things and virtual reality.

Moreover, it has rolled out popular immersive experiences for tourists, such as VR, AR and 5D movies.

It has also constructed a smart tourism management system, a smart tourism mini program and self-service unmanned sales vehicles to provide decision support for scenic area operations through tourist portrait analysis and big data analysis systems.

This has created a whole-process, one-stop, personalized smart tourism service system.