May 19 marks China Tourism Day. Let's gain an insight into how meteorology is empowering local cultural tourism development with smart and tailored services.

Luoyang, Henan

As an important birthplace of China's 24 solar terms, Luoyang has leveraged meteorological empowerment to explore an ancient capital model for the in-depth integration of meteorology and cultural tourism. A full-chain service system covering monitoring, forecasting, service and emergency response has been established, enabling smart meteorological services to serve as an invisible tour guide for tourism development.

Luoyang has achieved remarkable tourism achievements. In 2025, the city received 158 million tourist visits with tourism revenue hitting 128.54 billion yuan, up by 4.68% and 8.09% year on year respectively.

Meteorological services have been precisely embedded in key scenarios including the Peony Culture Festival, winter tourism of Laojun Mountain and cultural relic protection at Longmen Grottoes. During the Peony Culture Festival, accurate flowering-phase forecasts facilitated precise travel planning for tourists, attracting over 10 million visits and generating more than 8 billion yuan in tourism revenue.

For cultural relics such as the Longmen Grottoes, refined meteorological monitoring and water seepage mechanism research have built a solid meteorological barrier for cultural heritage protection. For peak winter tourism in high-altitude scenic spots like Laojun Mountain, 3 gradient observation systems and negative oxygen ion monitoring stations have been constructed. Specialized landscape forecasts for sea of clouds and ice scenery have been released to ensure tourists can feast their eyes on stunning natural scenery as scheduled even under low temperatures.

According to the 2025 National Tourist Satisfaction Survey Report released in April 2026, Luoyang was selected as one of China's Top 10 Tourist Satisfaction Cities in 2025.

Fenghuang Ancient Town, Hunan

During the May Day holiday this year, Fenghuang Ancient Town in Xiangxi Tujia and Miao Autonomous Prefecture witnessed a booming cultural tourism market, receiving over 357,600 tourists with a total tourism consumption exceeding 273 million yuan.

The impressive performance was strongly boosted by precise and efficient meteorological services provided by the Fenghuang Meteorological Office (hereinafter referred to as the Office).

Targeting the growing number of inbound tourists, the Office launched customized Chinese-English bilingual weather forecasts during the holiday. The services covered daily weather conditions, precipitation probability, temperature, wind information and travel safety reminders for core scenic areas. It also accurately predicted sudden severe convection and heavy rainfall, issuing early warnings in advance. Through in-depth coordination with publicity, cultural tourism and television departments, meteorological information was widely disseminated via official media platforms, achieving accurate service coverage and improving travel experience for both domestic and foreign tourists.

The local meteorological office has continuously optimized service procedures and innovated service models. A comprehensive cultural-tourism meteorological system featuring advance assessment, precise early warning, diversified dissemination and whole-process support has been established, providing solid meteorological guarantee for the high-quality and international development of local cultural tourism.

Changzhou, Jiangsu

Focusing on the development needs of cultural tourism, Changzhou municipal meteorological departmenthas been advancing in-depth integration of meteorology and cultural tourism. Centering on featured services, technological empowerment and safety guarantee, they have built a full-chain, refined and smart meteorological service system, injecting momentum into the high-quality development of the local cultural tourism.

In terms of featured services, Changzhou meteorology integrates weather scenarios with tourism and builds exclusive branded services. The Flower Tour service releases Chinese rose bloom forecasts in cooperation with urban management departments, accurately pinpointing the best viewing time for flower exhibitions. Special service teams provide medium-and short-range as well as hourly refined forecasts for major events including sports matches, music festivals and cultural festivals, ensuring safe and orderly operation and winning high recognition from organizers. For traditional festivals such as the Lantern Festival, special weather programs are launched jointly with cultural tourism departments and scenic spots. With multi-department data sharing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) anchors release refined weather forecasts matched with scenic videos, offering immersive travel guidance for the public.

In technological empowerment, Changzhou keeps upgrading technical support and service intelligence. A video-based ubiquitous perception system for urban operation has been put into use, covering nearly a hundred townships and making up for the insufficient density of traditional observation stations to capture local severe convection and dense fog in a timely manner. Liyang Meteorological Office has deployed Smart Meteorological Eye monitoring equipment at Tianmu Lake Scenic Area. Real-time weather monitoring combined with data analysis boosts smart scenic management, ecological conservation and tourist safety. Jintan has set up a dedicated flower meteorological observation station at local scenic spots. It tracks subtle changes in meteorological elements, provides science-based guidance for flower maintenance, and helps present the best cherry blossom viewing scenery.

For safety protection, a complete meteorology-tourism disaster prevention system has been established. Municipal and county meteorological and cultural tourism departments have formed regular joint prevention mechanisms to deliver early warnings directly to scenic management teams. Against severe convective weather, rainstorms and gales, a closed-loop mechanism of meteorological warning — scenic response — tourist guidance has been put in place, with 24-hour advance forecasting and hourly dynamic monitoring in key areas. Warnings are promptly released through multiple channels to guide facility closure and tourist evacuation, effectively safeguarding people's lives and property. Meteorological departments also strengthen coordination with emergency management and tourism departments, conduct lightning safety inspections, and incorporate lightning protection training into regular scenic management.

In the past two years, Changzhou meteorological department has supported more than 30 major cultural tourism events, benefiting over 2 million tourists. With refined bloom forecasting, smart monitoring, event guarantee and early warning linkage, professional meteorological services polish the city's cultural tourism brand, create a safe and comfortable travel environment, and further deepen the integrated development of meteorology and cultural tourism.

Dongying, Shandong

In recent years, Dongying Meteorological Department (hereinafter referred to as the Department) of Shandong has continuously optimized the service model of integrating meteorology with cultural tourism.

The Department has developed tailored meteorological service products for major tourism activities including the Yellow River Estuary International Birdwatching Season, river-sea confluence sightseeing and wetland study tours. These efforts greatly enhance tourists' experience and boost the cultural influence of the Yellow River estuary city.

The periods from April to May and September to November each year mark the best viewing time for the spectacular river-sea confluence landscape. The natural blue-yellow boundary phenomenon is highly susceptible to meteorological factors such as weather condition, sunshine and precipitation. Meteorological authorities provide hourly refined weather forecasts and release real-time early warnings of gales, dense fog and thunderstorms, building a solid meteorological safety barrier for water vessel scheduling and tourist travel.

In 2025, to strengthen meteorological disaster prevention and wetland ecological monitoring in the Yellow River Delta, Dongying added 17 six-element automatic weather stations. Meteorological data were connected to the real-time monitoring system for ecological environment and biodiversity, providing solid meteorological support for migratory birds' migration, breeding and overwintering. The Department also built a smart meteorological service platform, integrating conventional and portable observation data to release real-time service products and deliver rolling customized meteorological support for large sports and cultural tourism events.

In 2026, Dongying the Department set up an innovative service team for ecological, cultural and tourism meteorological services of the Yellow River Estuary. It has developed forecasting models and special forecast services for bird-wave watching periods, gradually forming an integrated new model of meteorology + ecology + cultural tourism, facilitating high-quality upgrading of the Yellow River Estuary Ecotourism Scenic Area.

Yan'an, Shaanxi

Yan'an Municipal meteorological Department further advance the integrated development of meteorological services and cultural tourism. Relying on 2 iconic scenic spots, Baota Mountain and the Mausoleum of Yellow Emperor, they keep improving the monitoring and early warning system and optimizing featured tourism meteorological services, helping build Yan'an into an internationally renowned cultural tourism destination.

Nestled beside the Yanhe River, Baota Mountain stands as an iconic cultural landmark favored by tourists at home and abroad. Given the frequent occurrence of rainstorms, hailstorms, gales and thunderstorms, meteorological departments strengthen all-weather three-dimensional monitoring and set up a rapid emergency response mechanism for scenic areas. Working with cultural tourism departments, they release multilingual travel safety reminders to guide Chinese and foreign tourists to avoid severe weather and adjust travel plans in a timely manner.

By tapping local climatic and landscape resources, professional tourism meteorological products such as sightseeing suitability evaluation and disaster risk grading have been developed. These efforts fully support the smooth operation of year-round events including the Baota Mountain light show and folk performances, improving emergency response capacity and tourist experience, and boosting Yan'an's development into a high-grade international tourism destination.

Known as the No.1 Mausoleum Under Heaven, the Mausoleum of Yellow Emperor serves as the spiritual symbol of Chinese civilization and an important carrier of ancestor worship culture. Yan’an meteorological department has built a comprehensive three-dimensional monitoring network. They maintain regular operation of six-element automatic weather stations at the worship square and eight-element stations at the Overseas Chinese Forest to capture real-time weather changes.

With densely deployed cloud radars, wind lidars and microwave radiometers, together with mobile meteorological stations and emergency monitoring vehicles, vertical atmospheric observation has been enhanced, forming an all-round multi-level meteorological monitoring system that supports accurate weather analysis and risk prevention for scenic spots.

Meteorological services provide solid guarantee for the annual worship ceremony at the Mausoleum of Yellow Emperor, ensuring solemn and orderly proceedings. Taking the opportunity of cultural inheritance and external communication, meteorological empowerment elevates local tourism influence, showcasing the charm of traditional Chinese culture and the achievements of Yan'an's cultural tourism development to the world.

Through refined monitoring, accurate early warning and customized services, Yan’an meteorological departments promote in-depth integration of meteorology, cultural heritage and tourism, realizing dual advancement in high-quality tourism development and international cultural communication.

In collaboration with Luoyang Municipal Meteorological Department, Fenghuang Meteorological Office, Changzhou Municipal Meteorological Department, Dongying Municipal Meteorological Department, and Yan'an Municipal Meteorological Department

Special thanks to RAN Chen, LIU Yue, WANG Liehui, MENG Jiaofeng, JIA Xiaoqin, and CAO Peiyao

Planner/Editor: LIU Shuqiao