Digital Art Empowering High-Quality Development of Agriculture-Culture-Tourism: Strategies

Liu Shaohui, Zhang Wenqi
(Faculty of Art and Design, Beijing City University, Beijing 100000)

Abstract

[Objective] Developing agriculture-culture-tourism plays a vital role in revitalizing rural economies and enhancing cultural confidence. [Method] Effective pathways to elevate the economic and cultural value of emerging rural tourism include rooting digital art industries in rural areas, strengthening deep integration between digital art and agricultural, cultural, and tourism resources, and leveraging digital art to preserve and transmit traditional agricultural culture. [Result] Actively promoting digital and intelligent development of agriculture-culture-tourism is essential to meet the evolving market demands of the new era. [Conclusion] Digital art not only brings new development ideas and directions to rural tourism but also effectively drives innovation and upgrading in agriculture-culture-tourism, making it pivotal for improving the quality and efficiency of the tourism industry.

Keywords: digital art; internet; creative design; agriculture-culture-tourism; network platform construction
CLC Number: J0-05
Document Code: A
Article ID: 1671-0134(2025)03-74-04
DOI: 10.19483/j.cnki.11-4653/n.2025.03.015
Citation Format: Liu Shaohui, Zhang Wenqi. Digital Art Empowering High-Quality Development of Agriculture-Culture-Tourism: Strategies [J]. China Media Technology, 2025, 32(3): 74-76, 81.

Introduction

The rapid development of the digital era has brought both opportunities and significant challenges to China's agriculture-culture-tourism sector. Traditional rural tourism is facing immense challenges, and agriculture-culture-tourism products urgently need transformation and upgrading to keep pace with the times. Digital art serves as a critical tool for addressing these challenges. Since ancient times, artistic positioning has been an integral part of rural revitalization efforts. The key lies in finding convergence points between digital art and rural tourism development, thereby connecting rural revitalization with the digital age. In 2021, the State Council's 14th Five-Year Plan for Tourism Development provided a top-level strategic design for high-quality tourism development in the new era, proposing the construction of a new-type rural tourism industry characterized by "digitalization," "intelligentization," and "networking." The plan emphasized deepening "Internet + Tourism" and positioned digital art creation as an accelerator for high-quality agriculture-culture-tourism development, gradually shaping an emerging development philosophy centered on digital art. This concept represents a frontier exploration that integrates art, intelligence, and rural ecological characteristics, offering multifaceted perspectives on the sustainable future of agriculture-culture-tourism.

In 2021, President Xi Jinping declared that China had achieved a comprehensive building of a moderately prosperous society and won the battle against poverty—a remarkable accomplishment amid complex domestic and international environments. Although rural areas have escaped absolute poverty and embarked on a new journey, urbanization remains sluggish, regional development is uneven, and agriculture faces natural constraints and risks of returning to poverty. Consolidating and expanding poverty alleviation achievements and promoting sustainable development require practical and effective measures. Empowering agriculture-culture-tourism through digital art is profoundly significant. It can effectively broaden sales channels for agricultural products, enhance the appeal of rural tourism, and increase farmers' incomes. By innovatively presenting rural landscapes and creating more employment opportunities, it powerfully consolidates and expands poverty alleviation achievements while driving sustainable rural development.

Digital art, as the integration of digital technology and creative design thinking, aims to create unique and innovative works. In this process, designers leverage computer software and hardware to flexibly express their creative ideas, injecting new vitality into artistic innovation. However, digital creative design in rural tourism also faces challenges. Designers must keep pace with digital era developments while gaining profound understanding of agriculture, rural areas, and folk culture to create forms suitable for digital art display, VR interactive installations, or internet dissemination. This approach frees traditional culture in rural tourism from geographical and material limitations, enabling it to play a major role in agriculture-culture-tourism.

Promoting deep integration between digital art and agriculture-culture-tourism can harness the diversity and multimedia characteristics of digital art creation to merge China's rich agricultural cultural resources with natural ecological resources. This fusion creates new cultural-economic growth points that compensate for resource shortages in some rural areas, enabling diversified development pathways, protecting existing poverty alleviation achievements, and ensuring stable rural economic growth.

1.2 Digital Art Empowering Agriculture-Culture-Tourism to Promote Rural Characteristic Artistic and Cultural Development

China has been a major agricultural country since ancient times, possessing rich historical agricultural culture accumulated over millennia. Agricultural culture constitutes an important part of China's excellent traditional cultural heritage and represents precious spiritual wealth. However, at present, high-quality agricultural and rural cultural-artistic resources have not received adequate attention due to the current focus on economic development. Using digital art to facilitate deep integration of agriculture-culture-tourism enables full dissemination, development, and utilization of local agricultural and rural cultural resources. This allows tourists to experience the unique charm of agriculture-culture-tourism while enabling rural areas to highlight their local characteristics amid increasingly homogenized cultural tourism. Ultimately, different regions can identify suitable pathways for developing their tourism industries, holding extraordinary significance for China's current agricultural, rural cultural, and tourism development.

1.3 Deep Integration of Agriculture-Culture-Tourism Accelerates New-Type Urbanization

China's current economic development and accelerating urbanization have continuously narrowed the urban-rural gap, clarified boundaries, and made coordinated development patterns increasingly evident. On one hand, most villages have increased investment in infrastructure, significantly improving their environmental appearance and leveraging resident aggregation to create entirely new urban styles. Simultaneously, as cities grow, the functions of medium and large cities continue to shift, giving rise to numerous new-type modern villages and advancing the overall urbanization process in an orderly manner. Promoting digital art to facilitate deep agriculture-tourism development and boost rural service industries lays a solid foundation for new-type urbanization. Meanwhile, developing new digital agriculture-tourism projects can help attract talent and identify urbanization pathways suitable for the digital era.

2.1 Incomplete Promotion and Publicity System for Agriculture-Culture-Tourism

The state has successively issued documents promoting culture-tourism integration. The 14th Five-Year Plan for Public Services emphasizes culture-tourism integration, insisting on shaping tourism with culture and highlighting culture through tourism to create uniquely charming Chinese cultural tourism experiences. In 2023, through macroeconomic policy regulation, some results were achieved in regional culture-tourism integration, but relatively little content effectively promoted deep agriculture-culture-tourism integration. The development of agriculture-culture-tourism integration has not comprehensively advanced from the perspectives of integration methods and content characteristics tailored to the digital information age. Scientific and rational promotion, publicity, and planning for the comprehensive integration of agriculture, culture, and tourism industries are needed, along with the establishment of a digital tourism service platform system in China using information technology.

2.2 Lack of Specialized Planning for Digital Art and Agriculture-Culture-Tourism Integration

Current rural revitalization development plans in most regions lack digital processes and specialized projects to promote deep integration of digital agriculture-culture-tourism. During development and upgrading, rural development appears chaotic, lacking professional guidance and planning. Furthermore, the clustering effect of digital art industries has not been realized, with no large-scale digital media industrial parks formed, no competitive digital art tourism projects produced, and no high-quality digital art engineering products. Planning for digital art in agriculture-culture-tourism remains insufficient.

2.3 Insufficient Protection and Inheritance of Traditional Agricultural and Rural Culture

With the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, most villages have significantly improved their environmental appearance and achieved remarkable results in transforming customs. However, attention to inheriting and preserving traditional agricultural culture remains inadequate. In current agricultural tourism development, cultural resources have not been well exploited. Some agriculture-culture-tourism projects focus solely on farmhouse entertainment and picking experiences, with insufficient deep excavation and development of traditional farming culture and local village history, leaving rural tourism lacking cultural connotation. Interaction and penetration among agriculture, tourism, and other industries remain inadequate, with insufficient integration and development across sectors, resulting in weak market competitiveness. Many regionally distinctive farming practices and folk customs are gradually disappearing, with ancient Chinese farming traditions existing only in elderly people's memories and books. Most villages prioritize infrastructure construction and agricultural land development, while many agricultural civilizations and customs are not well preserved and inherited, affecting deep integration of agriculture-culture-tourism.

3.1.1 Construction of Digital Art Display and Exchange Platforms

Deepening digital art and agriculture-culture-tourism integration hinges on building a digital media art platform that integrates display, exchange, and creation. This platform serves not only as an "incubator" for digital media art in rural areas but also as a powerful engine for its popularization and deep development. It provides artists with broad creative and display space, effectively stimulating digital innovation vitality in rural culture while promoting exchange and integration between rural and urban, traditional and modern cultures.

The construction of digital media art platforms presents digital media artworks related to agriculture and rural culture to the public, increasing exposure of agriculture-tourism-related products and expanding their influence to attract investment. Digital art is highly professional and technical, requiring substantial investment of human, financial, and material resources during initial construction and operation. Beyond construction funds, improving network platforms and infrastructure also narrows the urban-rural information gap, attracts talent to support agriculture-culture-tourism construction, encourages more highly educated individuals to return to their hometowns for construction, and creates a virtuous cycle that drives rural tourism economic development.

3.1.2 Improvement and Popularization of Digital Art Technology Facilities

Improving and popularizing digital art technology facilities is crucial for digital art to promote agriculture-culture-tourism development. Digital art encompasses multiple technologies including interaction design, virtual reality, computer animation, and multimedia production. Using advanced computer equipment, professional software and hardware, and specialized sensors, artists can create highly expressive digital artworks that meet contemporary aesthetic standards, ensuring overall quality in agriculture-culture-tourism digital art. Popularizing digital art technology facilities can also enhance rural residents' participation in digital life, allowing more people to engage in digital lifestyles. Using digital art equipment to promote public art construction in public spaces such as history museums, libraries, and rural cultural activity centers improves farmers' digital literacy and cultural participation while unleashing their artistic creation potential, bringing new vitality to rural cultural and creative industries. The construction and improvement of digital art technology facilities not only serve agriculture-culture-tourism development but also benefit multiple fields in rural areas, including agricultural production, tourism promotion, and cultural education.

3.2.1 Digital Artistic Creation Based on Rural Resources

The 2023 Central No. 1 Document made new deployments for rural revitalization in China's new era, proposing high-quality development of rural economic industries by transforming unique rural resources such as natural scenery, folk culture, and traditional crafts into digital artworks to showcase rural charm and characteristics. As China's socio-cultural and economic development accelerates, tourism has become a pillar industry of the social economy, driving economic growth. Rural natural landscapes, tranquil and pleasant rural scenery, and profound human historical accumulations all serve as sources of creative inspiration for designers, who use digital technology to accurately capture and present pristine natural beauty and the unique atmosphere away from urban hustle. Through online promotion and publicity, digital virtual reality technology allows visitors to personally experience the tranquility, beauty, and unique charm of rural areas. In agricultural tourism, digital art creation provides new expressive means for rural folk customs, ancient traditional skills, and rich folk forms. Digital technology fuses traditional cultural elements with contemporary artistic expression, creating works rich in creativity and contemporary flavor. Fully utilizing rural resources for digital art creation can both inherit and carry forward excellent rural traditional culture and promote the development and innovation of rural cultural industries, providing new vitality and momentum for rural revitalization while better preserving rural traditional culture.

3.2.2 Enhancing and Promoting Agriculture-Culture-Tourism Through Digital Art

In the era of network multimedia, using digital art to enhance the value and visibility of agriculture-culture-tourism can accelerate rural revitalization and development. Leveraging its multimedia characteristics, digital art can showcase more creative and technical advantages, presenting rural characteristic resources in trendy and fashionable ways. Digital art can also undertake important tasks in promoting agriculture-culture-tourism. Through digital technologies such as virtual reality and multimedia production, it can more accurately, vividly, and comprehensively present rural natural scenery, human resources, and cultural heritage. Through precise delivery via big data networks, audiences can obtain newer and more comprehensive experiences, substantially improving the visibility and attractiveness of agriculture-culture-tourism. Designers use rich visual elements such as sound, light, and electricity in multimedia to present rural stories and historical-cultural resources in captivating ways, arousing audience interest and emotional resonance. This digital art creation method not only enhances the value of rural resources and rural visibility but also promotes rural diversity and natural resource characteristics, increasing public enthusiasm for participating in agriculture-culture-tourism.

3.3.1 Promoting the Settlement of Digital Art Industry in Rural Areas

To promote collaborative development between the digital art industry and rural tourism economy, the primary task is to actively facilitate widespread promotion of this industry in rural areas. This requires creating a rich digital media art environment in rural areas through exhibitions, seminars, art festivals, and other activities, enabling villagers and tourists to better experience the charm of digital media art. Simultaneously, the state should formulate corresponding measures to encourage and support digital media art companies to establish branches or creative bases in rural areas, fully leveraging rural resources and conditions to produce more works that reflect rural landscapes and disseminate rural culture. Additionally, increasing investment in rural digital infrastructure to improve internet coverage and information transmission rates provides strong technical support for the prosperity and development of digital media and cultural industries in rural areas.

3.3.2 Creating Business Models Integrating Digital Art with Rural Tourism Economy

Constructing a new business model that combines rural tourism with digital art holds important theoretical and practical significance for promoting deep integration of agriculture-culture-tourism, accelerating rural revitalization, and achieving sustainable rural development. With digital technology assistance, rural tourism is no longer limited to simple scenery and folk culture experiences but incorporates more creative and interactive experiences. Visitors can immerse themselves between virtuality and reality, experiencing rich local culture and the infinite charm of modern technology. This combination not only enriches rural tourism content but also greatly enhances visitor engagement and satisfaction, generating more diversified income for rural areas.

Digital art empowering agriculture-culture-tourism development also promotes rural industrial transformation, upgrading, and sustainable development. Using digital technology provides more opportunities to display and sell high-quality agricultural products and handicrafts, expanding sales channels and enhancing brand value. Digital art can also bring new ideas and value to rural tourism. Combined with modern multimedia technology and artistic expression methods, it can transform rural characteristic resources and local culture into products with artistic value and creativity. Digital media art can also enhance rural tourist experiences and charm. Rural areas often possess unique natural scenery, traditional culture, and folk customs, while digital media technology can provide creative and interactive displays for these elements.

3.3.3 Using Digital Art to Inherit and Protect Agricultural Traditional Culture

In strengthening digital art empowerment of agriculture-culture-tourism construction, we must emphasize the protection and inheritance of traditional agricultural culture. Using digital art as a medium, we can not only innovatively present the essence of agricultural traditional culture but also effectively achieve its protection and inheritance. Through cutting-edge digital virtual technology, ancient farming scenes, traditional agricultural tools, and festival customs can be vividly reproduced, giving people a sense of traveling back in time to experience simplicity and wisdom. Digital technology brings static farming culture to life, touching people's hearts in more intuitive and interactive ways and arousing strong public interest in farming culture. Simultaneously, the application of digital and social media further expands dissemination channels for agricultural products, enabling specialty cultures from remote mountainous areas to quickly spread from rural areas to the global stage. This not only enhances the visibility and influence of rural tourism but also provides new opportunities for local economic development and promotes integrated development of rural tourism. Through this approach, we can accurately grasp and preserve the essence of farming culture while creatively inheriting and carrying it forward, allowing this precious cultural heritage to shine more brilliantly in the new era.

Digital art can actively promote transformation in agriculture-culture-tourism product brand image reshaping, publicity and promotion, investment attraction, and service enhancement, providing new ideas for agriculture-culture-tourism development. Agriculture-culture-tourism empowered by digital art creativity and digital media technology can form an entirely new tourism economic growth model with practical development significance. Through digital art empowerment of agriculture-culture-tourism development, relevant units should jointly promote further construction and accelerate the cultivation of new agriculture-culture-tourism forms. Under the rapidly developing new situation of digital networks, agriculture-culture-tourism must persist in fully utilizing the future development advantages of digital art, seize era opportunities, improve management levels, confront realistic challenges, increase policy support and personalized digital art services, and facilitate deep integration of agriculture-culture-tourism to achieve rural revitalization strategy development.

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Author Biographies:
Liu Shaohui (1981—), female, Shandong, Ph.D., Associate Professor, research direction: art design.
Zhang Wenqi (1995—), female, Beijing, M.A., Teaching Assistant, research direction: animation design.