PolyU RCdTT Strengthens Global Smart Hospitality Leadership with Beijing Strategic Initiatives

BEIJING, 28 March 2026 — The Research Centre for Digital Transformation of Tourism (RCdTT) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) has wrapped a series of milestone industry engagements in Beijing, solidifying its role as the academic leader for global hospitality digital transformation.

The centrepiece of the three-day itinerary was a landmark tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing at the prestigious Zhongguancun (ZGC) Forum — China’s top-tier science and innovation summit — on 27 March. Partnering with global service robotics leader Yunji Technology (HKEX: 2670) and Hong Kong-based AI hospitality specialist - Blue Pin International, RCdTT will serve as the academic core of the alliance, pioneering the industry’s first end-to-end Predictive Hospitality framework.

The collaboration leverages RCdTT’s evidence-based hospitality research, paired with Yunji’s global robotic ecosystem and Blue Pin’s proprietary Jahvis AI guest intelligence platform. It also marks the first closed-loop ecosystem integrating academic research, hardware innovation, and data intelligence ever built for the service robotics industry — an alliance rooted in deep industry-academia integration that accelerates the strategic global expansion of China’s smart hospitality solutions.

"We are genuinely excited to join hands with Yunji Technology and Blue Pin International in this forward-looking collaboration. As an academic research institution deeply rooted in the hospitality industry, RCdTT has long been committed to bridging the gap between scholarly inquiry and real-world industry application. This tripartite cooperation leverages the complementary strengths of academia and industry in a uniquely powerful way — allowing us to translate cutting-edge research findings into practical, scalable smart solutions for hotels, and to drive the high-quality digital transformation of the global hospitality industry"  said Professor Haiyan SONG---, Director of RCdTT, Associate Dean (Research) and Chair Professor of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, Mr and Mrs Chan Chak Fu Professor in International Tourism.

Ahead of the ZGC Forum signing, the RCdTT delegation — led by Director of RCdTT Professor Haiyan Song, Associate Director Professor Dan Wang and Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Mei Yang — held a targeted exchange with a leading digital and hospitality marketing service provider - Zhiketong Technology – on the morning of 27 March. RCdTT shared its interdisciplinary research capabilities and global collaboration network, while Zhiketong presented its on-the-ground AI solutions for China’s hospitality and tourism businesses. Both sides expressed clear interest in future collaborative research and international expansion initiatives.

On 28 March, the RCdTT team convened at Yunji’s Beijing headquarters for a full progress review of the RCdTT-Yunji Joint Research Lab, covering deliverables from October 2024 to March 2026. RCdTT Associate Director, Professor Dan Wang presented key milestones, including two large-scale studies on robotics in the hospitality industry and an upcoming publication of an industry white paper. The two parties aligned concrete next steps to advance pilot deployments, industry outreach, and research dissemination. At the meeting Blue Pin International also introduced their Hotel Intelligent Check-in systems. Representatives of RCdTT, Yunji Technology and Blue Pin International agree to further explore the collaborative initiatives after the signing of the MoU.  

These engagements advance RCdTT’s core mission to bridge academic research and real-world industry practice, driving inclusive, sustainable digital transformation across the global hospitality and tourism sector.