(Yicai) June 20 -- Shanghai has unveiled Easy Go, an English-language comprehensive digital platform designed to enhance the travel experience for international visitors, who have increased thanks to China's introduction of visa-free policies with multiple countries.

Easy Go consolidates 30 commonly used apps and tools from 24 providers, including food, transport, attractions, shopping, luggage storage, tax refund, and mapping services, into a single interface. It will be available on online payment app Alipay on July 2.

The initiative originated in February during a consultative session hosted by Shanghai's foreign affairs office, which invited expats to provide suggestions on improving services for international visitors and residents. It aims to address digital barriers that international travelers often face when navigating China's advanced but fragmented digital ecosystem.

"The foreign affairs group was able to create this whole platform in three or four months' time, which was amazing, particularly because we gave them a list of things that we thought would be helpful," said Jessica Gleeson, chief executive officer of Shanghai-based skincare solutions provider BrighterBeauty. She has been living in China since 2007 and served as an international experience officer during Easy Go's development.

Gleeson tested the platform with her 80-year-old mother, who provided detailed input on the beta version. "She was very impressed because in the sections that she was able to do beta testing in, she could see all of the feedback that she sent in," Gleeson noted. "She sent in a page of feedback that was being acted on and quickly updated into the app."

Easy Go meets diverse user needs, according to Gleeson. "Different people who come to Shanghai have very different measures of success," she added. "What my mom wants is being able to go find the museums, but what my niece, who's 20, wants is to be able to go find Pop Mart."

"I find the concept of Easy Go very, very interesting because of how it connects so many different technology ecosystems into one platform," said Jacob Aldaco, news editor at Shanghai Daily, who has lived in Shanghai for 18 years.

"If you don't want to go through the trouble of downloading several individual apps to take care of multiple different functions, Easy Go is a great way to just have everything that you need for daily life in one app," he added.

"Easy Go is a breakthrough app for foreigners," said Beecher Ashley-Brown, CEO of leading Chinese recruitment technology provider Ajinga. "It unlocks futuristic convenience and intelligence of China's very advanced world-beating digital ecosystem.

"I think visiting China has never been more convenient with Easy Go,” he added. "It's more digital, it's more fun, it's more convenient. Easy Go, easy stay."

According to data from Shanghai's culture and tourism bureau, the city received 1.74 million inbound visitors in the first quarter of this year, up over 37 percent from a year earlier.

Editor: Futura Costaglione