Issue150 【Persistence 小组】第二十一次作业，这篇相对有话可说

欣馨之火UID: 2183210

150. "Because of television and worldwide computer connections, people can now become familiar with a great many places that they have never visited. As a result, tourism will soon become obsolete."


In this era of rapid scientific and technological change, it is more convenient for our modern people not only to communicate with people from different places, even the locations very far from ours, but also to recognize the world around us. In this situation, some person, like the speaker, claims that tourism will soon become obsolete for television and worldwide computer connections have enabled people familiar with places that they have never visited. Although products of developed technology provide us many ways which we have never seen before to get acquaintance of strange place, I do not think that tourism will disappear for the reasons below.

To begin with, it is impossible for a person to deeply appreciate the beauty of a sight or the culture and tradition of a famous place without being to there. For example, no matter how many details about Jiuzhaigou Ravine, the most famous sight in Sichuan Province of China, have been given by the video or pictures provided via television or the Internet, one can never feel the blandness of the water without touching it. Take Brazil--the so called 'Kingdom of Soccer'--for another example, an enthusiastic soccer fan would never understand Brazilian soccer culture and passion if he/she has never been to there. Therefore, tourism can give people deeper feeling not just familiarity of a place.

Though people can be familiar with a great many places with televisions and the Internet, some people prefer to take a journey only for changing their moods caused by the current surroundings which is too familiar to them. Empiricism tells us that one person will easily feel very tired when he/she spent too much time on getting along with a same surrounding. In order to regain energy and refresh themselves, people would like to have a journey not because they want to get familiar to the target location, but for enjoy themselves with the journey. Sometimes, to avoid that the thing remind one of its owner after some miserable accidents, people would prefer going to a strange place, no matter where it is, for the pursuit of new mood, usually a happier one, than staying at where they were.

Admittedly, televisions and the Internet provide individuals wider opportunities to sense more places considering the limits of one's time and money. However, the ultimate goal of tourism is not the knowledge or familiarity of one place. It is something about feeling the beauty, sparking the spirit and purchasing consolation. It is something that maintains the existence of tourism.

In the final analysis, tourism will never become obsolete because its various functions cannot be replaced completely with the video, voice and pictures offered by modern technology. A true tourist will never stop purchasing, touching and feeling the most beautiful things which can give us heartquakes.