GRE® essay: Media v/s Tourism (Issue)

[Sprasad89]

"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."


My reaction to this issue can be summed up in one statement – “Just because you get pizza in every nook and corner of the city, you don’t stop traveling to Italy”. The fear that tourism will become obsolete is pretty much baseless. The increase in familiarity with the new places will in fact, in my opinion, give a further boost to the tourism economy.

To support my stand on this issue, let us consider the primary basis of tourism. More often than not, people go on a tour to get distracted from their daily hectic routine and not because they need some extensive knowledge of that place. The television and the computer technologies can provide the required knowledge but they cannot substitute for the experience one gains by traveling.

On the contrary, instead of becoming obsolete, the advent of media in the form of television and Internet services via computer will help in the promotion of tourism. The marketing of the tourism packages through different media is becoming one of the main forms of attracting people to a country’s tourist spots.

Many countries like Singapore and Thailand rely heavily on tourism for their economic growth and this has been made possible through the media. Locations, which were never heard of before the last decade, are becoming increasingly familiar and thus turning into potential tourist attractions.

Being a resident of India, I can strongly advocate the necessity to project the wide diversity of the country to the outside world. Not many people would have been aware of the sheer vastness of this country both in terms of area and culture about half a century earlier. The main difference is the increased interest that the government has shown in the tourism sector through different ad campaigns.

However, there might be certain cases, though not many, wherein a person might want to travel to a place to explore its cultural or historical significance. In these cases there might be chances of the concerned information being made available through different media, thus negating the need to travel. But in any case, such a small number of cases cannot result in the extinction of tourism.

Tourism has been, and will always remain, one of the strongholds of a nation’s economy. The advent of media will just help in expanding this sector and not diminish its significance. It is the responsibility of the local administration to utilize this growing influence of the media to the best interests of the country’s tourism.

[Kitosdad]

Great work Sprasad. I think you did a great job with this one.
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