Virtual reality is advancing at an unprecdented rate, effecting a vast domain of human life, including travels. The VR prevalence does have its pros and cons, as every phenomenon does. In this essay, I will explore bothe the advantages and disadvantages of VR and its impacts on both the explorers and hosting destinations.
There are multitude of touristic destinations that individuals wish to visit, while they are not able to do, due to multiple reasons, such as, geographical distance, busy schedule, or economic reasons. Virtual reality, makes the out of reach scenes available and affordable. For example, not every one has the opportunity to visit Amazon forests, while a VR tour makes it possible. However, definitely the quality of VR experience is questioned, and obviously it cannot compete with the real experience of travel, from a comprative point of view. Richness of an experience highly depends on that how many of one’s senses and to the what extent are engaged. Therefore, the depth and richness of experience is an aspect that VR fails in, and even with progressive trend of technology, the gap between the real experience and artificiall experience remains unfilled.
Furthermore, local communities will face serious economic drawbacks, since tourism is a significant source of income for lots of them. Tourism enhances economy through both the tourists’ expenditure and the job opportunities for local people, which gets at risk, by continuous growth of VR.
In conclusion, I assert that despite its affordability and accessibility, VR cannot be an appropriate alternative of real experience. Moreover, it can harm local bussiness, which relys on touristic income.