实录丨吴必虎：Byte or Site? 数智化时代的目的地塑造

泰国易三仓大学与北京大学基于中泰教育文化合作，联合共建“文化科技与社会创新实验室”，并于1月17-20日开展系列专项学术交流活动。北京大学城市与环境学院旅游研究与规划中心创始主任吴必虎教授受邀出席并在“文化科技与社会创新国际学术研讨会”作《Byte or Site: Digitalized Destination Making and Marketing》主旨发言。

以下为演讲实录：

Thank you, everybody. I know I only have seven minutes, but I prepared a long PPT. I need two hours. So simply, I think I just want to share a new concept called “Experoutination”. It is a new English vocabulary I created myself.

experoutination =

exploration/experience + route + destination

It came from “the exploration for new knowledge and experience at other place" during the long history of human development. So here, what I want to share with you is that in history, many people travel, and when they travel, they write something. We call it "travel writing". A place like Thailand is described or, you know, drawn in a painting and poems or songs to a place. We collectively refer to these as "place writing". We have a large amount of place writing and travel writing in the library.

谢谢各位。我知道自己只有七分钟的时间，但我准备的 PPT 内容足足能讲两个小时。简而言之，我想分享一个我自创的新概念——“Experoutination”。这个词源于人类漫长发展历程中，在途中与目的地的新知探索（exploration for new knowledge）与异地体验（experience at other place）。历史上，许多人通过旅行留下了文字，我们称之为“游历记录”（travel writing）。而当一个地方——比如泰国，被描绘在诗歌、画作或歌曲中，这些汇集起来的作品，我们则称之为“地方书写”（place writing）。大量的“地方书写”与“游历记录”被收藏在图书馆中。

If we collect all the books in one library, this library could be called “游历图书馆” or “Experoutination Library”. So with this new concept, we discuss the possibility to look at what is helpful for our destination as a tourism attraction. We know some places like Huangshan Mountain or the Great Wall or China's Forbidden City, many places are famous because we have read something in a library, in a book, watch the TV or a film. Last night, I saw the film "The Bridge on the River Kwai", shared by Professor Xiang Yong in the WeChat group. I'm very moved by the film. And why is the bridge Kwai or the Guihe Qiao so famous? Because we have stories, we have films, we have, you know, many media to promote or to bring the information to everybody's mind or brain.

若将这些书籍汇集一处，便可称之为“游历图书馆”或“Experoutination Library”。借由这一新概念，我们可以进一步探讨地方书写如何助力旅游目的地的发展。众所周知，黄山、长城或故宫之所以闻名世界，常常是因为我们从书籍、或影视作品中获得了对它们的认知。昨晚，我观看了向勇教授在微信群分享的电影《桂河大桥》，深受触动。桂河大桥为何如此出名？正是因为我们拥有相关的故事、电影以及各类媒体的传播，使这些信息深深印入每个人的脑海。

With the knowledge that people tell you in a book, not only in a book, but also from words and poems inscribed on stones. And we also store the information in the film, in a tape, in a painting , or something like that. So there are so many ways to collect or to store or to record the information about a place. So what is changed by the new technology? For example, information and the smart tourism and something like that. So that's why we have a lab at Assumption University—the "Cultural Technology and Social Innovation Lab". It is faced with a challenge.

关于一个地方的信息不仅载于书籍，有时也镌刻在石碑的文字、诗篇之中。此外，信息也可以通过电影、磁带、绘画等多种媒介得以保存。由此可见，收集、储存或记录地域信息的方式极为丰富。那么，新技术带来了哪些改变？在信息传播与智慧旅游等领域。由此，我们在易三仓大学设立了一个实验室——文化科技与社会创新实验室。它 正面临着一些挑战。

So many things change every day, but some things never change anywhere. For example, why people want to travel to the Guihe bridge on the River Kwai? Because it is a "place". People have a feeling or have a mindset that makes them want to go to the site. So the site is very very important. People want to travel to a special site. So the site never changes because we know something about a site for a physical or human geography, but also we have something that, yes, you could take a picture or have all the information digitalized. But if you cannot go to the special site, you will be, you know, have some distance from the story, the history, and the civilization. So that site or the significance or the importance never change.

因此，有些事物日新月异，但也有些东西在任何地方都恒久不变。人们为何向往桂河大桥？因为那是真实的“地方”。人们渴望亲临其境，这份“地方感”至关重要且无可替代。虽然数字化能让我们获取信息，但若无法亲临现场，便始终与故事、历史和文明隔着一层距离。因此，“地方感”的独特意义永恒不变。

We have a professor called Yi-Fu Tuan. He is a Chinese-American. He was famous for his concept o f “topophilia” in humanistic geography, or the people, everybody have been attached to some place, the place where you were born, the place where you got your degree. For example, all the alumni from Peking University or Assumption University, they would like to go back to visit where they were fostered. So this is a place attachment, a place, you know, "topophilia". Topophilia is very important and never changes in history or in the cultural industry or tourism industry. But another thing changes very often, that is technology.

著名美籍华裔学者段义孚教授提出了人文地理学中的“恋地情节”概念，每个人都对某些地方怀有情感联系，比如你的出生地、你获得学位的地方。例如，北大或易三仓大学的校友总想回母校看看，这就是一种地方依恋，或者说恋地情结。这种恋地情结在文化和旅游产业中举足轻重且历久弥新。而技术，则经常发生变革。

So all the people in many conferences these days, these two years, people have talked about what impact of the AI is, artificial intelligence, will change or impact or relocate the job. You know, people worry about where we could find a job. Even though you got a PhD from Peking University, it doesn't mean that you could find a job, because many professorship, many human vocation will be changed or replaced by the AI industry. So AI could h elp us to make a film with less cost, but this raises another question: what is art in the future? To me, leisure studies and art studies or art making is a way to solve the problem that many people lost their jobs because of AI. So why are tourism and leisure important? Because people don't need to get a job. We cannot find that solving approach for a new employment of creativity. Creative new job is very difficult, but sometimes something from the aspect of art, creating, could help. Some people do some art job, some other people enjoy what the artist made.

近两年来，各类会议都在热议人工智能对就业的冲击与重塑。人们担忧何去何从，即便拥有北大博士学位，也未必能高枕无忧，因为许多职位正面临被人工智能取代的风险。AI 确实能降低电影制作成本，但这让我们反思：未来的艺术究竟是什么？在我看来，休闲研究与艺术创作，或许是应对 AI 时代就业挑战的一剂良方。为何旅游与休闲如此重要？当传统的就业模式难以为继，创造性的新工作又求之不得时，艺术创作或许能开辟新径——一部分人从事艺术创作，另一部分人则享受这些艺术成果。

So that's my answer to what's the site and what's the byte. The byte changes everything, but the site attracts people for long time. Thank you very much.

这就是我对 “Byte or Site?” 这一命题的回答：字节改变了一切，但地方却能长久地凝聚人心。非常感谢大家!

受聘担任易三仓大学—北京大学“文化科技与社会创新实验室”博士生导师

易三仓大学副校长Dr. Kitti Phothikitti（左）

北京大学城市与环境学院吴必虎教授（右）

2026年1月19日