實錄丨吳必虎：Byte or Site? 數智化時代的目的地塑造

泰國易三倉大學與北京大學基于中泰教育文化合作，聯合共建“文化科技與社會創新實驗室”，并于1月17-20日開展系列專項學術交流活動。北京大學城市與環境學院旅游研究與規劃中心創始主任吳必虎教授受邀出席并在“文化科技與社會創新國際學術研討會”作《Byte or Site: Digitalized Destination Making and Marketing》主旨發言。

以下為演講實錄：

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.

謝謝各位。我知道自己只有七分鐘的時間，但我準備的 PPT 內容足足能講兩個小時。簡而言之，我想分享一個我自創的新概念——“Experoutination”。這個詞源于人類漫長發展歷程中，在途中與目的地的新知探索（exploration for new knowledge）與異地體驗（experience at other place）。歷史上，許多人通過旅行留下了文字，我們稱之為“游歷記錄”（travel writing）。而當一個地方——比如泰國，被描繪在詩歌、畫作或歌曲中，這些匯集起來的作品，我們則稱之為“地方書寫”（place writing）。大量的“地方書寫”與“游歷記錄”被收藏在圖書館中。

If we collect all the books in one library, this library could be called “游歷圖書館” 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.

若將這些書籍匯集一處，便可稱之為“游歷圖書館”或“Experoutination Library”。借由這一新概念，我們可以進一步探討地方書寫如何助力旅游目的地的發展。眾所周知，黃山、長城或故宮之所以聞名世界，常常是因為我們從書籍、或影視作品中獲得了對它們的認知。昨晚，我觀看了向勇教授在微信群分享的電影《桂河大橋》，深受觸動。桂河大橋為何如此出名？正是因為我們擁有相關的故事、電影以及各類媒體的傳播，使這些信息深深印入每個人的腦海。

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.

關于一個地方的信息不僅載于書籍，有時也鐫刻在石碑的文字、詩篇之中。此外，信息也可以通過電影、磁帶、繪畫等多種媒介得以保存。由此可見，收集、儲存或記錄地域信息的方式極為豐富。那么，新技術帶來了哪些改變？在信息傳播與智慧旅游等領域。由此，我們在易三倉大學設立了一個實驗室——文化科技與社會創新實驗室。它 正面臨著一些挑戰。

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，有些事物日新月異，但也有些東西在任何地方都恒久不變。人們為何向往桂河大橋？因為那是真實的“地方”。人們渴望親臨其境，這份“地方感”至關重要且無可替代。雖然數字化能讓我們獲取信息，但若無法親臨現場，便始終與故事、歷史和文明隔著一層距離。因此，“地方感”的獨特意義永恒不變。

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.

著名美籍華裔學者段義孚教授提出了人文地理學中的“戀地情節”概念，每個人都對某些地方懷有情感聯系，比如你的出生地、你獲得學位的地方。例如，北大或易三倉大學的校友總想回母校看看，這就是一種地方依戀，或者說戀地情結。這種戀地情結在文化和旅游產業中舉足輕重且歷久彌新。而技術，則經常發生變革。

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.

近兩年來，各類會議都在熱議人工智能對就業的沖擊與重塑。人們擔憂何去何從，即便擁有北大博士學位，也未必能高枕無憂，因為許多職位正面臨被人工智能取代的風險。AI 確實能降低電影制作成本，但這讓我們反思：未來的藝術究竟是什么？在我看來，休閑研究與藝術創作，或許是應對 AI 時代就業挑戰的一劑良方。為何旅游與休閑如此重要？當傳統的就業模式難以為繼，創造性的新工作又求之不得時，藝術創作或許能開辟新徑——一部分人從事藝術創作，另一部分人則享受這些藝術成果。

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.

這就是我對 “Byte or Site?” 這一命題的回答：字節改變了一切，但地方卻能長久地凝聚人心。非常感謝大家!

受聘擔任易三倉大學—北京大學“文化科技與社會創新實驗室”博士生導師

易三倉大學副校長Dr. Kitti Phothikitti（左）

北京大學城市與環境學院吳必虎教授（右）

2026年1月19日