Virtual Reality in Tourism: Entertainment or a Paradigm Shift?

From the analysis of possible tourism configurations, based on the Virtual Reality [VR], this text seeks to understand if the human relationship with the technological interfaces of VR in tourism is perceived as entertainment, or if there is a paradigmatic change in this context. It is assumed that changes in the social and economic arrangements cause transmutations in tourism (Schwab, 2016; Molina, 2003; Rejowski and Yasoshima, 2002). If, in the pitch of tourism studies, there are characteristics of movement / displacement, length and pleasure, the advent of the Internet and the technological advances that open the field for Virtual Reality may be [re]configuring tourism, as these features propose also new forms of displacement, permanence and pleasure, from the use of technological resources. Therefore, what at first sight is understood as forms of entertainment may actually be establishing new ways of doing tourism as well as a paradigm shift.