International tourism is booming: millions of tourists go to other countries to explore the outside world.  Tourism enhances the mutual understanding between the local people and tourists. Some people hold opposite opinions.  They think that international tourism causes tension rather than promoting understanding between people from different cultures. 

     The people holding the latter view suppose that tourists are likely to offend the local people because of the lack of knowledge of the local customs, which differ from their own.  Moreover, tourism inevitably harms the natural resources and the cultural legacy, which may lead to the resentment of the local people.

     However, I can hardly assent to this idea: the above mentioned rarely happens.  In my opinion, international tourism does encourage the understanding between people from different countries.  For one thing, without going to see for themselves, people may never know what other countries are really like and thus can be misled by hearsay or films and TV programmes, which, more often than not, are one-sided.  For instance, one of my American friends told me that most Americans had a strange bias against the Russian people until some young Americans traveled to Russia and saw with their own eyes that the Russians are human beings just like them.  Another example is that, with the development of Chinese tourism, people outside China start to realize that Chinese men no longer have long braids and Chinese women’s feet are of normal size now. Secondly, having seen the fine scenery or experienced the rich culture of other countries, tourists will have the desire to develop a good relationship with the locals, which certainly contributes to the understanding between them.

     In conclusion, instead of causing tension, international tourism furthers the understanding of people from different countries. (281 words)