旅游本质就是指旅游这一事物固有的,决定旅游的性质、面貌和发展的根本属性。纵览文献,笔者发现国内外学者们对旅游本质的认识也是见仁见智、莫衷一是。本文在前人相关研究的基础上,仅以二战以后形成和发展起来的现当代大众旅游本质为研究对象,用海德格尔的存在主义进行一番哲学释义。论文在分析现当代大众旅游产生的历史背景、现实条件和个人动机的基础上指出,旅游的本质是一种生存活动,现当代大众旅游是一种试图逃避沉沦和异化的生存活动。现当代旅游是以社会的病态发展和人的异化为前提的,是科学技术发展的必然产物。同时指出现代旅游的产生和发展也是阶段性的,是特定历史时期的产物,有着其产生、发展和衰亡的历史规律。 The essence of tourism refers to the inherent nature of tourism, which determines the nature, appearance and development of tourism. Throughout the literature, I found that both domestic and foreign scholars’ understanding of the nature of tourism is also a matter of opinion. Based on the related research of predecessors, this article only takes the nature of modern mass tourism formed and developed after the Second World War as the research object, and uses Heidegger’s existentialism to conduct some philosophical interpretation. Based on the analysis of the historical background, realistic conditions and personal motivation of modern mass tourism, the thesis points out that the essence of tourism is a kind of survival activity, and modern mass tourism is a kind of survival activity trying to avoid sinking and alienation. Modern and contemporary tourism is based on the pathological development of society and the alienation of human beings as the prerequisite, which is the inevitable product of the development of science and technology. At the same time, it points out that the emergence and development of modern tourism is also a stage, a product of a specific historical period, and a historical law of its emergence, development and decline.