The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: September fourth, contemplating the two faces of tourism.

It's a variation on Heisenberg's Principle of Uncertainty. When travelers flock to a destination, it inevitably changes to accommodate them. Some changes can be considered improvements; others degrade factors which made that someplace desirable to live or visit.

This is not a new development. The world is littered with once popular resort areas whose native attractiveness was overwhelmed by waves of visitors. Preserving places from mass tourism has taken on new urgency in the last 40 years. Fueled by jet travel, super highways, increasing wealth and exploding populations, travel and tourism has become the world's largest industry. By 2010, people will be making a billion international trips a year, and five billion in their own nations.

Witness some modern tourist magnets. Orlando's theme park sprawl has made it the world's busiest travel destination. Once a low rise, high-end tourist enclave, Cancun is a high-rise mega-resort providing cheap trips to the greatest number of people. Las Vegas, Nevada; Branson, Missouri; and Gatlinburg, Tenessee have become vast rural amusement centers whose primary attraction is irrelevant to their locations.

Adventurous travelers are flocking to remote corners of the planet, from Mexico's Copper Canyon to Indonesian islands, hungry to experience new places and people. Residents of those corners are generally hungry for the money and development visitors bring. The future of these places depends on the commitment of tourism entrepreneurs to preserve their essential character. And it depends on the choices travelers make about where they go and what they do.

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