<p>As an emerging technology in recent years, virtual reality technology has penetrated people’s fields of material production and life. Nowadays, with the development of technology, the impact of virtual reality technology on the tourism industry is becoming more and more obvious. This paper sorts out and studies the literature of virtual reality and virtual tourism in the past 50 years, discusses the definition of virtual reality and the development of virtual reality technology, sorts out the virtual tourism literature in chronological order, and summarizes the four development stages of virtual tourism. Finally, the existing developments and shortcomings are summarized, and some suggestions for future development are proposed.</p>