In the recent years, there is a trend of ‘responsible tourism’, which pays attention to both local culture and environment. However, there are still people who think that ‘responsible tourism’ is impossible to implement in reality. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give your opinion and examples
Sample Response
Tourism is a unique human activity, experienced by millions of people worldwide every year. As people differ in their attitude towards almost everything in life, the same applies also to tourism; where some treat tourism globally as the focus of their act without scrutinising the other related activities pertaining to it. Hence, the term 'responsible tourism" emerged; in order to pay a sufficient attention of the tourist to the local cultural values of the destination country, and – more globally – to the environment. From my point of view, tourism must be treatedlabelled as a "responsible activity"; even if this requireseven if it is mandatory to issue extensive local and international legislationas many local and international legislations to make it so.
When travellingWhile making tourism, should the tourist bring their own culture to a foreign countrycarry his culture with him to the foreign country? Obviously, the answer is "No". If the tourist insists on doing this, they will surely expose themselveshe will sure subject himself to great dangers especially in communities with intolerant local citizens. One of the best examples of this is the "thumbs-upThump Up" sign which is widely usedgreatly practised in many countries: in the USA, this sign meansmany countries; where this sign is USA means "OK or very good"; while it is considered very crudeconsidered as very crude and impolite in Greece (which is a famous touristtouristic destination). Thus, it is crucial to teach touriststeach the tourists which common practices they must avoida list of common practices that they must refrain from doing, and to explain whyexplaining the reasons behind this.
When it comes to the environment, it is indeed very unfortunate to find that the touristtouristic areas are those with the highest levels of pollution and litter.the greatest pollution and litter output! A few years ago, it was striking thatit was really surprising that an international campaign of volunteers aimed to clear the trash from the Himalayasclean the Himalayas from the trash left by the climbers.
In conclusion, tourism should be dealt with in the same way as freedom; that it must be "responsible", respecting both the local cultural and environmental values of each society.
Why this response received Band 6.0
The response’s strongest feature is its concrete illustration of cultural and environmental responsibility through examples involving gestures and Himalayan litter. Its main limitation is task focus: it argues that tourism should be responsible but does not directly explain why responsible tourism is realistically implementable or engage with the claim that it is impossible. The highest priority is to make that disagreement explicit and develop practical mechanisms showing how responsible behaviour could be achieved.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
A consistent view and relevant cultural and environmental examples are provided, but the central question of practical implementability is only indirectly addressed.
Directly refute the impossibility claim by explaining how education, regulation, or enforcement could make responsible tourism workable in practice.
Coherence and Cohesion
The essay follows a clear introduction–culture–environment–conclusion sequence, although the environmental discussion is brief and some links are awkward.
Balance the two body sections by fully explaining the environmental example and connect each paragraph explicitly to the feasibility argument.
Lexical Resource
The response attempts a useful range of topic-specific and less common vocabulary, but frequent collocational inaccuracies reduce precision and naturalness.
Use standard expressions such as ‘engage in tourism’, ‘tourist destinations’, ‘pay attention to’, and ‘pass legislation’.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Both simple and complex structures are attempted, but recurring article, preposition, punctuation, and clause-construction errors remain noticeable.
Prioritise complete sentence boundaries and check articles and prepositions in longer sentences before using semicolons or embedded clauses.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
In the recent years, there is a trend of ‘responsible tourism’, which pays attention to both local culture and environment. However, there are still people who think that ‘responsible tourism’ is impossible to implement in reality. To what extent do you agree or disagree? Give your opinion and examples
Your response
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