Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-05

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Tourism is one of the fastest growing industries and contributes a great deal to economies around the world. However, the damage tourism can cause to local cultures and the environment is often ignored.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Student answer (Band 6.0)

The advent of convenient and affordable travel worldwide has made tourism a booming sector for many countries. It is one of the most rapidly growing industries and has resulted in economic booms for many countries around the world. However, some people argue that tourism’s impact on a country’s traditions and environment is often overlooked. I completely agree with this statement and will discuss it further in the upcoming passages.

Tourism’s effects on the local cultures of a country are very damaging as tourism facilitates the commercialization of the culture. To be more clear, in countries where they receive a large number of tourists, many aspects of their culture like local deities, rituals and many more are made into physical items and sold as souvenirs to the tourists. This results in their meaning being degraded. Consequently, native people perceive their rituals and deities in a lesser manner.

The environmental impacts of tourism are also very adverse. Its effect are most pronounced at tourist hotspots. These places receive a large influx of people and are usually not well accommodated for this. This results in the littering of the surroundings and disturbance of the local way of life. This phenomenon is most pronounced in Greece, where many of its famous beaches are riddled with trash as there are not enough trash bins to accommodate the waste from the tourists.

In conclusion, tourism can have very adverse effects for a country’s culture and environment. It degrades the traditions through commercialization and has a very bad impact on the surroundings.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.0

You have clearly stated your position and addressed both the cultural and environmental aspects of the prompt. However, the development of your ideas is somewhat limited. While you provide a specific example regarding Greece, the explanation of cultural commercialization remains a bit general. To reach a higher band, ensure that each body paragraph provides a more detailed exploration of the consequences. For instance, you could elaborate on how the 'degradation of meaning' specifically affects the social fabric of a community. Your response is well-focused, but expanding the depth of your arguments would make your position more persuasive and fully developed.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

Your essay follows a logical structure with a clear introduction, two body paragraphs, and a conclusion. You use basic cohesive devices such as 'Consequently', 'However', and 'To be more clear' to link your ideas. While the progression is logical, the use of cohesive devices is sometimes a bit mechanical. To improve, try to vary your transitions and ensure that the relationship between sentences is more fluid. The paragraphing is appropriate, and each paragraph maintains a clear central topic, which helps the reader follow your argument without confusion.

Lexical Resource — Band 5.5

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, using terms like 'commercialization', 'adverse', and 'pronounced'. However, there are some instances of repetitive or slightly imprecise word choices, such as 'lesser manner' or 'not well accommodated'. To achieve a higher score, aim to incorporate more sophisticated collocations and topic-specific vocabulary. For example, instead of 'very damaging', you could use 'detrimental' or 'deleterious'. Your spelling is accurate throughout, and your vocabulary is sufficient to convey your meaning clearly, even if it lacks a degree of academic flair.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence structures. While your meaning is always clear, there are some minor grammatical slips, such as 'Its effect are' (should be 'Its effects are') and 'in countries where they receive' (which is slightly redundant). You have a good grasp of basic grammar, but to reach a higher band, you should aim for more complex sentence variety and ensure that subject-verb agreement is consistently accurate. Despite these occasional errors, your writing is easy to follow and the errors do not impede communication.

See this exact question answered at other band scores — the same prompt compared across bands.

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