Band 6.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-09-19

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 6.5)

While tourism has rapidly expanded into a major driver of global economic growth, its detrimental impacts on local heritage and ecosystems are frequently overlooked. I fully agree with this view, as the relentless pursuit of tourism revenue often leads to cultural degradation and environmental damage.

To begin with, tourism have a profound impact on the economy of the countries around the globe. More precisely, tourists spend significant amount of money on flights, accommodations, transports, also to purchase other goods and services. Owing to this, tourism helps in creating a number of job opportunities for the locals and provides support to the local businesses. For example, foreigners eating at a local restaurant and buying multiple items from local shops can help boost the livelihood of the residents of the country. As a result, tourism helps in increasing the revenue of the country through financial gains.

Nevertheless, the detrimental effects tourism have on the local cultures and the natural habitat are usually ignored by the authorities and the public. The primary reason is that they are transient visitors and they do not feel any connection or responsibilty to the destinations because they are anonymous over there. Therefore, they carelessly discard plastic packaging and plastic water bottles everywhere without considering the negative impacts it will have on the soil and the nearby water bodies like river and lakes. This is because plastic is non-biodegradeable product which stays in landfills and in water for hundreds of years and releases toxic chemicals into the land.

In addition to this, visitors some time even disregard the religious and traditional values of the citizens by wearing unappropriate attires in a temple. For instance, individual wearing shorts or not covering their heads properly in the religious places, where locals might get offended or disrespectful. Consequently, it hurts the traditional values and harms the enviornment.

In conclusion, although economy is enhanced through tourism by providing employment and helping local businesses, it deteriorates the local cultures and the environment. This is mainly done by the careless attitude of the travellers towards the destinations and traditioanl hotspots.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response — Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task by discussing both the economic benefits of tourism and the negative impacts on culture and the environment. You take a clear position ("I fully agree with this view") and maintain it throughout the essay. The ideas are generally well extended and supported with relevant examples, such as foreigners eating at local restaurants and tourists discarding plastic bottles. However, some arguments lack deep development, and the conclusion slightly blurs the balance by jumping back to the economic benefits before summarising. Overall, the response meets the criteria for a Band 6.5 to 7.0 by covering all parts of the task with a clear position and supported ideas, though some expansion and precision are lacking.

Coherence and Cohesion — Band 6.5

The essay has a clear logical organisation and progression throughout. Information and ideas are divided logically into paragraphs, starting with an introduction, moving to the economic benefits, then the environmental and cultural drawbacks, and finishing with a conclusion. Cohesive devices such as "To begin with", "Nevertheless", "In addition to this", and "In conclusion" are used effectively to guide the reader. However, referencing is occasionally imprecise, and there are some awkward transitions, such as in the fourth paragraph ("For instance, individual wearing shorts..."). Paragraphing is used sufficiently and appropriately, maintaining an overall coherent arrangement that aligns well with the Band 7 descriptors.

Lexical Resource — Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as "relentless pursuit", "cultural degradation", "transient visitors", and "non-biodegradable product". However, there are noticeable word-choice and spelling errors that prevent a higher score, such as "responsibilty" instead of responsibility, "non-biodegradeable" instead of non-biodegradable, "unappropriate" instead of inappropriate, and "attires" (attire is usually uncountable). Additionally, phrases like "significant amount of money" miss the article ("a significant amount"). Despite these inaccuracies, communication is never impeded, placing your lexical resource firmly at a Band 6.0.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy — Band 6.0

The response demonstrates a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, including conditional or participial clauses like "Owing to this, tourism helps in..." and "...while tourism has rapidly expanded...". However, there are several grammatical errors scattered throughout the essay. For instance, subject-verb agreement errors occur in "tourism have a profound impact" and "the detrimental effects tourism have". Punctuation and article errors also appear, such as "economy is enhanced through tourism" (missing an article) and "individual wearing shorts... where locals might get offended or disrespectful" (faulty clause structure). These errors persist but do not impede communication, which reflects the Band 6 descriptor.

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