Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-06

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)

Toursim is growing rapidly around the world and provides many economic benefits. However, it can also cause serious damage to local cultures and the environment. I agree to a large extent that these negative effects are often ignored because it impact on local cultures and traditional and environment .

One major disadvantage of tourism is its negative impact on local cultures and traditions. when a large number of tourists visit a place , local people may gradually change their traditional lifestyle to meet visitors expectations. for eaxmple, traditonal food , clothing and customs may become commercialised for tourists. As a result, local communities may gradually lose their cultural identity. Therefore, uncountrolled tourism can have a harmful effect on traditional cultures, promote cultural exchange .

On the other hand, it can also cause considerable damage to the environment . large number of visitors produce more waste, increase pollution and consume natural reesources. the construction of hotels, roads and other faacilities caan also destory natural habitats.

The deomstrates sthat economic development through tourism can come at the expenses of environmental protection. however, tourism provides important ecconomic benefits , such as employment opportunities , income for local businesses and government revenue. therefore , governments should promote substinable tourism and introduce strict regulations to protect thee environment while maintaining these economic advantages.

In conclusion,I largely agree that the harmful effects of tourism on local cultures and the environment are often overlooked. although tourism makes an important contribution to economies, it should be properly managed so that economic development does not lead to cultural and environmental destruction.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

The response addresses all parts of the task and presents a clear position throughout, stating agreement to a large extent. The main ideas regarding the negative impacts of tourism on local cultures and the environment are relevant and supported with examples, such as traditional food and customs becoming commercialised and increased waste production. However, some parts of the argument are under-developed or briefly expressed, reflecting the characteristics of this level where ideas lack full extension. For instance, the mention of cultural exchange is somewhat confusingly appended to a sentence about harmful effects. To reach a higher band, the writer needs to provide more thoroughly developed explanations and fully explore each supporting point without logical lapses.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The response demonstrates a coherent overall arrangement with a clear progression of ideas across paragraphs, moving from cultural impacts to environmental concerns, and finally to economic benefits and sustainable solutions. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate different facets of the prompt. However, cohesion at times feels mechanical or faulty, as seen with abrupt transitions like 'The deomstrates sthat' and repetitive use of transitional markers like 'therefore' and 'however'. Referencing and logical relationships between sentences could be smoothed out for a more seamless flow. To achieve a higher level, the writer should employ a wider and more flexible range of cohesive devices while ensuring referencing is consistently clear and natural.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

The student uses an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully attempting less common items such as 'commercialised', 'cultural identity', and 'sustainable tourism'. However, there are noticeable lexical shortcomings, including spelling errors like 'Toursim', 'eaxmple', 'uncountrolled', 'faacilities', 'deomstrates', 'expenses', 'ecconomic', and 'substinable'. Additionally, word choice and word formation inaccuracies occur, such as 'it impact' instead of 'its impact' and 'come at the expenses' instead of 'come at the expense'. These errors and slips do not severely impede communication, but they restrict the lexical score, as a broader and more accurate control of less common vocabulary with correct spelling is required for higher bands.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The essay displays a mix of simple and complex sentence structures, attempting various clauses and conditional thoughts to convey arguments. There are several grammatical and punctuation errors present, such as capitalization issues ('Toursim', 'One', 'The deomstrates', 'In conclusion,I'), punctuation omissions or misuse (missing spaces around commas and periods, missing apostrophes), and subject-verb agreement or article inconsistencies like 'large number of visitors produce'. Fortunately, these errors rarely impede communication and the basic meaning remains clear. To move up, the writer must demonstrate better control over complex sentence patterns and significantly reduce the frequency of basic grammatical and punctuation slips.

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

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