Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-15

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 5.5)

Tourism is one of the fastest-growing industries and contributes a great deal to economies around the world. However, it has negative effects too that affect local cultures and the environment. I strongly agree that the damage caused is often overlooked because people focus on the financial advantages of tourism.

On one hand, Tourism plays an important role in economic development. It creates employment opportunities for hotel owners, restaurants, and travellers. It helps local business owners to earn more. Like if we talk about Goa and Manali, its economy is purely dependent on tourism. Hence, tourism is highly beneficial to local communities. In Manali, many local vendors sell momos and their income is totally dependent of the tourist.

On the other hand, the negative effects of tourism should not be ignored. Firstly, a large number of tourists can disturb the environment through pollution, plastic waste, and damage to natural habitats. Secondly, if many people go to beaches, it can affect marine life by throwing waste into the water. In addition to tourist places, a large amount of construction would go on, which would affect the natural landscape. Residents can lose their identity. By constructing hotels and big restaurants, it could affect the lives of people living there.

In conclusion, although tourism provides valuable economic benefits, I strongly believe that its negative effects on the environment and local cultures are frequently underestimated. Governments and tourism companies should promote responsible tourism to protect natural resources and preserve local traditions while continuing to support economic growth.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear from the introduction: you strongly agree that tourism’s damage is overlooked because attention centres on financial benefits. You address both economic advantages and environmental and cultural costs, using Goa, Manali, pollution, marine life and construction as relevant examples. However, the economic points are more developed than the cultural impact: “Residents can lose their identity” is asserted but not explained with a specific example. The response also does not meet the required minimum: it contains 234 words, 16 short, and 19 words copied from the prompt were not counted. This limits the space available to develop and support your ideas. Explain how tourism changes local traditions or residents’ lives, and extend your examples with clearer cause-and-effect reasoning.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 5.5

The response has a recognisable overall structure: an introduction, two contrasting body paragraphs and a conclusion. The progression from economic benefits to negative effects is easy to follow, and signposts such as “On one hand,” “On the other hand,” and “In conclusion” help identify the stages of the argument. However, some linking feels mechanical, and the first body paragraph shifts quickly from employment to local businesses and then to examples without fully connecting them. “In addition to tourist places” is also an unclear transition into the point about construction. Group related effects and use more precise links to show how each example supports your claim. Clearer referencing between sentences would make the argument flow more smoothly.

Lexical Resource: Band 5.5

You use enough topic-related vocabulary to communicate the main points, including “economic development,” “employment opportunities,” “natural habitats,” “marine life,” and “natural landscape.” These choices show awareness of the subject, and the meaning is generally clear. However, the range is somewhat repetitive, particularly in repeated references to tourism, effects and local communities. Some expressions are imprecise or awkward, such as “the economy is purely dependent on tourism,” “income is totally dependent of the tourist,” and “a large amount of construction would go on.” Choose more natural collocations and vary how you describe impacts. For example, you could refer to communities’ reliance on visitor spending, construction pressure, or cultural identity being eroded.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You use a mix of simple sentences and some longer structures, including the contrast in “although tourism provides valuable economic benefits” and the conditional “if many people go to beaches.” Most of the argument remains understandable, but some grammatical errors and awkward sentence patterns reduce accuracy. For example, “its economy” does not clearly agree with the two places named, and “income is totally dependent of the tourist” has an incorrect preposition and number pattern. The sentence beginning “By constructing hotels and big restaurants, it could affect…” also has an unclear subject. Check agreement, articles and prepositions, and make sure each sentence’s subject clearly performs the action. More controlled complex sentences would strengthen the range.

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

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