Band 5.5 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer
Overall Band Score: 5.5 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-24
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)
Some people like to explore the world owing to they visit multiplte cities and countries to see the world. Tourism is widely spreaded activity and it has a great impact on economies. I agree with this statment because local traditions and enviornment is also damaged from these activities.
On the one hand, countries invest on their cultural and heritage sites to promote tourism because when foreign visitors visit a country they buy things from there, they use that particular country's currency, these things helps in bosting the economy of the country.For instance visitors dine at local resturants and buy handy crafts this will promote local small buisnesses. Tourists create further jobs including guiding and jobs in hospitality and transportation. Furthermore, the revenure generated often funds and maintainance and preservation of these historical sites, while improvements to local infrastructure, such as roads and public transport, benefited both viditors and residents.
On the other hand, mass tourism leands to significant enviornmental stress, primarily through excessive waste generation and improper disposal, which litters natural sites. The high demand for resources, such as water and energy in hotels, often delpetes local supplies and strains infrastrucutre. Additionally, the construction of tourist infrastrcture frequently destroys naturla habitats, and increased volume of transportation contributes significantly to air pollution.
AI examiner evaluation
| Criterion | Band |
|---|---|
| Task Achievement / Task Response | 5.5 |
| Coherence and Cohesion | 6.0 |
| Lexical Resource | 5.5 |
| Grammatical Range and Accuracy | 5.5 |
| Overall | 5.5 |
Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 5.5
Your position is clear: you agree that tourism can damage local traditions and the environment, and the response includes relevant discussion of economic benefits and environmental costs. The examples of visitors supporting restaurants and small businesses, and tourism creating jobs, help address the topic. However, the economic paragraph focuses mainly on benefits rather than explaining how tourism affects local cultures, so one important part of your stated position is not developed. The environmental points—waste, pressure on water and energy, habitat loss, and transport pollution—are relevant but mostly listed rather than supported with a specific example or explanation. The response is also below the required 250 words, which limits how fully you can develop your reasons. Explain cultural impacts directly and extend each main point with evidence or an example.
Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0
The response has a recognisable structure: an introduction, a paragraph on economic benefits, and a paragraph on environmental harm. The contrast between “On the one hand” and “On the other hand” helps readers follow the shift in focus, and ideas within the environmental paragraph are generally grouped logically. However, the overall progression is incomplete because the discussion of cultural damage promised in the introduction is not given its own clear development. The first body paragraph also combines several economic benefits in a long, loosely connected sentence, making relationships between points less clear. Use clearer sentence boundaries and organise the body around distinct claims, such as economic benefits, cultural effects, and environmental effects. This would make the argument more balanced and cohesion less dependent on formulaic transitions.
Lexical Resource: Band 5.5
You use a relevant range of topic vocabulary, including “mass tourism,” “excessive waste generation,” “local supplies,” “natural habitats,” and “air pollution.” These choices show an attempt to discuss tourism’s effects with some specificity. However, spelling errors are frequent and sometimes distract the reader, as in “multiplte,” “enviornment,” “buisnesses,” and “infrastrucutre.” There are also inaccurate or awkward word combinations, such as “widely spreaded activity,” “invest on,” and “funds and maintainance.” Some repetition of “tourists,” “country,” and “local” also limits flexibility. Check spelling carefully and learn common collocations as complete phrases; more precise wording will make your ideas easier to understand and sound more natural.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5
You attempt both simple and more complex sentence forms, including a reason clause beginning “because” and a sentence using “while” to connect infrastructure benefits. The main ideas are usually understandable, but errors in sentence construction and agreement occur often enough to affect clarity. For example, “owing to they visit” uses an incorrect clause pattern, while “these things helps” has a subject–verb agreement error. The opening sentence also joins ideas awkwardly, and the long sentence about visitors buying things contains several clauses without clear punctuation. Practise distinguishing “owing to” plus a noun phrase from “because” plus a clause, and check agreement and sentence boundaries when editing. More accurate control of these patterns would make your argument easier to follow.
See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.
Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.