Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · IELTS Summit Mastery · 2026-10-28

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)

Tourism is the backbone of the economies of many countries around the world.It is growing rapidly with and contributing to the GDP of many nations. Some people argue that tourism is damaging the natural beauty and culture of the tourist sights. In my opinion, there is no doubt about it that tourism is contributing to the national development of many nations. However, tourists can damage the local culture and beauty of the place.

Tourism is proved very beneficial for many countries with breathtaking sceneries such as Switzerland and New Zealand. It has created many job opportunities in hotels, restaurants, transport and tourist services. For example, any tourist sight has it own designated rest houses which has their own staff who get paid for working there with the profit the rest houses generate by charging the customers.Moreover, tourism encourage investment in infrastructure such as better roads and public facilities. Tourism also generates revenue for local businesses which helps the local communities to earn a living.

On the other hand, tourism has many detrimental impacts on local communities and culture too. For example, many tourist leave litter and plastic waste to the beautiful sights such as beaches and mountains which damage their beauty and also cause pollution.Futhermore, the excessive construction on tourist sight destroys the natural habitats. Capitalists cut down thousands of trees each year to contruct hotels in place of them to generate more profit.Heavy tourism result in traffic congestion, increase pollution and carbon emission. Overcrowding also limits the natural resources such as supply of water and food adding to the problems of locals of that place.

In the conclusion, tourism is very beneficial for the economy of a country, however, heavy tourist pressure can damage the local resources and lifestyle of people.

AI examiner evaluation

CriterionBand
Task Achievement / Task Response6.5
Coherence and Cohesion6.5
Lexical Resource6.0
Grammatical Range and Accuracy5.5
Overall6.0

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.5

Your position is clear: you recognise tourism’s economic benefits while agreeing that it can harm local culture and the environment. The response addresses both sides of the prompt and supports them with relevant examples, including jobs in tourism services, litter at beaches and mountains, and hotel construction affecting habitats. This gives the argument a sound foundation. However, the discussion focuses more on environmental damage than on damage to local cultures; the cultural impact is mentioned in the introduction and conclusion but not explained with a specific example. Some points, such as tourism generating revenue for local businesses, are also asserted rather than developed. To strengthen the response, explain how tourism can change local customs or ways of life, and extend key examples by showing their consequences for residents. Your position is present, though it could be stated more precisely and consistently as a degree of agreement with the claim that damage is ignored.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

The essay has a clear overall structure: an introduction, a paragraph on economic benefits, a paragraph on negative impacts, and a conclusion. The contrast between the main body paragraphs is easy to follow, and signposts such as “On the other hand” and “Moreover” help readers understand the progression. This coherent arrangement is a strength. At times, however, the linking feels somewhat mechanical, and several ideas are added in sequence without showing how they relate—for example, the points about construction, traffic, emissions, and pressure on water and food. Some references are also unclear, as in “in place of them,” where the reader must infer that “them” means trees. Use a wider range of linking and referencing, and group related effects into a clearer chain of cause and consequence.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of topic vocabulary, including “breathtaking sceneries,” “detrimental impacts,” “natural habitats,” “traffic congestion,” and “carbon emission.” These choices make the subject clear and show attempts to use more specific language than basic everyday terms. Some word choices and collocations are inaccurate or imprecise, however: “tourist sights” is repeated where “tourist attractions” or “destinations” would be more natural, and “Capitalists cut down thousands of trees” is an overly broad and awkward description of developers or companies. There are also spelling errors such as “Futhermore” and “contruct,” alongside inconsistent forms such as “tourist” for plural visitors. Aim for more precise collocations and check spelling and word forms carefully; this would make the vocabulary more flexible and natural.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

You attempt a mix of simple and complex sentences, including a relative clause in “rest houses which has their own staff” and a contrastive sentence beginning “however.” The main ideas remain understandable, but some grammatical errors recur and occasionally make the reader pause. For example, “It is growing rapidly with and contributing” has a faulty construction, while “tourism encourage investment” and “Heavy tourism result” have subject–verb agreement errors. In “any tourist sight has it own designated rest houses,” the possessive form and number are not controlled, and the sentence about rest houses contains further agreement problems. Punctuation spacing is also inconsistent, with missing spaces after full stops. Practise checking each sentence’s subject and verb, articles and possessives, and revise longer sentences to ensure their clauses are complete and correctly connected.

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