Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 12 · 2026-10-05

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

Today more and more tourists are visiting places where conditions are difficult, such as the Sahara desert or the Antarctic.

What are the benefits and disadvantages for tourists who visit such places?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Nowadays, an increasing number of tourists are travelling to remote and challenging destinations, such as the Sahara Desert and Antarctica. There are both merits and demerits of this situation which will be elaborated in the essay, citing relevant examples.

Discussing the advantages of travelling to difficult destinations, the prime benefit is that tourists can experience nature in a way that is not possible in ordinary holiday locations. This means, travelers enjoyed natural sceneries which is not seen in other destinations. For example, visiting the Sahara desert can allow people to see its vast landscapes and experience a completely different climate. In addition, tourism can generate income that may support local communities and environmental conservation projects. In other words, many travelers travelling this type of place where the low economy or difficult to survive so tourism help to increase their income and support environmental welfare projects.

In contrary, there are many drawbacks too. To initiate, that the most obvious problem is that such destinations can be dangerous because of extreme weather conditions and limited access to medical facilities. This means that tourist may face serious difficulties if they become ill or injured far from populated area. Moreover, large number of visitors can disturb wildlife and leave the waste. This is to say, that travelers damage fragile ecosystems. For instance, Antarctica, where the natural environment is highly sensitive so that tourism are huge threat for natural ecosystem.

To conclude, there are few demerits such as dangerous location for travelers so it is difficult to find proper medical treatment at that particular place if required and environmental damage, however there are major merits such as it can also offer memorable experience and economical benefits too.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

The response successfully addresses all parts of the prompt by discussing both the benefits and disadvantages of visiting remote and challenging destinations, providing relevant examples such as the Sahara Desert and Antarctica. Your position is clear from the introduction through to the conclusion. However, the development of ideas is somewhat uneven. While the advantages are fairly well-supported, some points, particularly regarding economic benefits and environmental impact, tend to repeat similar concepts without deep extension. For instance, the explanation that 'tourism can generate income' is followed by a slightly repetitive elaboration about 'low economy or difficult to survive'. To move to a higher level, you should ensure that every main idea is fully explored with extended, distinct arguments and more sophisticated real-world examples rather than generalized statements.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.5

Your essay presents a coherent overall arrangement with a clear logical progression from introduction to body paragraphs and a final conclusion. Paragraphing is used appropriately to separate advantages from disadvantages. You successfully employ cohesive devices to guide the reader, such as 'Discussing the advantages', 'In addition', and 'In contrary'. However, cohesion can sometimes feel a bit mechanical or repetitive in its referencing. Phrases like 'This means that' and 'This is to say' appear frequently to link sentences, which reveals a slight reliance on formulaic transitional patterns. Furthermore, minor awkwardness in referencing—such as 'travelling this type of place where the low economy'—slightly disrupts the smooth flow of information. To achieve a higher score, strive for a greater variety of subtler cohesive ties and ensure referencing is consistently tight and natural throughout.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You demonstrate an adequate range of vocabulary for the task, successfully incorporating topic-specific terms such as 'remote and challenging destinations', 'environmental conservation projects', 'fragile ecosystems', and 'extreme weather conditions'. You also make successful attempts at less common vocabulary items. However, there are notable instances of word choice inaccuracies, awkward collocations, and word form errors, such as writing 'natural sceneries' instead of 'scenery', 'leave the waste' instead of 'leave waste', and the phrase 'In contrary' instead of 'By contrast' or 'On the other hand'. Additionally, phrasing like 'low economy' to describe economically disadvantaged regions is unnatural. These lexical slips and minor inaccuracies do not impede overall communication, but they prevent the vocabulary from reaching a higher tier of precision, style, and natural control.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 5.5

The response features a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, demonstrating an attempt to use relative clauses and conditional structures, such as 'tourists can experience nature in a way that is not possible in ordinary holiday locations' and 'where the natural environment is highly sensitive so that tourism are huge threat'. However, your writing contains a noticeable cluster of grammatical errors, particularly regarding verb forms, subject-verb agreement, and prepositions. Examples include 'travelers enjoyed natural sceneries which is not seen' (tense and agreement issues), 'many travelers travelling this type of place' (missing preposition and participle form), 'that the most obvious problem is' (redundant conjunction), and 'tourism are huge threat' (plural/article omission). While these errors rarely impede communication and meaning remains clear, the frequency of basic grammatical slips keeps the control at this specific level. To improve, focus on careful proofreading of verb tenses, articles, and prepositions in complex sentences.

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