IELTS Writing Task 2 Sample 399 - Foreign visitors should be charged more than local people

IELTS Writing Task 2/ IELTS Essay:

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

Some people think foreign visitors should be charged more than local people when they visit the cultural and historical attractions in a country.

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

You should write at least 250 words.

Sample Answer:
Today, tourism industry plays crucial role to show heritage places, habits and customs of each country to foreigners. This industry is a major source of income in many countries. Some believe that tourists visiting these areas must be charged more than the local inhabitants. I personally disagree with this view because I think this plan will have more disadvantages.

On the one hand, those who support that, foreign travelers have to pay more for visiting historical places have their own reasons. One is that these people are averagely more well-to-do than the local residents. Paying hundreds of dollars for booking of hotel, airline or visa, foreign tourists are able to afford higher prices to visit these places. In this case, in Isfahan, a historical city of Iran, to visit ‘Menar Jonban’, an old tower located in the center of city, foreigners are charged five times more than the local inhabitants. While local citizens have to pay various taxes, foreigners visiting temporarily a place have not paid any tax; therefore, the regional government must charge them in other ways. To repair, renovate or protect these places, the local state will have more budgets.

On the other hand, I personally believe that the price of ticket of these locations must be the same for both local and foreign tourists. The first reason behind it is that, this plan can avoid decreasing the number of visitors. Clearly, the more they are asked to pay, the less they will travel. As a prime example, had the government of B.C charged those foreigners visiting the national museum of Vancouver, their population would have dropped dramatically; however, by attracting more visitors, this government would have raised its revenue in other sectors, including hotels or public transportation, and foreigners would have not been forced to pay more money for visiting of these locations in Vancouver. Furthermore, this policy can have a huge negative impact on nations` relationships. Definitely, heritage premises are the best ways to show each nation`s culture, whereas increasing these fees will lead other nations to know less about the host country. In additional, this has a negative psychological effect on tourists while they are forced to pay more than the local visitors. They might feel discriminated and would plan to visit other places than spending more on cultural and historical places. Over the year the number of tourists would drop and that would be a bad impact in the long run.

In conclusion, although receiving more money from foreign visitors who visit historical places can have several advantages, I personally think that this will cause them to not only have less tendency to visit there again, but the host country will have less opportunity to show its culture to other nations.

[ Written by - Rambod Taghaodi ]


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