IELTs Writing Test
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Tourism today creates a variety of problems, such as pollution due to flights, transport, and dirty water. Do you think that governments should impose extra taxes on flights on accommodations to restrict today’s tourism industry? |
After experiencing the period when traveling was tightly restricted because of COVID-19, we see more and more people enjoy traveling. Although it has a positive impact on the economy, especially the tourism industry which has been struggling for almost three years because of traveling restrictions, tourism today creates a lot of problems. Some governments such as Barcelona and Valencia in Spain, Austria, and France impose extra taxes on travelers to tackle these problems.
I don’t think imposing extra taxes on travelers will solve the problems. Here are some reasons why I don’t think so.
First, how the taxes will be used is not clear. Even if travelers pay extra taxes on their flights and others, we are not sure whether the tax revenues will be used to improve the areas or not. If the way the tax revenues are used is clearly disclosed to the public, we can accept the extra taxes, but right now we are not sure about that.
Second, the problems regarding tourism often include traffic jams, more garbage on streets, noise, bad manners of travelers and so on. If so, imposing taxes on travelers doesn’t solve the problems. I think we have other ways to do so. For example, regarding traffic jams caused by over tourism, we should promote the use of more public transportation rather than cars. Take Kyoto as an example. Many foreign tourists visit there,and buses used to always be crowded with them, which was troublesome for people who live there. Starting September last year, Kyoto stopped one-day free bus tickets, and instead they started to sell one-day free bus and subway tickets in order to disperse the passengers. Also, in order to decrease the travelers carrying large suitcases all along, which occupy lots of space, they started luggage storage services. Also, most of the bad manners result from ignorance. Therefore, the governments and the tourism industry should make more efforts to make it known that there are some rules to follow when traveling. Of course, it is important for travelers to try to know the rules in the area and follow them.
Because of the reasons mentioned above, imposing extra taxes alone will not solve over tourism problems. It is important for each of us to try to preserve the areas we are visiting so that the beauty and nature of the surrounding areas will stay as they are.
