Some People Believe That To Protect Local Culture, Tourism Should Be Banned In Some Areas | Band 7.5 IELTS Essay Sample
Some people believe that to protect local culture, tourism should be banned in some areas whereas others think that change is inevitable and banning tourism will have no benefits. Discuss both sides and give your opinion.
Here is a band 7.5 IELTS essay on this topic written by one of our students. Need help with IELTS writing? Get your IELTS essays, letters and reports corrected by me.
Band 7.5 IELTS essay sample
Some people think that trips to some parts of a country should be forbidden to preserve the local culture. However, others believe that this measure will not be useful in the ever-changing world. In my view, banning tourism will be a significant loss to the development of the local economy and will not be beneficial to promote regional traditions and norms.
Traveling restrictions in some places can prevent tourists from going sightseeing and contacting / getting in touch with the aboriginals. Therefore, it keeps the local culture from being intruded by outside beliefs and values. For example, the ethnic groups in southwestern China have a long history of making silver jewelry, crafts, and folk costumes, and they follow traditional rituals and ceremonies. When travelers visit such places, they will bring contemporary fashion, foreign cuisine and advanced technology and thus they may influence the local community and cause some of the traditions to die out. In this case, the travel ban is a way to minimize cultural intrusion.
On the other hand, some people think the travel ban is meaningless as the culture itself is changing with time. In the information era, local people can get easy access to news from around the world through various devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and TV. Whatever things brought by tourists can also be found on the Internet or TV. Moreover, values or social norms that do not fit into modern life will become obsolete someday. Thus, travel suspension is ineffective in protecting local customs.
In my opinion, banning tourism will be detrimental to the local economy. The traveling industry is a huge economic motivator in today’s world, where people love to save money for vacations. If tourists are not allowed to travel to some regions, the local gifts and souvenir shops may be closed because there are no longer customers. Some service industries, like restaurants and hotels, will be affected, and the unemployment rate will skyrocket. For example, millions of workers in the tourism industry became jobless and live in poverty due to the COVID-19 lockdown in Thailand.
In conclusion, banning tourism in selected areas is unlikely to protect local culture. Worse still, it may prevent local communities from growing. Hence, I do not agree with the given argument that tourism should not be allowed in certain areas.
