IELTS Essay # 93 - International travel brings benefits to travelers and countries visited, but it also causes problems for the environment. Do the disadvantages outweigh the advantages? Give your own opinion and relevant examples.

Essay # 93

International travel brings benefits to travelers and countries visited, but it also causes problems for the environment. Do the disadvantages outweigh the advantages? Give your own opinion and relevant examples.

International travel is trending all over since quite some time now, because of more awareness about travel destinations and cheap travel options. However, excessive tourist numbers have been known to wreck the natural beauty of these tourist destinations, proving that international tourism is more harmful to the environment.

The first reason why I say this is because when tourists go to a place of natural beauty, let’s say Mauritius, they flock to its beautiful beaches, for which the country is famous. However, there have been cases of littering observed by many tourists day by day, due to eating out or while driving around, and this makes keeping the beach and surrounding areas clean, more difficult. I believe this happens because the tourists have no sense of belonging to that place since it’s not their homeland. Apart from this, they take it for granted that famous holiday destinations are obviously being maintained by the government, so even if they spoil it, it will be taken care of by the authorities.

A second reason to support my view is that if tourist spots are visited a lot, the natural solitude of the place gets disturbed. An example to support this statement is the cable car facilities in the Swiss Alps region. Before tourists might have started swarming the Alps, there would have been no noises and constructions that obstruct the natural landscape pattern. But after the place got popular, the authorities had to build a ropeway system for tourist activities. The frequent noise of the tourists and skiing and mountain climbing disturbed the peace of the area, enabling the natural wildlife to stay away from there and seek shelters elsewhere.

Citing the above mentions examples I would conclude by saying that as more and more tourists explore the holiday destinations, the natural habitat of these places gets altered to accommodate more people. Seeing that international travel is growing day by day, it is definitely causing more harm to the environment.

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