Hello,hello, dear listener and welcome into IELTS peaking part3,Tourism.
Rory, are you excited to talk abouttourism?
I'm not a bigphylocteurism, but it is necessary and it is something that will probably comeup.
Why do people visit touristattractions?
It's a very good question to behonest, as opposed to some people justbecause,really, places advertised as tourist attractions are pretty much there for tourists and littleelse.
It's an oddcycle. I imagine though the others will go there to get a sense of the cultural or historical significance of such aplace.
What makes a tourist attractionfamous?
Sometimes it's something as simple as the fact that it's labeled as a tourist attraction and people go there for that expresspurpose.
But forothers, it could be the significance of the place culturally or historically like the Eiffel Tower orManwushmore.
Others might like it just because it's a nice place to take photos or get a sense of the scale of something like the GrandCanyon.
Do local people like to visit local touristattractions?
Imean, I would guess so assuming they hold interesting events or something else of valuethere, even if theydon't, they might just go for the commercialopportunities, like selling things totourists.
I could see how they might dislike it though if it ruins the localenvironment, atmosphere andeconomy.
Do you think tourism damages theenvironment?
Ohyes,absolutely. Even if we just count things like international tourism tourists still have to move around somehow and this is usually by car or bus and the emissions from those can beharmful, then there's all the trash that gets left behind in the wake of any group of people and all the vandalism that might takeplace.
If they are breaking things off statues or carving things into walls to leave theirmark.
Do you think tourism causes environmentalchange?
Beyond what I justmentioned, it might encourage positive attitudes to the environment of the experiences designed in a way to encouragethat, but tourists would need to be in the place to get thatmessaging.
So at that point the damage is alreadydone, isn'tit?
How can people prevent the environmental damage caused bytourism?
Other than by ending it and removing thetourists, maybe by strictly enforcing rules designed to protect the local environment and using the money generated by tourists to help bolster the localecology, that might make adifference.
Does my story give few benefits to localcommunities?
It certainlymight, if the community is unable or unwilling to support the incomingtourists, which is theirright, you might not be terribly thrilled of all these strange people were coming and photographing you without your consent and leaving garbageeverywhere.
This goes both waysthough, the community might not have anything the touristswant.
Even in the way offood, tourists just want mass-produced foods like fastfood, which they can getanywhere.
Should all tourist attractions be free to thepublic?
No, theyshouldn't. Forone, nothing isfree, so the funding will have to come out of people's taxes or similarcontributions.
It surely makes more sense for tourists to pay for this kind ofthing, since they are the ones benefiting fromit,right?
Touristattractions, or we call themsites, popular places for tourists like inParis, theLouvre,yeah, inLondon, the BigBand, so touristattractions.
And these places are usually advertised as touristattractions, so people gothere.
And other people go there to get a sense of the cultural or historicalsignificance.
Usually, these placesare,well, they have a lot of history behindthem, so to feel this cultural and historicalsignificance.
These places are labeled as a touristattraction, so they are called as an attraction and the internet tells you to gothere, so people gothere.
That'sit. That's why they arefamous.
That's itreally. It'sjust, you just go there because it's a touristattraction, peoplesay,oh, have you seen this touristattraction?
Really, like the internet tells you to go and visit theLouvre, the internet tells youlike,okay, five must see places in London and you just follow theinternet.
You kindof,yeah, it'sinteresting.
Maybe you don't want to gothere, but you justdo.
So they areadvertised, they are labeled as a must goplaces.
Yeah, it's weird how thatworks.
And then it's a good idea to have someexamples.
It could be the significance of theplace, culturally orhistorically, like the Aval Tower inParis.
Yeah, because it does have this history behind it or mild rush more in theStates, the Grand Canyon in theStates.
Some people just like such places because they'renice, they take photos and they get a sense of thescale.
So this massive Grand Canyon to feel a sense of thescale.
Scale is like howmassive, how big somethingis.
Local people can visit local tourist attractions if they are holding some interesting events to hold events or if such events are ofvalue.
So if the locals are interested inevents, if they like thisevent, if they appreciate suchevents, they might go for commercial opportunities like selling things totourists, using tourists formoney.
Well, I have to saythis.
Yeah, locals use tourists formoney.
You've got to make moneysomehow.
Newexactly, so kind of tourists are the meat for somepeople.
Yum,yum,yum. They give themmoney.
Soyeah. And notice how Rory saysit.
Locals might gothere, they'll like go to tourist attractions for the commercialopportunities, just to make money out oftourists.
To milk tourists like we milkcows, but it's not very nice tosay.
It'snot. So perhaps to contribute to the local economy would bebetter.
Tourism can damage theenvironment.
And we talk about internationaltourism, masstourism,yeah, with the buses full oftourists.
So tourists move around usually by bus or by car and the emissions from the vehicles could be harmfulemissions, the harmful gases from a car or from abus.
Tourists can vandalizebuildings, so vandalism could be aproblem.
Isthis,well, it's acrime,vandalism,yeah?
Yeah, it's acrime. When tourists destroybuildings, like one tourist take a small stone and then like 15,000tourists, take a small stone and then there is nobuilding.
This is what we usually hear from differentpeople,guides.
Well, I don'tknow, is it a crime to vandalize buildings in somecountries?
Yeah, but if kind of like you go to another louver and then you draw an graffiti on thelouver, I think it's avandalism.
Like the building could beold, like an oldcathedral, forexample, UNESCOplace.
Yeah, that'strue. Eitherway, we shouldn't damage things which are tourist attractions because it harms the localeconomy.
Soyeah, you can say that tourists are involved in vandalism or they commit acts of vandalism or what do yousay?
Both, you can be involved in vandalism if you're part ofit, but you can also commitvandalism.
Also all the trash that gets leftbehind.
So tourists areeverywhere, what does theydo?
They leave the trash rubbish orlitter, theylitter.
They throw out trash on thestreets.
Theycan. I don't think it's alltourists, but they certainlycan.
Also some tourists could break things offstatues, forexample, or carve into walls to leave theirmarks.
Youknow, like I washere,2024.
That's not a goodlook. There's this ancient building inErbil, which is a city in the north ofIraq, and it's one of themost, it's one of the oldest continuously inhabited buildings on theplanet.
It's like about 5,000 yearsold.
And people have carved their names into the structure of thebuilt.
And I waslike, if you keep doingthat, you are going to destroy this monument and there's almost nothing left ofit.
And it's sosad. And youknow, it's likeeverywhere.
I think I can any country goto, you'll seethis, liketrash,carving, and you'll seethings, andall, all thisjazz, youknow, de laSina.
Yeah. In someways, I getit, because youknow, it's nice to be a part ofthings.
And people have done this throughout history andtime.
But Imean, there must be a way of doing it with it's more responsible and less damaging to the actual piece of history aswell.
Well, we should change people'sattitude.
Yeah.So, I like Rory'ssolution, removing thetourists.
They can remove the tourists and nodamage, notrash.
Everything will besafe.
Obviously, this is a very extremeoption.
Strictly enforce rules designed to protect the localenvironment.
Okay, so the government should enforce strict rules to protect the localenvironment.
Andmoney, which is generated bytourists, should be used to protect the localecology, or bolster the localecology.
What isbolster?Yeah, to propup, or to prop up is just tosupport, orno, I think support is the bestword, to support the localeconomy.
We talk about masstourism, we don't talk about like travelers who are usually aware of these things and who kind of who contributes to theeconomy, rather than destroying different statues andwalls.
Mass tourism does contribute to localeconomies, but do theyreally?
Well, itcould. But the thing is that the community has something tooffer,well, should have something tooffer.
And also the tourists should want to take advantage of that kind of thing aswell.
So this relationship does notexist, then it's hard to see how it wouldhappen.
So the tourists should behave and also the community should befriendly.
And an example here islike, you might not be terriblythrilled, you might not behappy.
If thousands of tourists were coming and photographing you without yourconsent, which usually happens when tourists go to a smallvillage, they start taking photos of everything and people livethere, it's theirhouses, even if kind of they are old and they are a piece ofart, but still it's theirhouses.
And very often just people takephotographs, even if they see asign, like nophotos, they still kind ofdo.
Takephotos. Leaving garbageeverywhere, leaving theirtrash.
So an interesting idea is that it goes bothways.
So the community and tourists like worktogether.
Are they moreattentive?
Rory thinks tourist attractions should not befree, so some of them should not befree.
No, nothing isfree. Nothing isfree.
Nothing isfree. So funding will probably come out of people'staxes.
Wallach,yes, some places should be funded bytourists.
So if they damage theplace, they shouldpay.
Okay? So actually maybe tourists think that they've paid to comein, so they can just leave too withtheilist.
Theystuff.Yeah, they can doit.
I've paid forit. Youknow, I've paid for myinterest, so I can touch all thestatues.
I can leave my trash so you kind of take care of it because I've paidyou.
Oh, maybe kind of some people think likethis.
I imagine theydo, but they would bewrong.
Yeah,no, it's not verynice.
So tourists benefit from visiting differentattractions, from visiting differentsites, so theycan, they shouldpay.
Okay? There is no how are youdoing?
Are youokay? Do you hate touristsnow?
Are you also annoyed by crazytourists?
Yeah. And by crazytourists, I meanlike, youknow, like masstourism, this buses of crazy people and usually they are abit, youknow.
Crazy. But once inItaly, I saw a signaturelike, two tourists gohome, travelers arewelcome.
Imean, I don't see that that's a particularly bad thing to behonest.
If you're just destroying the local environment andeconomy.
Thank you very much for listening and we'll get back to you in our nextepisode.
Bye. Why do people visit touristattractions?
It's a very good question to behonest.
I suppose some people do it just becausereally.
Places advertise tourist attractions are pretty much there for the tourists and littleelse.
It's an oddcycle. I imagine though the others will go there to get a sense of the cultural or historical significance of such aplace.
It makes a tourist attractionfamous.
Sometimes it's something as simple as the fact that it's labeled as a tourist attraction and people go there for that expresspurpose.
But forothers, it could be the significance of the place culturally or historically like the Eiffel Tower orManwushmore.
Others might like it just because it's a nice place to take photos or get a sense of the scale or something like the GrandCanyon.
Do local people like to visit local touristattractions?
Imean, I would guess so assuming they hold interesting events or something else of valuethere.
Even if theydon't, they might just go for the commercial opportunities like selling things totourists.
I could see how they might dislike it though if it ruins the localenvironment, atmosphere andeconomy.
Do you think tourism damages theenvironment?
Ohyes,absolutely. Even if we just count things like international tourism tourists still have to move aroundsomehow.
Usually by car or bus and the emissions from those can beharmful.
Then there's all the trash that gets left behind in the wake of any group of people and all the vandalism that might take place if they are breaking things off statues or carving things into walls to leave theirmark.
Do you think tourism causes environmentalchange?
Beyond what I justmentioned, it might encourage positive attitudes to the environment of the experiences designed in a way to encouragethat.
But tourists would need to be in the place to get thatmessaging.
So at that point the damage is alreadydone, isn'tit?
How can people prevent the environmental damage caused bytourism?
Other than by ending it and removing thetourists, maybe by strictly enforcing rules designed to protect the local environment and using the money generated by tourists to help bolster the localecology, that might make adifference.
Because mass tourism give few benefits to localcommunities.
It certainly might of the community is unable or unwilling to support the incomingtourists, which is theirright.
You might not be terribly thrilled of all these strange people were coming and photographing you without your consent and leaving garbageeverywhere.
This goes both waysthough, the community might not have anything the touristswant.
Even in the way offood, if tourists just want mass-produced foods like fastfood, which they can getanywhere.
Would all tourist attractions be free to thepublic?
No, theyshouldn't. Forone, nothing isfree, so the funding will have to come out of people's taxes or similarcontributions.
It surely makes more sense for tourists to pay for this kind of things since they are the ones benefiting fromit,right?
