In IELTS Writing Task 2, tourism is rarely about your own holiday. Youāre usually asked to weigh up its consequences: does tourism do local people more harm than good; should famous cities limit the number of visitors; do you need to travel abroad to understand another culture? In Speaking Part 3, the examiner asks why people travel more than they used to and how tourists change the places they visit. You canāt answer that with trip and beautiful places: you need collocations about the economy, the pressure on a city and the lives of local residents.
The most noticeable trap in this topic is in its very first term. Itās mass tourism, not massive tourism. Massive means āhugeā, while āfor the general publicā is expressed by the noun mass used before another noun: mass tourism, mass media, mass production. In many languages, the adjective for āmassā looks just like massive, so massive tourism is one of the first things that gives away an essay translated in the writerās head. The second trap is travel: when it means travelling in general, itās uncountable, so a travel in an essay is a mistake.
Below are 30 collocations in four subtopics, the typical mistakes people make with them, and an example of how LetsWords gives feedback on a sentence youāve written. Youāll find the other exam topics in our overview of IELTS vocabulary by topic.
Tourism and travel: words and collocations
How and why people travel
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| mass tourism | tourism on a very large scale | Mass tourism has turned many quiet fishing villages into crowded resorts. |
| package holiday | a holiday with travel and accommodation sold together | Package holidays made foreign travel affordable for ordinary families. |
| budget airlines | airlines that offer cheap flights | The rise of budget airlines means that a weekend abroad can cost less than a train ticket. |
| a popular tourist destination | a place many tourists visit | Thailand has become a popular tourist destination for Europeans in winter. |
| travel abroad | to go to other countries | Young people today travel abroad far more often than their parents did. |
| broaden your horizons | to widen your experience and understanding | Living in another country can broaden your horizons more than any textbook. |
| experience a different culture | to get to know another culture from the inside | Many students take a gap year to experience a different culture. |
| off the beaten track | far from the usual tourist routes | Travellers who go off the beaten track tend to meet more local people. |
Tourism as a source of income
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| the tourism industry | all the businesses that serve tourists | The tourism industry employs a large share of the workforce in many coastal regions. |
| boost the local economy | to help the local economy grow | A new ski resort could boost the local economy in a region with few other jobs. |
| generate revenue | to bring in income | Museums and historic sites generate considerable revenue from ticket sales. |
| be heavily dependent on tourism | to rely mainly on tourism | Islands that are heavily dependent on tourism suffered most during the pandemic. |
| seasonal work | work available only at certain times of year | Seasonal work leaves many hotel staff without income for half the year. |
| foreign visitors | tourists from other countries | The city attracts millions of foreign visitors every summer. |
| a major tourist attraction | a famous place that draws many visitors | The old fortress is a major tourist attraction that draws thousands of visitors a year. |
The downside: pressure on the place
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a tourist hotspot | a place that attracts crowds of tourists | A quiet beach that goes viral on social media can become a tourist hotspot within months. |
| put a strain on local infrastructure | to overload local roads, transport and services | Cruise ships put a strain on local infrastructure, from roads to waste collection. |
| suffer from overcrowding | to have too many people | In August, the old town suffers from severe overcrowding. |
| local residents | the people who live in a place | Local residents complain that they can no longer walk through their own streets. |
| drive up rents | to make rents rise | Short-term holiday lets drive up rents in city centres. |
| lose its character | to lose what makes a place special | When every shop sells souvenirs, a historic quarter loses its character. |
| damage fragile ecosystems | to harm natural environments that are easily destroyed | Unregulated diving can damage fragile ecosystems such as coral reefs. |
| respect local customs | to follow the traditions of the place you visit | Visitors are expected to respect local customs, especially at religious sites. |
Managing tourist numbers
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| sustainable tourism | tourism that doesnāt harm the place in the long term | Sustainable tourism aims to benefit local communities without destroying what attracts visitors. |
| impose a tourist tax | to introduce a tax paid by tourists | Several European cities have imposed a tourist tax on overnight stays. |
| limit visitor numbers | to restrict how many people can visit | Some national parks limit visitor numbers by selling a fixed number of permits. |
| in the off-season | outside the busy tourist season | Travelling in the off-season is cheaper and puts less pressure on popular sites. |
| protect historic sites | to preserve old buildings and monuments | Part of the ticket price is used to protect historic sites from erosion. |
| promote lesser-known destinations | to advertise places that few tourists visit | Tourist boards can promote lesser-known destinations to spread visitors more evenly. |
| strike a balance between | to find the right balance between two things | Governments need to strike a balance between tourist income and residentsā quality of life. |
Common mistakes
Massive tourism has changed the coast of Turkey.
Correct: Mass tourism has changed the coast of Turkey. āMassā in the sense of āfor everyoneā is mass before a noun. Massive describes size: a massive hotel, a massive increase in visitors.
Last year I went on an unforgettable travel to Japan.
Correct: Last year I went on an unforgettable trip to Japan. As a noun, travel is uncountable and means travelling in general: Travel broadens the mind. A specific outing is a trip, and the act of getting from one place to another is a journey. The difference is covered in the travel, trip or journey exercise.
Nowadays more people can afford to go to abroad.
Correct: Nowadays more people can afford to go abroad. Abroad is an adverb, like home in go home. In go abroad, travel abroad and study abroad, you donāt need to or in. Practise it on the go abroad page.
Tourism brings huge economical benefits to small towns.
Correct: Tourism brings huge economic benefits to small towns. Economic is about the economy, while economical means āsaving moneyā: an economical car. In an essay about tourism, you usually need economic. More in the economic vs economical exercise.
How LetsWords explains mistakes like these
While youāre reading the table, every word looks familiar. The mistakes appear when you write something yourself. Hereās what one task looks like in LetsWords.
Youāre reviewing put a strain on local infrastructure. LetsWords shows you its meaning in your native language, you recall the English expression and write a sentence about tourism:
Cruise ships make a big strain on local infrastructure, and the local peoples suffer from it.
The feedback, which LetsWords gives in your native language, points out two mistakes:
- make a big strain ā put a heavy strain: the verb that goes with strain is put; LetsWords also suggests heavy or considerable instead of big, which sound more natural in an essay;
- the local peoples ā local residents: peoples means ānationsā; for the people who live in a city, say local residents or local people.
Cruise ships put a heavy strain on local infrastructure, and local residents suffer from it.
A few days later, the expression comes back in review, and you use it in a different situation, for example in an essay on whether tourist numbers should be limited. Thatās how a collocation on a list becomes one you can recall and use without mistakes.
Start practising with feedback on your mistakes
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Using these collocations in Writing Task 2
A practice task in the exam format:
In some popular cities, the number of tourists has grown so much that local residents are suffering. Some people believe governments should limit the number of tourists who can visit such places. To what extent do you agree or disagree?
A sample paragraph that supports limits and acknowledges the other side:
Admittedly, limiting visitor numbers could harm places that are heavily dependent on tourism, where every hotel booking helps to boost the local economy. However, when a historic centre becomes a tourist hotspot, the costs often outweigh the gains. Crowds put a strain on local infrastructure, from public transport to waste collection, while short-term holiday lets drive up rents for local residents. Venice is a well-known example: many families have left the old city for the mainland because they can no longer afford to live there. A cap on daily visitors would not end tourism; it would allow cities to strike a balance between income and the quality of life of the people who live there.
Why the paragraph works. It opens with a concession: the opposing argument isnāt ignored but acknowledged and then set aside with However, after which the writerās position is clear. Every consequence is named with a precise collocation: not tourists make problems, but specific pressure on transport, waste collection and rents. The Venice example turns a general claim into a checkable fact, and the last sentence brings the reader back to the question. The collocations are varied, nothing is repeated, and no word is there just to sound āadvancedā: thatās what Lexical Resource rests on.
Using them in Speaking
A Part 3 question:
Do you think international travel helps people understand other cultures?
A sample answer:
I think it can, but it depends on how people travel. If you go on a package holiday and stay in a resort, you barely meet local residents, so you donāt really experience a different culture. But when people go off the beaten track, use local transport and try to speak a few words of the language, it definitely broadens their horizons. So itās more about the traveller than the destination.
In a spoken answer, these collocations sound natural when the language around them is simple: I think it can, so, definitely. Itās the topic vocabulary that should be advanced, not every sentence.
Practise for free
- travel, trip or journey: which word to use for one outing and for travelling in general;
- go abroad: why thereās no to;
- off the beaten track: an idiom for Speaking about travel;
- economic vs economical: about the economy or saving money;
- have an impact: which preposition to use when describing the effect of tourism;
- make the most of: get the most out of a trip or an opportunity;
- on the other hand: a linking phrase for the other side of an essay.
From the list to real use
The table helps you recognise mass tourism, but in the exam you have to recall the collocation yourself in a second and not write massive out of habit. Move from the list to real use with LetsWords: practise with the IELTS collection for your level and add collocations from this page to a collection, for example drive up rents or strike a balance between. You recall each expression from its meaning, write a sentence with it, and LetsWords points out the mistake and explains it in your native language (Russian, Korean or Vietnamese), while spaced repetition brings the expression back until it feels natural. Tourism vocabulary is useful in Writing too: the IELTS Writing section has Task 2 prompts on traffic and transport in big cities (the Cities and transport topic) and on preserving traditions and cultural festivals (the Family and culture topic), and every full answer gets detailed feedback on all four criteria. When you sign up, you answer a few questions about your goal and level, and LetsWords picks your practice; you can try the feedback before you pay. For vocabulary on other topics, see our IELTS vocabulary by topic.