GP Practice Paper

1.
a. The trend of people travelling by air is increasing over time, since 1.5 billion more
people travelled by plane in 2010 than 1990.

b. Travel has become cheaper and affordable. This is due to significant advancements
in technology which has produced more fuel efficient and cost-effective methods
thereby reducing costs of tickets. Additionally, there is an increase in exposure
about the different countries that one can travel to due to the media and the
internet.

c. In my opinion the fact that people all over can afford to travel is the most important
cause. People are becoming richer in many parts of the world due to increased
employment opportunities. Technological advances in all the different spheres of
transport are making the cost of tickets cheaper and making travel accessible to all.
Due to the internet becoming more available to everyone, they are more aware
about the world and the different sights. This makes them want to travel to the
places they see on the internet. People start saving for their desire to travel and visit
the beautiful lands.

d. Global: One of the most important consequence of increase in air travel is economic
in nature. More people travelling means more job requirement by the airlines.
Additionally, increase in tourism provides job opportunities for the popular
countries. Government bodies also benefit by the incoming wealth due to tourism
that can be used for developing the country’s infrastructure.

Local: Since there are more people travelling to a country as tourists, there will be
certain changes that will occur to the infrastructure. The place will have more
foreign restaurants for tourists to have a meal there, which will reduce the number
of local vendors. This cultural change will only showcase traditional art and dance
forms in museums and plays, thus diluting the culture. This presents itself as an
important local, cultural issue that accompanies tourism.

2.
a. The author in the article about tourism uses some evidence to support his claim. The
author uses anecdotal evidence in the lines “I have seen this in my work”, facts
when he says “This brings new wealth and prosperity by providing employment to
people” and a value judgement when he says “We should celebrate the
opportunities” to prove his point. The author cites evidence from the United Nations
when he says, “The United Nations provides many statistics to prove this point.”
These are all reliable and diverse sources of information, which act in his favour.
However, the information used by the author is vague, as it does not explicitly
connect to the claim. The author does not provide any statistical data in his
argument, and he does not use specific examples when he says “Governments also
have more income…” There is too much reliance on opinions and anecdotal
evidence. Lastly, when the author states that his source is from the UN, he does not
provide the date or title of the statistics. Thus, the author has not used sufficient
evidence to support his argument.