IELTS Speaking Part 3 · cities

Should governments limit tourism in very popular places?

A strong Part 3 answer takes a position in the first clause, supports it with one reason and one concrete case, and then names where it stops being true. Around a minute.

The question, as the examiner gives it

IELTS Speaking Part 3

Should governments limit tourism in very popular places?

no preparation, about 1 minute to speak

A band 7 to 8 answer

About 127 words at a natural pace — roughly what 60 seconds holds.

Answer it yourself first

Record your own answer first. A model you have read three times comes out with a flattened rhythm, and examiners are trained to hear exactly that. Read it afterwards for the vocabulary and the shape, not to memorise the sentences.
A band 7 to 8 answer

In some places I think they have to, and the honest reason is arithmetic rather than principle. A town built for eight thousand people cannot absorb forty thousand a day without the water, the housing and the transport failing, and at that point nobody is having a good time, including the visitors. Where I am uncomfortable is with who gets excluded. A price-based limit means wealthy tourists carry on exactly as before and everybody else is priced out of seeing something that belongs, in some sense, to everybody. I would prefer limits that are not about money, such as timed entry or a booking system. And I would rather see the money raised from tourists actually spent on the place they are damaging, which is surprisingly rare.

The words that earn marks

Each one links to how it is pronounced.

  • arithmetic

    four syllables with the stress on the second

  • absorb

    the precise verb for accommodating numbers

  • excluded

    three syllables with the stress on the second

  • wealthy

    the right adjective, with a voiced th

  • timed

    concrete alternative mechanism, in one word

  • raised

    the exact verb for money collected

  • damaging

    three syllables, and the moral point of the answer

How a strong answer is built

  1. 1Agree conditionally and give the practical reason.
  2. 2Explain what actually breaks.
  3. 3Raise the fairness objection.
  4. 4Propose a better mechanism and one further condition.

Sounds to watch

The ones this answer leans on most.

Straight answers

How long should my answer to “Should governments limit tourism in very popular places?” be?

About 60 seconds. Long enough for the answer plus a reason or an example, short enough that the examiner can get through the rest of the set.

Should I memorise the model answer?

No. Record your own version first, then read the model for the shape and the vocabulary. A memorised answer changes rhythm and pace noticeably, and examiners are trained to hear it — it usually costs more than the better wording gains.

Does sayit score this answer?

It scores what a microphone can observe: an estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.

What the band on your result means

An estimate from fluency and pronunciation only — not an official band, and not a mark for vocabulary or grammar.
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