IB Geography HL — Tourism and sport at the local and national scale

Key Idea: Topic 11.2 is about where leisure, tourism and sport facilities go, what they do to a place, and how to read all of this off a map. It pulls together three ideas: 11.2.1 — locating facilities: the physical factors (relief, climate, scenery, snow) and human factors (accessibility, land cost, investment, population) that decide a facility's site (the ground itself) and situation (its position relative to roads and markets). 11.2.2 — impacts & strategies: tourism is double-edged — economic, social and environmental costs and benefits — and countries use national strategies (ecotourism, heritage, mega-events) to drive development. A facility's sphere of influence depends on threshold and range. 11.2.3 — reading the map: the four core cartographic skills — grid references, scale, direction, height — plus site suitability (a reason PLUS map evidence). This is an option unit, examined on Paper 1, Option E (SL answers 2 options, HL answers 3 — the same questions). Each option = short structured parts off a figure/map + a [10] Examine/Evaluate/Discuss extended answer marked on markbands.

📍 11.2.1 — Locating tourism and sport facilities

Facilities are not placed at random: their location is decided by physical factors (the natural setting) and human factors (people's decisions). Physical sets the scene — mountains for skiing, a warm coast for beaches; human factors then decide whether it grows — accessibility, investment, marketing and cheap land. Split every location into site (the actual ground it occupies) and situation (its position relative to roads, cities and the people it serves). In an Outline [2], you must name a factor AND develop why it matters — never just list.

Tip: An Outline [2] never scores full marks from a one-word factor. Add the so what: flat land (1) → cheap to build on and easy to lay out a pitch and stands (1). The development mark is the link from the factor to that facility. And match the factor to the command — a physical question (snow, relief) is not answered with a human one (price, advertising).

🌍 11.2.2 — Tourism impacts and national strategies

Tourism brings money and jobs but also pressure. Sort every impact into economic / social / environmental AND into positive / negative — top marks come from showing tourism is double-edged. A facility's sphere of influence is the area it draws visitors from, set by its threshold (the minimum users it needs to survive) and range (the maximum distance people will travel). High-order facilities (national stadiums, World Heritage cities) have a large sphere; low-order ones (a local pool, a park) a small one.

Example: Venice — a World Heritage lagoon city; its physical site made it a honeypot, but ~20-30 million visitors vs ~50,000 residents now overwhelm its carrying capacity (over-tourism, a day-tripper entry fee). Dubai — almost no physical pull; investment, airports and marketing built a tourism hotspot as a national strategy to diversify away from oil. Costa Rica — low-leakage ecotourism funds national parks and rural jobs (a sustainable strategy). London 2012 (Stratford) — a cheap, well-connected brownfield site regenerated by a mega-event; accessibility and land availability were the deciding human factors.

🗺️ 11.2.3 — Reading tourism and recreation maps

Option E opens with a data-response read of a real map — a topographic, tourist-town or resort/piste map. Four core skills do most of the work, plus one judgement skill (site suitability). Every mark is read straight off the map, so accuracy and units matter.

A suitability mark is never "it is accessible" — it is "it is accessible: an A-road and a bus station lie just south of the site." Quote the actual road, campsite symbol, contour or grid reference. A bare reason with no map evidence caps the mark.

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