The big idea: Tourism brings money and jobs to a destination, but it also puts pressure on places, people and the environment. Geographers weigh the positive and negative impacts across three strands:
Economic (jobs, spending, the multiplier vs leakage, rising rents), social (new services and pride vs overcrowding and loss of culture) and environmental (conservation funding vs pollution and habitat damage).
Many countries adopt a deliberate national tourism strategy — ecotourism, heritage tourism or hosting mega-events — to drive development. The Option E exam asks you to weigh these costs and benefits.
Key terms for this micro
- Tourism impact — the economic, social or environmental effect (positive or negative) of visitors on a destination.
- The multiplier effect — visitor spending circulates: it pays wages, which are spent locally, creating yet more jobs and income.
- Economic leakage — the share of tourist spending that flows out of the destination (to foreign-owned hotels, airlines, TNCs).
- National tourism strategy — a country's planned use of tourism (ecotourism, heritage, mega-events) to drive development.
- Ecotourism — small-scale, low-impact nature tourism that funds conservation and benefits local communities.
- Carrying capacity — the number of visitors a place can take before the experience or environment is damaged.
Always three strands, both signs: For any impact question, sort effects into economic / social / environmental and into positive / negative.
Top marks come from showing tourism is double-edged — the same flow of visitors that creates jobs can also raise rents and damage habitats.
How this is tested: Paper 1 Option E asks short Suggest [3] / Outline [2] parts on the impacts of visitor numbers — one positive and one negative economic effect of large crowds, or how a TNC's investment helps a place develop. You name an effect and then develop it (the mechanism, ideally with the multiplier effect).
| Strand | Positive impacts | Negative impacts |
|---|---|---|
| Economic | Jobs and income; the multiplier effect spreads spending | Leakage to TNCs; seasonal, low-paid work; rising rents |
| Social | New services, infrastructure and local pride | Overcrowding, congestion, loss of culture, anti-tourist feeling |
| Environmental | Funds conservation and protected areas | Litter, water use, traffic pollution, habitat damage |
| Housing | Investment and regeneration of run-down areas | Airbnb removes homes; second homes price out residents |
The multiplier effect — why a positive answer scores
- Step 1 — visitors spend in hotels, cafes and shops, so local businesses earn more.
- Step 2 — that income pays local wages, and workers spend those wages locally too.
- Step 3 — the extra demand creates further jobs and income — one spend multiplies.
Develop, don't just list: A Suggest [3] needs one idea, developed twice — not three thin ideas. Spending rises (1) -> pays local wages, which are re-spent: the multiplier (2) -> more jobs created (3).
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Sphere of influence, threshold and range: A facility's sphere of influence is the area it draws visitors from. It depends on:
Threshold — the minimum number of users a facility needs to survive (a stadium needs many; a local gym needs few). Range — the maximum distance people will travel to use it.
High-order facilities (national stadiums, theme parks, World Heritage sites) have a high threshold and long range, so a large sphere of influence. Low-order ones (a swimming pool, a park) have a small one.
| Facility | Order | Typical visitor range | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local park / pool | Low | Under 5 km | Low threshold, everyday use, found everywhere |
| Town leisure centre | Medium | 5-25 km | Serves a town's catchment |
| Premier League stadium | High | Regional / national | High status, good transport links, hosts other events |
| World Heritage city (Venice) | Very high | International | Unique heritage draws global visitors |
Real impacts — Venice and the Lake District: Venice shows over-tourism: up to 20-30 million visitors a year against ~50,000 residents. Cruise crowds and Airbnb push up rents and drive residents out, so the city brought in a day-tripper entry fee to manage numbers.
The UK's Lake District (a National Park and World Heritage Site) draws ~18 million visits a year. Tourism funds conservation and jobs, but honeypot villages like Bowness face traffic, footpath erosion and a housing crisis as second homes price out locals.
Real impacts — London 2012 and Dubai: The London 2012 Olympics regenerated a derelict part of East London (Stratford), leaving the Olympic Park, transport links and thousands of homes — but at a cost of around 9 billion pounds and with some displacement.
Dubai built tourism almost from scratch (the Burj Khalifa, Palm Jumeirah, mega-malls) as a national strategy to diversify away from oil — creating jobs and global profile, but with high water and energy use in a desert.
How this is tested — the [10] markband essay: Paper 1 Option E ends with a 10-mark essay marked on markbands — Examine / To-what-extent / Discuss. Recurring versions: how tourism strategies (ecotourism, heritage) drive development; whether tourism is a good national development strategy (benefits vs costs); why spheres of influence vary; the impacts of a rural festival.
Top band needs: accurate terms, named case studies, a balanced account of economic, social and environmental costs AND benefits, and a justified conclusion.
Strategies vs straight 'tourism': When the essay names strategies (ecotourism, heritage, movie-location tourism), contrast a sustainable, low-leakage strategy (ecotourism in Costa Rica) with mass tourism (over-tourism in Venice) — that contrast is the evaluation.
Markband marks: (1) Cover costs AND benefits across at least two strands. (2) Anchor each to a named country or event. (3) End on an explicit judgement answering the command term (how far / which factors).