Exemplar -
| Clearly state your one 4 recommendation in your opening sentence. | Model answer: I recommend the government of Venice to ban cruise ships as their first priority. | | | --- | --- | --- | | Simple prompt questions: How well would the action work? Who would support/resist the action, and why? — How would it affect them? What do they think and want? What difficulties, costs, obstacles or challenges would make the other two choices less preferable? | This would be popular with local people, who think cruise ships are very bad for Venice. As the German pollution experts demonstrated with scientific equipment, they pollute the air unacceptably, so until they filter their exhaust fumes, they should have to dock far away from heavily populated places. This would bring an immediate improvement in health and quality of life. We saw how huge ships also erode the foundations of Venice; banning them would solve this problem too. Banning cruise ships would solve the intense overcrowding when everybody disembarks together. Few locals would miss cruise ship tourists, who spend little money outside the ship except at souvenir stalls, which are pushing out more practical shops and services. Such brief visitors don’t have time to appreciate the culture and heritage – they mostly want somewhere to relax and enjoy themselves. They would be disappointed to miss Venice in principle, but they would actually be better served by a purpose-built resort or theme park instead. Matteo’s citizen group protested that their city is becoming a theme park, and this is why the entry ticket system would be a worse choice – it would reinforce exactly that impression. You could argue it would reduce tourist numbers while raising much-needed money for the city purse, but there would be practical difficulties: ticket barriers would take time and money to build, and they would inconvenience the locals. Finally, this approach to reducing tourism would unfairly impact less wealthy people. Rather than short-term visitors from cruise ships, Venice needs high-quality tourists who stay for weeks or months, appreciate and support the heritage more, live like the locals and use the kinds of shops and services which make a city liveable for its residents. Airbnb rentals which are used by this welcome type visitor, so it is not as good as banning cruise ships. Admittedly, there is an argument for tightening up the lax tax collection to improve city finances, but making it “hard” to rent houses may hurt property owning citizens, who would probably protest that their rights and freedoms were being violated. The cruise industry would argue that the ban will cause job losses because they have a vested interest in exaggerating claims of economic harm. However, a policy of attracting high value tourists will create jobs for locals in areas like heritage management. Besides, the cruise industry is foreign owned, draining money out of Venice’s economy. If city councillors champion the needs of ordinary citizens against big business, people will see they are not corrupt and will support them. | Paragraph 1 supports the chosen action by pointing out the harms done by cruise ships. It gives the perspective of local people and environmentalists. Paragraph 2 supports the chosen action by pointing out that not much is lost by keeping away cruise passengers. It characterizes the cruise passenger’s perspective. Paragraph 3 explains why one of the other two options is comparatively worse.* It represents the perspective of Matteo’s citizen group. Paragraph 4 explains why the last of the three options is a worse choice.* It represents the views of Venetian Airbnb landlords. Paragraph 5 answers objections to the chosen action, and argues that obstacles can be overcome. It represents the perspectives of the cruise ship industry and the city councillors. | | Make a concluding statement which may briefly extend the proposal. | Therefore, I support banning cruise ships from central Venice. They can dock further along the coast, and some passengers can be enticed to visit nearby Padua or other less fragile tourist sites to lighten the load on Venice. 475 words | Adding a suggestion makes the conclusion more satisfying than a simple repetition of the judgement. |