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2nd Edition Upper Intermediate
2nd Edition Upper Intermediate
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/ 2
it
by Arnold Baker
t the entrance to one of the
ruined temples of Petra in Jordan,
there is an inscription chiselled into the
soft red rock. It looks as if it has been
5 there for centuries. It could have been
carved by one of King Herod's soldiers,
when they were imprisoned in the town
in 40 BC. But closer inspection reveals
that it is not so ancient after all. It reads:
10 Shane and Wendy from Sydney were
here. April 16th 1996.
The ruins of Petra were discovered in
1810 by a Swiss explorer, and a recent
report has just concluded that 'they are
is in grave danger of being destroyed by
the unstoppable march of tourism'.
More than 4,000 tourists a day tramp
through Petra's rocky tombs. They wear
away the soft red sandstone to powder
20 and (occasionally!) scratch their names
into the rock.
It is not just Petra that is under threat
of destruction. More than 600 million
tourists a year now travel the globe, and
25 vast numbers of them want to visit the
world's most treasured sites: the
Parthenon, the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge,
the national parks of Kenya. The tourist
industry will soon be the largest
so industry in the world, and it has barely
reached its 50th birthday. Many places
that once were remote are now part of
package tours. Will nothing put a stop
to the growth of tourism?
20
Unit 2 Been there, done that!
35 A brief history of tourism
he Romans probably started it
with their holiday villas in the Bay
of Naples.
In the 19th century, the education of
40 the rich and privileged few was not
complete without a Grand Tour of
Europe's cultural sites.
Things started to change for ordinary
people in 1845 when Thomas Cook, of
45 Leicester, England, organized the first
package tour.
By 1939, an estimated one million
people were travelling abroad for
holidays each year.
50 It is in the last three decades of the
20th century that tourism has really
taken off. Tourism has been
industrialized: landscapes, cultures,
cuisines, and religions are consumer
55 goods displayed in travel brochures.
Tourism today
he effects of tourism since the
1960s have been incredible. To take
just a few examples:
eo The Mediterranean shores have a
resident population of 130 million, but
this swells to 230 million each summer
because of the tourists. This is nothing.
The United Nations projects that
65 visitors to the region could number 760
million by the year 2025. In Spain,
France, Italy, and most of Greece, there
is no undeveloped coastline left, and the
Mediterranean is the dirtiest sea in the
70 whole world.
In the Alps, the cable cars have
climbed ever higher. More and more
peaks have been conquered. It is now an
old Swiss joke that the government will
75 have to build new mountains because
they have wired up all the old ones.
There are 15,000 cable car systems and
40,000 kilometres of ski-runs.
American national parks have been
so operating permit systems for years. But
even this is not enough for the most
popular sites. By 1981, there was an
eight-year waiting list to go rafting
down the Grand Canyon's Colorado
85 River, so now there is a lottery once a
year to select the lucky travellers.
In Notre Dame in Paris, 108 visitors
enter each minute during opening
hours. Thirty-five buses, having put
90 down their passengers, wait outside,
their fumes eating away at the
stonework of the cathedral.
Poor Venice with its unique, exquisite
beauty. On one hot, historic day in 1987,
95 the crowds were so great that the city
had to be closed to all visitors.
In Barbados and Hawaii, each
tourist uses ten times as much water
and electricity as a local inhabitant.
100 Whilst feeling that this is unfair, the
Reading
Work in pairs. Read the text quickly and discuss these questions.
-
What do you understand by the title of the article?
Which of the places in the pictures on page 19 are mentioned?
What is said about them?
Which other places are mentioned?
Is the writer optimistic or pessimistic about the future of tourism?
Comprehension check
1 Are the following statements true (/) or false (X)? Correct the
false ones with the right information and discuss your answers with
a partner.
locals acknowledge the importance of
tourism to their economy overall.
The prehistoric cave paintings at
Lascaux in France were being slowly
IDS ruined by the breath and bacteria from
200,000 visitors a year. The caves have
now been closed to the public and a
replica has been built. This is much
praised for its likeness to the original.
a An ancient inscription has been discovered at the entrance of a
ruined temple in Petra.
b Nearly 1.5 million tourists a year visit Petra.
c The stone in Petra is so soft that the tourists' feet are destroying it.
d Tourism has been the world's largest industry since the 1960s,
e It is now possible to go everywhere in the world on a
package holiday,
f In the 19th century, Thomas Cook organized tours of Europe's
cultural sites for rich people,
g The number of foreign tourists has been growing gradually
since 1939.
h There will be a huge increase in the numbers of tourists to
the Mediterranean.
i The Swiss are considering ways of creating new mountains for skiers,
j Nowadays, you can only go rafting down the Colorado River if
you win a lottery,
k The caves of Lascaux are going to be closed to the public and a
replica is going to be built in Disneyland.
1 Local people are moving away from many historic city centres.
2 What do the following numbers refer to?
40 BC 1810 600 million 1845 193ft 2ift*}IJli
eight-year 108 1987 ten times
no The future of tourism
ill there be more replicas like in
Lascaux? There already are.
Heritage
theme
parks
(miniDisneylands!) are springing up
115 everywhere. Many of the great cities of
Europe, such as Prague, Rome, and
Warsaw, are finding that their historic
centres are fast becoming theme parks
- tourist ghettos, filled with clicking
120 cameras and whirring camcorders,
abandoned by all local residents except
for the souvenir sellers.
Until recently, we all believed that
travel broadened the mind, but now
i2s many believe the exact opposite:
'Modern travel narrows the mind'.
Language work
1 Try to guess the meaning of the following words from the text.
chiselled ( I . 3)
tramp (I. 17)
treasured ( I . 26)
swells ( I . 62)
clicking (I. 119)
whirring (I. 120)
2 Find a word in the text that has the same or similar meaning to
the following:
shows (v)
reached a decision (v)
serious (adj)
hardly (adv)
distant and far away (adj)
having special rights and
advantages (adj)
unbelievable (adj)
defeated and controlled (v)
choose (v)
extremely beautiful or
delicate (adj)
admit, accept (v)
left (past participle)