Task 1 Academic · Bar chart · Travel
Why international visitors came to one country
Twelve bars across three years, in which one category grows most, one is overtaken and one falls — and the answers differ in whether they add the bars up.
The question
You should spend about 20 minutes on this task. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. Write at least 150 words.
The chart below shows the number of international visitors to one country, by main purpose of visit, in 2005, 2015 and 2025.
| Purpose of visit | 2005 | 2015 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Holiday | 6.2 | 8.9 | 11.4 |
| Business | 3.8 | 4.1 | 2.6 |
| Visiting friends and relatives | 2.1 | 3.0 | 4.2 |
| Study | 0.4 | 0.9 | 1.8 |
A 150-word factual summary of a graph, chart, table, process or map. This prompt is original, written in the standard format for teaching purposes — it is not taken from any past paper.
What separates the three answers
Holidaymakers supplied more than two thirds of a 7.5-million rise, so the market became more concentrated as it grew; the 6.5 answer reads the bars year by year, the 7.5 adds up the totals, and the 9 works out the shares.
The three answers
Band 6.5
164 words (the task asks for at least 150)The answer works. It addresses the task, the reader follows it, and the meaning survives — but ideas stay general, linking is mechanical, wording repeats, and small errors are visible throughout.
The answer
The bar chart shows the number of international visitors who came to one country for four different purposes in the years 2005, 2015 and 2025.
In 2005, holiday was the main reason with 6.2 million visitors. The business visitors was 3.8 millions4, visiting friends and relatives was 2.1 million and study was only 0.4 million, which was the smallest.
In 2015, all the purposes increased.2 Holiday increased to 8.9 million, business to 4.1 million, visiting friends and relatives to 3.0 million and study to 0.9 million. In 2025, holiday increased again to 11.4 million, visiting friends and relatives increased to 4.2 million and study increased to 1.8 million.3 But the business visitors decreased to 2.6 million, which was lower than in 2005.
Overall, the number of visitors increased in most of the purposes1, and holiday was always the most popular reason for visiting the country in all three years. In 2025 the business visitors were also less than the visitors for friends and relatives.
What an examiner notices
1. Task achievement
“Overall, the number of visitors increased in most of the purposes”
The overview states what was already obvious and misses what was not: the total, the dominance of holidays in that growth, and the overtaking of business.
2. Coherence and cohesion
“In 2015, all the purposes increased.”
A paragraph organised around a year, so each category's three figures are split across two paragraphs and never compared directly.
3. Lexical resource
“In 2025, holiday increased again to 11.4 million, visiting friends and relatives increased to 4.2 million and study increased to 1.8 million.”
Three uses of the same verb in one sentence, each with a purpose rather than a number of visitors as its subject.
4. Grammatical range and accuracy
“The business visitors was 3.8 millions”
Two errors in five words: a singular verb with a plural subject, and 'millions' pluralised after a specific number.
One honest caveat
Band labels here describe what each piece of writing demonstrates against the four published assessment areas, paraphrased in plain language. They are teaching illustrations produced for this site, not official material, and no sample has been marked by a test provider. Real scripts are marked whole; two answers with the same label can still look quite different from each other, and nothing on this page can promise anyone a particular result.
Compare another question
- Task 1 Academic · Bar chart
Electricity sources in three countries
A bar chart in which three countries lean on three different sources, showing how the band 9 answer finds the pattern the 6.5 answer reads straight off the page.
- Task 1 Academic · Bar chart
Household recycling rates in four cities
A two-year bar chart in which the worst performer becomes the best, and three answers that differ in whether they measure that reversal against everything else on the chart.
- Task 1 Academic · Bar chart
Physical activity among men and women by age
A grouped bar chart where men lead among the young and women lead among the old, and the real story is how differently the two sets of bars slope.