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READING
TEST 03
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Reading
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SECTION 1
Questions 1 - 13
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C. The WTTC claims that travel and tourism is the world's biggest industry in terms of its contribution to
global GDP and employment. The lobby group forecasts that global travel and tourism will account for $5.9
trillion of economic activity in 2008, or about 10% of global GDP, employing 238m people. It expects
employment to rise to 296m in the next decade. In fact, assessing the scale of the industry is not
straightforward. When all travel and tourism is lumped together, so that everything from airlines to cafes
counts, it is no surprise that the WTTC's total is so large. As a rule, restaurants do not record whether they
are serving tourists, business travellers or locals out for a meal.
D. For the next year or two, the travel industry is likely to find its long-standing customers in rich Western
countries a less than reliable source of growth. As American families plan their holidays, many will be
worrying about the frailty of their country's economy, the rising cost of petrol and-for those venturing
outside the United States-the weakness of the dollar. They are delaying booking in the hope of nabbing
cheap, last-minute deals. They certainly seem to be spending less. On May 7th Orbitz, an American online
travel-firm, posted a first-quarter net loss of $15m compared with a net loss of $10m a year earlier. The
majority of its business is domestic bookings, which were 6% lower in the first quarter than a year earlier, at
$2.4 billion.
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E. For faster growth, the industry will have to look to emerging economies. These are becoming increasingly
well established as places to visit. Now they are starting to provide more visitors too. According to McKinsey,
a consulting firm, by the middle of the next decade almost a billion people will see their annual household
incomes rise beyond $5,000-roughly the threshold for spending money on discretionary goods and services
rather than simple necessities. Consumers' spending power in emerging economies will rise from $4 trillion
in 2006 to more than $9 trillion-nearly the spending power of western Europe today.
F. Some of that extra purchasing power will go on travel, at home and abroad. Western companies are
flocking into the developing world to prepare for these new tourists. "The Middle East, India and China are
the next big thing," predicts Bill Marriott, the chairman and chief executive of Marriott, an American hotel
chain. He thinks that the industry will be bigger in the Middle East, where he is planning to build 65 hotels
by 2011, than in India. China will dwarf even the Middle East.
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G. Last year the number of visits abroad by the Chinese reached 47m, 5m more than the number of foreign
visitors to China. The Chinese also made 1.6 billion trips at home-a staggering total, but not much more
than one each. According to WTTC forecasts, Chinese demand for travel and tourism will quadruple in
value in the next ten years. At present China ranks a distant second, behind the United States, in terms of
demand, but by 2018 it will have closed much of the gap.
H. Other emerging economies have woken up to the spending power of Chinese tourists. Mexico is one:
AeroMxico will begin direct flights between Mexico City and Shanghai at the end of May. The plan is to fly
twice a week. In Vietnam, home to one of the fastest-growing tourist industries in the world, Chinese and
other Asian tourists are overtaking Westerners. In the first 11 months of last year 507,000 visitors came to
Vietnam from China, along with 442,000 from South Korea and 376,000 from America. The Tourism
Authority of Thailand is also counting on more Chinese custom. It forecasts that 1.3m Chinese will visit the
country this year, 10% more than last year when visitors were put off by Thailand's unsettled politics.
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Questions 1 - 6
In which paragraph contains
1 The nationality of the largest group of visitors to Vietnam
2 A summary of three changes in the travel industry
3 An increase in the spending power of some economies
4 The countries where new tourists are coming from
5 A pessimistic outlook for established markets
6 Complexities in measuring the size of the travel industry
Questions 7 - 13
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Write True, False or Not Given.
8 Next year a billion people will receive $5000 more income per year.
9 Bill Marriot plans to build more hotels in China than in the Middle East.
10 The number of overseas visits by the Chinese was 5m more last year than the year before.
11 In the next decade, travel and tourism in China will become four times larger than it is today.
12 AeroMxico will start direct flights to Vietnam within the next two years.
13 Thailand expects to see 10% more visitors this year than last year.
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SECTION 2
Questions 14 - 26
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As a bag with an RFID tag passes through a scanner, a pulse of radio waves awakens the tag, which responds
by transmitting a small burst of data. The drawback with this approach, however, is that the association
between tag and passenger is stored in the airline's database. So every time the tag is read, a real-time
connection to that database is needed to work out how to route the bag. It works well for a single airline, but
when more than one airline is involved, links are needed between their databases. That is why many in the
industry favour a second approach involving the more expensive tags. These have the advantage that data
can be written into them, including passenger and routing details, when the bag is checked in. This
information then travels along with the bag, without the need for any database look-ups.
But as RFID is adopted in other industries, economies of scale ought to reduce costs.
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RFID tags have in fact already been adopted, to varying degrees, by forward-thinking airlines and airports
around the world. The aim of IATA's initiative is to introduce standards, to ensure interoperability, promote
adoption, and make the benefits of these technologies available to the whole industry. The switch from
proprietary, airline-specific technologies to open standards will, however, reduce the airlines' scope for
differentiation. If all passengers are using the same facilities, how can airlines distinguish themselves from
their rivals?
Primarily through the routes they fly and the prices they charge, of course; and the quality of their in-flight
service. But while technology would seem to make competitive differentiation within the airport more
difficult, it is simultaneously increasing the scope for differentiation in the air, through the provision of ever
more elaborate in-flight services.
In-flight entertainment is now a critical part of how airlines position themselves, say Mr Harteveldt. One of
the most advanced entertainment systems in current use is Virgin Atlantic's V:port, currently available in 13
of the airline's 31 aircraft, and being installed in all its new aircraft. Its most notable feature is video on
demand, with 300 hours of films and television shows that can be called up by any passenger at any time.
The video is stored on hard disks on a central server and is streamed to each seat. V:port also has a
music-on-demand service and a selection of games, some of which (such as a trivia quiz) support multi-user
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play between passengers. All this, says Lysette Gauna, Virgin's head of in-flight entertainment, reinforces
Virgin's association with fun and innovation. Similar systems will become available on rival airlines in
future, says Ms Gauna, so Virgin is already developing an improved system.
Another trend is the growing availability of internet access on board aircraft. The state of the art here is
Boeing's Connexion service, which uses a satellite broadband connection to create a Wi-Fi "hotspot" inside
the cabin. Lufthansa was the first airline to deploy the service, in May last year, and it intends to make it
available on all long-haul flights by the middle of 2006. Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways have also
adopted the technology, and Singapore Airlines, China Airlines and SAS plan to follow suit. Prices vary with
the duration of air time but the service typically costs $30 on flights of six hours or more, and $20 on flights
of between three and six hours. A similar system is offered by Tenzing, a subsidiary of Airbus. It recently
established a joint-venture with SITA called OnAir, with a view to exploiting what is expected to be the next
big trend in airborne communications: the in-flight use of mobile phones.
Contrary to popular belief, the main impediment to the use of mobile phones on planes is not interference
with the aircraft's avionic systems. On a typical long-haul flight, says Mike Fitzgerald of Altobridge, a firm
that makes technology to bridge satellite and cellular networks, 20 mobile phones are left switched on.
Instead, the problem is that airborne mobile phones disrupt mobile networks on the ground. An airliner
with 500 phones on board, whizzing across a city, would befuddle the network as the phones busily hopped
from one base-station to the next.
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When the technical and regulatory rules have been sorted out, however, the small matter of in-flight phone
etiquette will remain. "I have concerns that it will be extremely annoying," says Nancy McKinley of the
International Airline Passengers Association, a body that represents frequent travellers. However, OnAir's
market research found that long-haul travellers expressed more interest in internet access and
text-messaging than voice calls, and Mr Harteveldt says his research has found that very few travellers want
to make voice calls while in the air. It may be that the voice market will be stillborn, and more discreet data
communications will predominate.
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Questions 14 - 18
Choose A, B or C.
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16 The more expensive tags are particularly advantageous
A when bags move between different airlines.
B when real-time connections are slow.
C because they reduce check in time.
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C more airlines will join the scheme.
18 Atlantic's V:port
Questions 19 - 26
Complete the summary with NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text.
The 19 ................ of in-flight internet access is growing and several airlines have already started to offer it on
their 20................ routes. Passengers will be expected to pay around $25 for access, depending on the
21 ............ of the flight. Having this 22 ................ on board will also allow the use of mobile phones, which do
not in fact cause problems with the 23 ................ . The problem, it seems, with mobiles which are not
24 ................ off is that they disturb the 25 ................ below. Even when the technology is fully in place,
OnAir predict that frequent fliers may prefer 26 .............. forms of communication than voice calls.
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SECTION 3
Questions 27 - 40
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C. By the end of the 21st century it is highly likely that vastly more people will travel more often to a wider
range of international destinations. The trends are already apparent. In 1950 the top fifteen receiving
countries accounted for 97% of all international arrivals, a share that had declined to 62% by 1999. Over the
next twenty years arrivals are predicted to grow fastest in East Asia-Pacific, followed by Africa, the Middle
East and South Asia. From 1985 to 1998 outbound travel growth from the developing countries of East
Asia-Pacific averaged 8.5% per year compared to the global average of 5.3%. Clearly a consequence of
economic prosperity is a realization of the desire to travel, and as this extends to other regions throughout
the 21st century a continual supply of new travelers is assured. With time, increasing affluence should
enable international travel to change from being an aspiration to an expectation for many more people, as
has occurred in the economically developed world in the late 20th century.
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D. There are, however, reasons to believe that this future will not or should not be realised. One of the
greatest uncertainties lies in at least maintaining the current historically low cost of international travel.
With plans well advanced for the introduction of larger and more fuel-efficient aircraft the medium-term
outlook is promising, but looking into the future there must be concerns about the increasing scarcity of oil.
Maintaining low travel costs may be contingent on alternative power sources and continually improving
technology. Given the scale of the international travel industry an optimist must believe that there is at least
a substantial incentive to anticipate and counteract this.
E. Technological developments such as the Internet and virtual reality may reduce the need or desire to
travel. This notion can be summarily dismissed by considering the nature of the tourism experience and
what motivates it. Tourism, in essence, is sensual, emotive and driven by a desire to experience a different
place in more than two dimensions. The sights, sounds, smells, tastes, ambience and people are integral, as is
the actual presence of the tourist within this milieu. Vicarious experiences can simulate some aspects but
not the totality. Moreover they cannot provide the surprise discoveries, sense of adventure and chance
encounters that real travel affords. It is more likely that the greater awareness of other places engendered by
information technology will stimulate a desire to authenticate by direct experience.
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F. Far more difficult to challenge is the claim that tourism is ultimately unsustainable because of its impacts
on environments and cultures that then make destinations less appealing. International tourism is often
portrayed as a juggernaut, consuming one destination after another and then rolling on. Tourism could
become self-limiting in that accommodating the anticipated growth over the next twenty years then creates
the conditions for a subsequent decline. Signs are emerging, however, that the tourism industry has learnt
some valuable lessons on the downside of its 'success' and has taken steps to secure its own future. Codes of
environmental ethics have burgeoned and environmental management initiatives have been developed in
key industry sectors. While some of these efforts may be viewed cynically, they have served to raise
awareness that tourism can do potential harm and placed sustainability firmly on the tourism agenda. The
greatest risk is that such standards may only be selectively applied, and here the emerging destinations of the
less developed world are under most threat.
G. Less developed nations are particularly vulnerable. They possess environmental and cultural features that
tourists wish to experience, given the right conditions. They also possess a powerful economic incentive to
develop tourism rapidly and with as few constraints as possible. They lack capital to achieve this and
consequently have frequently ceded control of tourism development to foreign interests. To attract capital
they have offered concessions - tax breaks, liberal access to land and low environmental standards - which
ultimately reduce the benefits. There is no easy solution to this dilemma, but ironically it may lie in the
growth of tourism itself. The combination of a growing market, increasing diversification and rising levels of
experience amongst tourists will lead to the industry constantly seeking new destinations. Bargaining power
is likely to shift in favour of destinations, although this is certainly not in immediate prospect and relying on
this solution may require some patience.
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H. The alternative, for all nations where the culture and environment are felt to be under threat, may be to
focus on quality rather than quantity. This oft-promoted solution aims to reduce tourism's harmful effects
without sacrificing economic benefits. The approach typically advocated is to provide high quality facilities
and services and thereby attract high spending tourists, selective restraint operating through price. If
adopted broadly it could constrain the growth of tourism below predicted levels, but will it be effective in
achieving its aims, and is it socially desirable? In relation to the first question there must be doubts. High
expenditure does not mean high yield, given that there are greater costs associated with providing higher
quality. Its desirability depends on how the social benefits of traveling are perceived. The mere fact that
tourism has grown so rapidly and that new countries have emerged as major markets as soon as their
citizens have the economic means and freedom to travel implies that individuals perceive great benefits. In
the 21st century do we wish to reverse a significant trend of the 20th and revert to the conditions of the 19th
when only the most privileged could travel internationally?
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I. Other solutions must be sought to more directly mitigate the impacts of tourism without unduly
constraining growth. With respect to environmental impacts there is a substantial, growing knowledge base,
plus the technical means and legislative models to achieve this. A problem remains in relation to cultural
impacts, however, because the issues are more complex. A pessimist would suggest that continued growth
could dramatically transform cultures and create an homogenized world. An optimist would retort that
cultural change is inevitable and not necessarily undesirable, and that tourism could counteract other
change agents and actually help maintain cultures. Understanding this viewpoint requires an examination of
the nature of both culture and international tourism, and the relationship between them.
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Questions 27 - 35
Match each heading to the most suitable paragraph.
i
ii
A positive approach
27
Paragraph A ..........
28
Paragraph B ..........
29
Paragraph C ..........
30
Paragraph D ..........
31
Paragraph E ..........
32
Paragraph F ..........
33
Paragraph G ..........
34
Paragraph H ..........
35
Paragraph I ..........
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Questions 36 - 40
Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the text.
36 While less developed nations have every incentive to grow their tourist industries they ................. to do so.
37 One hope for less developed nations is that, as the industry grows, people will be looking for .................... .
38 One problem with providing a high quality experience is that it requires .................. .
39 A further problem with high quality is that it is only affordable to the .................... .
40 A positive view of growing tourism is that the changes it produces are .................... .
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Answers
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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
B
A
E
B
D
C
True
False
Not Given
Not Given
True
Not Given
Not Given
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
B
B
A
C
C
availability
long-haul
duration
technology
avionic systems
switched
networks
more discreet
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
viii
x
ii
v
vi
ix
iv
i
vii
lack capital
new destinations
high expenditure
most privileged
not undesirable
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