Academic Task 1
IELTS Academic Writing Task 1: Tourists in four cities (line graph)
Question type: Academic Task 1: line graph
The question
The line graph below shows the number of international tourists who visited four cities between 2010 and 2025.
- City A
- City B
- City C
- City D
View the data as a table
| 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City A | 12 | 15 | 6 | 17 |
| City B | 8 | 11 | 4 | 14 |
| City C | 5 | 6 | 2 | 9 |
| City D | 3 | 5 | 1 | 4 |
Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
Write at least 150 words.
Write your own answer first. Then get an estimated band and corrections from our AI marker.
Answer this questionHow to approach it
- Notice the shared pattern: growth, a sharp fall in 2020, then recovery.
- Say which cities recovered beyond their earlier level and which did not.
- Use City A as the main example and compare the others with it.
Model answer
203 words (minimum 150). Written to show the features of a Band 8-level answer.
The line graph shows the number of international tourists, in millions, who visited four cities between 2010 and 2025.
Overall, all four cities followed a similar pattern: visitor numbers grew until 2015, fell sharply in 2020 and then recovered by 2025. City A attracted the most tourists throughout, and most cities ended the period with more visitors than ever before.
City A received 12 million tourists in 2010, rising to 15 million in 2015. The number then dropped dramatically to 6 million in 2020, before recovering strongly to 17 million, its highest level, in 2025. City B followed almost exactly the same trend at a slightly lower level, climbing from 8 million to 11 million, falling to 4 million and then rising to a peak of 14 million.
The two smaller cities had far fewer visitors. City C grew slowly from 5 million to 6 million, fell to 2 million in 2020 and then increased to 9 million in 2025. City D was the only city that did not fully recover. Its visitors rose from 3 million to 5 million before collapsing to just 1 million in 2020, and by 2025 the figure had only returned to 4 million, below its 2015 level.
Useful language from this answer
- followed a similar pattern
- grouping trends in the overview
- dropped dramatically
- a large, sudden decrease
- recovering strongly
- returning to a high level
- reached a peak of
- its highest point
- did not fully recover
- did not return to the earlier level
Common mistakes with this question
- Missing the overview. A report without a clear summary of the main trends cannot score above Band 5 for Task Achievement.
- Giving your opinion or explaining why the changes happened. Task 1 Academic only asks you to describe the data.
- Listing every number in order instead of selecting the key figures and making comparisons.
Now write your own answer
Reading a model helps, but writing is what improves your band. Answer this question and get an estimated band for all four criteria, with corrections taken from your own sentences.
This model answer was written by TestWise Prep to show the features of a high-scoring answer. It is not official IELTS material. Use it for ideas and language, not to memorise.