Tackling overtourism: Finding solutions using 21st-century skills

• Show Slide 2. Ask learners, with a partner, to a) brainstorm five words they associate with the photo and b) say whether they'd like to go there on holiday, and why/why not.
• As you monitor, put some of the learners' words on the board (selecting those that are particularly relevant to the topic).
• Do some quick group feedback, drawing attention to interesting vocabulary, and checking meaning and pronunciation if necessary.
• Check who would/wouldn't like to visit with a show of hands and ask a few learners for their reasons.  

• Show Slide 3. Divide the class in half (A and B) and then put each half of the class into A–A and B–B pairs. Ensure that learners know what is expected in this communicative and collaborative task – they should speak and write as much as they can in English, and both partners should contribute their ideas. 

Question for A–A pairs: What are the positive aspects of tourism? List as many things as you can think of.

Question for B–B pairs: What are the negative aspects of tourism? List as many things as you can think of.

• Monitor, noting useful language and interesting ideas. Add these to the board (positives vs negatives).
• Re-group learners into A–B pairs to compare their ideas. Ask: Did you find more positives or negatives?
• Do some group feedback, focusing on some of the interesting ideas and useful language. Also ask learners to think about how much each of them in the pair spoke English and contributed ideas.
• Show Slide 4. Ask learners: What do we mean by overtourism? Accept all relevant ideas. Show Slide 5 with a definition of overtourism. Do their ideas match the definition?
• Do some quick self-assessment of learners' use of communicative and collaborative skills. Ask them When you were discussing the questions, did you explain your ideas clearly in English? Ask them to put either thumbs up if they did, thumbs down if they didn't or thumbs to the side if they thought they did OK but could do better next time. Then ask Did you both contribute? Did you build on each other's ideas? Again, ask them to show thumbs. 

• In this activity, learners use critical-thinking skills to analyse the video's purpose and message. Show Slide 6. Tell learners they are going to watch a video about overtourism. As they watch, they should think about these questions: 

What's the purpose of the video? (to inform, to entertain, both?)

What's the message of the video?

• Play the video from beginning to end.
• Show Slide 7 (Worksheet Task 1) and ask learners to answer the questions with their partner.
• Do some group feedback asking learners to share their ideas. Some possible answers may be: 

The video maker wants to inform us about a serious issue. They want to inform us in an entertaining way.

The message is that tourism causes a lot of problems. Tourism is bad for the planet.  

• Ask learners Why does the video maker mix humour and facts? [To make the information more memorable/engaging/seem more serious.] How can we summarise the message? [Tourism has serious consequences for local communities and the environment. We should learn to be responsible tourists.] 

• Show Slide 8 (Worksheet Task 2). Tell learners they are going to watch the first part of the video again and choose which three particular problems are mentioned in relation to each issue. Before showing the video, ask learners to work together to see how much they can remember from the first watching. Monitor and help with any language needed.
• Now play up to 2:43 in the video and ask them to check their answers as they watch.
• Show Slide 9 with the correct answers. 

• Show Slide 10 (Worksheet Task 3). Ask learners, in pairs, to think about who or what is affected by each issue. Monitor and help with language.  
• Do some whole-class feedback. Possible answers could be:

damage to the environment: nature, locals, tourists, future generations (loss of habitat for wildlife; water and air are polluted; beauty of the area is ruined)  

damage to historical monuments: locals, tourists, future generations (history is lost for everyone; less tourist income)

destroying traditional ways of life: locals, tourists, future generations (old customs and culture disappear; community identity is lost; the place becomes less authentic)

rising housing prices: locals, future generations, nature (people can't afford homes; forced to move away; nature destroyed to build new housing) 

• In this activity, as well as using communicative, collaborative and critical-thinking skills, learners also use creativity to come up with their own solutions to overtourism and ways to be a responsible tourist. Show Slide 11 (Worksheet Task 4). Tell learners that the video suggests three solutions to overtourism. They are going to watch again and try to identify the three solutions. Play the video from 2:43 to 3:16 (play this part twice if necessary). Learners compare answers with their partner. Show Slide 12 with the answers. Ask the learners: Can you think of any other solutions? Accept all relevant ideas.
• Show Slide 13 (Worksheet Task 5). Tell learners that the video suggests a) three reasons why tourism is important and b) three ways to be a responsible tourist. Before they watch again, they are going to try to predict what these are. Monitor closely and write useful language and ideas on the board.  
• Do some group feedback and write learners' predictions on the board before showing the last part of the video. You may want to pre-teach the expression 'off the beaten track' – places where not very many people go.  
• Play the video from 3:16 to the end (play this part twice if necessary), stopping between parts a) and b). Then show Slide 14 and, as a whole class, check whether their predictions were correct. Learners probably thought of more reasons and ways than were mentioned in the video. Tell them that these will be useful for the next lesson. 

• Tell learners that in today's lesson, as well as using their English skills, they used four other important skills. Show Slide 15. Can they complete the words?  
• Show Slide 16 with the answers and some examples. Ask the learners to take a small piece of paper and write down one of the 4Cs that they used in today's lesson, and the way they used it. For example: 
  Critical thinking: I thought about the information in the video. 
  Collaboration: I worked with my partner to come up with ways to be a responsible tourist.
• Ask them to swap their paper with a partner. Ask: Did you have the same ideas?  
• Have a quick show of hands to find out which of the 4Cs was used most in today's lesson.
• Tell learners that in the next lesson, they will use the 4Cs to find some more solutions to overtourism.

• Show Slide 17. Ask learners to work with a partner to think of a suitable word to complete each of the headlines. They must use a different word for each of the four headlines.
• As you monitor, write good suggestions and useful language on the board.
• Do some quick group feedback, accepting all relevant answers. Some suggestions could be:

tourists; holiday apartments; cars 
bus system; hotel; restaurant 
cruise ships; plastic bottles; swimming pools 
off the beaten track villages; bike tours; local products 

• In this second lesson, learners will put the 4Cs (communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity) into practice, while they negotiate and find solutions to overtourism. Show Slide 18 (Worksheet Task 6). Ask learners to match each set of suggestions to one of the four Cs.
• Ask learners to check their answers with their partner, then show Slide 19  and check as a whole class. 

Answers:

1. Communication; 2. Collaboration; 3. Critical thinking; 4. Creativity

• Tell learners that they should choose one item from each of the 4Cs on the checklist to focus on when they are doing their role play. Less confident learners may decide to choose some of the more basic suggestions (e.g. speak mostly in English), whereas stronger learners could be encouraged to choose some of the more challenging suggestions (e.g. use language to persuade, negotiate or compromise).  

• Show Slide 20. Ask learners to imagine that they live in this place. Tell them: It's a beautiful island village that has become very popular on social media and now millions of people want to visit. The local restaurants and shops are happy as they are making more money than before. They can charge higher prices for meals, food and other things. New jobs have been created for hotel and restaurant staff. New hotels have been built, and trees have been cut down. Many apartments have become accommodation for tourists. The village and the beaches are really crowded. Cruise ships arrive to the island every day and bring in even more people. The place is getting dirty – the bins are overflowing with so much rubbish. All those extra people mean that a lot of water is used for showers and swimming pools. The local council has called a meeting to try to find some solutions to the problems caused by the village becoming so popular. It has asked various people to attend: a hotel owner, a local resident, an environmentalist and a representative from the tourist office. Tell learners they will all play one of the roles and say why they think tourism in the village is good or bad for them. Then everyone will try to come up with three ways to make tourism more responsible and fairer for all.
• Divide the learners into four groups – A: hotel owners, B: local residents, C: environmentalists and D: representatives from the tourist office.  
• Depending on the level of your learners, you may or may not wish to use the role cards to help them prepare their roles. If using, give each group their role card at this point. Tell them to first think about why they are happy or unhappy about the situation in the village (or why they have mixed feelings). Then ask them to work together and think creatively to come up with some solutions. They can refer back to the ideas generated from watching the video.
• Think about how you group your learners. You might decide to put stronger/more confident learners with less confident learners at this stage so that they can help each other to come up with solutions and with the language that they will need in the role play.  

• Put learners into A-B-C-D groups. Tell them they are going to play the role of the person they prepared in their group. Each person will have one minute to put forward their point of view and proposed solutions. After everyone has spoken, the group will work collaboratively to decide on three solutions that are fair for everyone.  
• Tell learners they have 15 minutes to complete the task, and they should nominate one group member to report back on their solutions at the end. Remind them to use the 4Cs when completing this group task. If your learners respond well to point-scoring and challenges, you may like to consider introducing a points system, awarding a point to a group every time you hear one of the 4Cs suggestions being used. Alternatively you may prefer to just let learners self- and peer assess at the end of the task.  
• Monitor closely and help with language where necessary. As you monitor, you can also evaluate how well your learners are using the 4Cs. Use the checklist for teachers by ticking the different statements or making notes on each group or individual learners. You can use these in the feedback at the end. 

• Ask each group in turn to present their solutions for responsible tourism to the whole class.  Possible solutions they may find:

Limit the number of tourists per day; regulate water use (limit swimming pools); create tourist zones; encourage eco-friendly transport; create tourist respect rules; promote lesser-known areas of the island

• Conduct a vote on the three best solutions. 

• Give some whole-class feedback on the task. You could include:

Language: Share useful phrases heard and do some error correction focusing on language for negotiation, agreeing/disagreeing and presenting ideas.

Task completion: Comment on the effectiveness and originality of the solutions.

Process: Refer back to the 4Cs. Highlight effective teamwork strategies (e.g. building on each other's ideas, reaching a group decision). 

• Show Slide 19 (Worksheet Task 6) again. Ask learners to think about the items they identified before doing the communicative task. Ask them to assess themselves by drawing 😊, 🙁 or 😐 next to each skill they had chosen to focus on. Then put them back into their groups and ask them to compare their answers. Then ask them to discuss how they felt they did as a group: which skill they did best in; what they could improve for next time; whether they think the 4Cs helped them work together and find solutions. 

• Learners write an online local news article reporting on the proposed solutions to overtourism in the village