Paying Tourists - Advanced Article Lesson.pdf

Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2021.
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Warmer
a. These six countries were the ones most visited in the world by foreign tourists in 2019 (before
the pandemic). Put them in order from 1 (the most visited) to 6 (the least visited).
China
the USA
Italy
Turkey
France
Spain
Key words
a. Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.
anecdotal dry up grant hook impact
incentive instalment jumpstart momentum non-essential
occupancy remotely straightforward usher in winery
1. If something is described as , it is not complicated
to understand.
2. If people something, they quickly make it work after a
period of failure.
3. If visitors , they completely stop visiting a place.
4. If you work , you work from home using a computer rather
than going to the office.
5. is the percentage of people using a facility such as a hotel.
6. A / An is something that makes you want to do something
because you know you will benefit by doing this.
7. If you an activity or a process, you make it start.
8. travel is not really necessary.
If you pay them, they will come: the US city giving tourists cash to visit
Level: Advanced
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Level: Advanced
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9. A / An is an American term for vineyard.
10. A / An is the effect that something has.
11. A / An is an amount of money that a government or an
organization gives people for a specific purpose that does not need to be paid back.
12. A / An story is one that is based on someone’s
personal experience.
13. If a telephone rings off the , it is constantly ringing due to a
large number of calls.
14. A / An is one of several parts that a programme is
divided into.
15. is progress or development that is becoming faster
or stronger.

Level: Advanced
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Redmond, Washington saw

visitor numbers plummet when
the pandemic struck but its
novel response is a hit
Hallie Golden
9 April, 2021
Microsoft’s hometown of Redmond, Washington
has turned to a very straightforward technique
to jumpstart tourism more than a year after
Covid-19 struck and the corporate travel it had
come to rely on dried up – pay people to visit.
The small city just east of Seattle is home
to Microsoft’s headquarters, along with such
companies as Nintendo of America, the
aerospace company SpaceX and Facebook.
So, on 4 March, 2020, when Microsoft
recommended its tens of thousands of
employees in the city work remotely and other
local companies followed suit, the impact was
felt by many local businesses, particularly the
hotel industry, explained tourism manager
Peter Klauser. “The hotels went from a 65 per
cent to 85 per cent occupancy range, down to
6 per cent or 9 per cent,” he said. “There were
times when there might even have been just
one guest in an entire hotel.”
Months later, when the situation remained
largely unchanged, Klauser was brainstorming
creative solutions to attract visitors back to
the city when he joked to colleagues: “Why
don’t we just give them some cash?” The idea
sparked “You Stay, We Pay”, a programme
launched in late March, which involves
awarding the first 500 visitors who stay
two or more nights at a participating hotel
100 dollars-worth of the community currency,
“Geek Out Gold”.
Nor is Redmond alone. After tourism-reliant
cities across the US saw their economies hit
by the pandemic and resulting shutdowns,
others too have turned to this type of financial
incentive programme to usher in a fresh wave
of socially distanced visitors.
Glenwood Springs, Colorado, for example,
a resort community 40 miles north-west of
Aspen, typically sees 1.5 million visitors a year.
But after its hotels were closed to non-essential
travel in April, 2020 and its hot springs shut
down for months over the summer, the town
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started offering 100-dollar certificates to visitors
who booked hotel rooms.
Lisa Langer, director of tourism promotion at
Visit Glenwood Springs, said that while the
programme, which was launched in June, 2020
never brought them back to normal visitor levels,
it did serve as an important – though temporary –
“Band-Aid”. “That energized us and kept us
going through a very tough time,” she said. “But
now I feel like we are on the right track and
we’re going to come back strong. I’m not as
worried as I was last year at this time.”
Santa Maria Valley, in central California,
created a similar programme in February,
presenting the first 500 visitors who booked at
least a two-night stay in one of its hotels, with a
100-dollar Visa gift card. The community known
for BBQ and wineries sold out in two days, and
then saw 2,543 additional people sign up on
its waiting list, according to Jennifer Harrison,
tourism director of Visit Santa Maria Valley.
She attributed the success not just to the
financial incentive but also the timing (“people
were ready to travel,” she said) and the
community’s clear commitment to social
distancing and masks. And now, after the
programme has officially ended, it’s continuing
to have an impact. “We’re still seeing the
results of the future reservations for it.
We’ve had a huge increase in engagement on
our social platforms. I mean, it’s just been a big
win for us,” she said.
In Redmond, Klauser said, the programme
initially faced some challenges with simply
getting local merchants to agree to be a
part of it but, in the end, they were able to
get about 50 merchants on board, including
restaurants, fitness facilities, salons and
bookshops. Officials then used funds from the
city’s 1 per cent lodging tax, which was meant
for event grants but had gone largely unused
the previous year, for the programme’s 50,000
dollars-worth of incentives.
Klauser said that, less than two weeks after the
programme launched, they had booked 750 of
the anticipated 1,000-room nights and awarded
more than 30,000 dollars to visitors.
“The anecdotal story from the hoteliers this
week is that their phones are ringing off the
hook and that people are super excited,”
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Level: Advanced
explained Klauser. “You know, they’re getting
more reservations than they’ve seen in well
over a year. And so it’s been highly positive on
all sides.”
On 22 March, Microsoft announced it would
be reopening its campus in Redmond to
employees, which Klauser considers great
news for the city. But he doesn’t see the
change having a particularly noticeable impact
anytime soon. In fact, he’s already looking into
launching a second instalment of the incentive
programme after this one finishes. “The
momentum has been so great that we want
to try to keep it going for a little longer if we
can, so that’s why we’re exploring options for
a future phase of this,” he said.
© Guardian News and Media 2021
First published in The Guardian, 09/04/2021
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Level: Advanced
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3
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Comprehension check
a. Answer the questions using information from the article.
1. What is the simple technique that Redmond is using to bring back tourists?
2. What kind of travel did the hotels of Redmond particularly rely on before the Covid pandemic?
3. What was Peter Klauser doing when he came up with the idea of giving visitors cash?
4. What is “Geek Out Gold”?
5. How many people visit Glenwood Springs in a typical year?
6. How does Lisa Langer feel about the future prospects for Glenwood Springs?
7. Apart from the financial incentive, why, according to Jennifer Harrison, has the programme in
Santa Maria Valley been so successful?
8. How did Redmond raise 50,000 dollars to fund its programme?
9. What, according to Peter Klauser, is great news for Redmond?
10. What is Klauser proposing to do after the current incentive programme finishes?
Using key language
a. Match the verbs in the left-hand column with the nouns or noun phrases in the right-hand column.
1. launch a. a challenge
2. feel b. a hotel room
3. attract c. an impact
4. book d. a programme
5. have e. options
6. face f. suit
7. explore g. the impact of something
8. follow h. visitors

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Level: Advanced
Discussion
a. Discuss these statements.
• “Paying people to visit your city is a great idea.”
• “The Covid pandemic will mean the end of tourism as we know it.”
• “Working from home is the future of the world of business.”
In your own words
a. The article describes attracting visitors back to US towns by offering them financial incentives.
Imagine that you are a member of a committee for promoting tourism in your town or city. Just
as in Redmond and Glenwood Springs, the pandemic has led to empty hotels and the almost
complete absence of foreign tourists. Your task is to find ways of attracting visitors back to
your town or city that do not include offering them money to visit.
Think of at least five different ways of increasing visitor numbers and write a short report
(150 to 200 words) outlining your proposals.
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Level: Advanced – Teacher’s notes
Article summary: The article describes how
some places in the USA have started to offer
financial incentives to people to encourage
them to visit.
Time: 60 minutes
Skills: Reading, Speaking, Writing
Language focus: Vocabulary
Materials needed: One copy of the
worksheet per student
1. Warmer
a. The purpose of this activity is for students to use
their knowledge of the world to decide which
countries are the most visited by foreign tourists.
The figures for 2019 show that France was visited by
90 million overseas visitors, while Spain, in second
place, had 83 million. Turkey, in sixth place, was not
so far behind with 51 million. By contrast, the least
visited countries in the world are predominantly
island nations in the Pacific, mainly because of their
remoteness and the high costs of travelling there.
Key:
4. China
3. the USA
5. Italy
6. Turkey
1. France
2. Spain
2. Key words
a. Ask students to do the exercise individually and
then compare their answers in pairs or small groups.
Encourage students to use some of this vocabulary
actively by asking them questions such as ‘What
are the advantages and disadvantages of working
remotely?’, ‘What is essential travel and what is
non-essential travel?’ and ‘What will be needed to
jumpstart economies when the pandemic is over?’
Point out that ‘winery’ is generally used for a wine-
growing enterprise in the USA, such as a California
winery, while in Europe, the term that is normally used
in ‘vineyard’. The phrasal verb ‘dry up’ can be used
in a literal sense with something such as a river or a
water supply, but is often used in a more figurative
sense with financial terms such as money, funds or
funding. The phrasal verb ‘usher in’ is typically used
in journalism, as in ‘The government is planning to
usher in a range of new laws.’ Highlight the difference
between a ‘grant’ (which you don’t have to pay back)
and a ‘loan’ (which you do have to pay back).
Key:
1. straightforward
2. jumpstart
3. dry up
4. remotely
5. Occupancy
6. incentive
7. usher in
8. Non-essential
9. winery
10. impact
11. grant
12. anecdotal
13. hook
14. instalment
15. Momentum
3. Comprehension check
a. The answers given are only suggested answers
and students may correctly answer the questions in
different ways, e.g. in number 7, they may simply say
‘good timing’ or similar.
Key:
1. paying people to visit
2. corporate (business) travel
3.
brainstorming creative ideas to attract visitors
back to the city
4. a community currency
5. one and a half (one point five) million
6.
She feels that the city is on the right track and
will come back strong.
7.
People were ready to travel and the community
is committed to social distancing and masks.

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Home Adults General English NEWS LESSONS
Level: Advanced – Teacher’s notes
5. Discussion
a. Allow students time to note down their ideas about
each statement and encourage them to say why they
agree or disagree with each one.
6. In your own words
a. Students should be able to think of some ways to
attract tourists to their town or city but, if they are
having problems thinking of ideas, ask them to look
online. There are numerous websites that offer
suggestions for boosting tourism so if they type
into a search engine ‘ideas for attracting tourists’ or
‘tourism marketing’, they will find a lot of relevant
ideas. Both the preparation and the writing could be
done as homework activities.
8. by using funds from its 1 per cent lodging tax
9.
the fact that Microsoft is reopening its campus
to employees
10. He is planning to launch a second instalment.
4. Using key language
a. Students could be asked to do this exercise
individually and then compare their answers in
pairs. Note that the expression follow suit means
do the same thing that someone else has done.
The expression has its origins in games of cards,
where if one player played a certain card (for
example, the five of hearts), the next player played a
card of the same suit, that is another heart.
Other answers may be possible but students should
be encouraged to make phrases from the text.
Key:
1. d
2. g
3. h
4. b
5. c
6. a
7. e
8. f

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