Why is environmental capacity measured by area?

Beaches and trails are limited by the area each person needs, so usable area divided by area per person gives the simultaneous capacity.

Why stretch the comparison to a longer horizon?

A one-off capital cost and a recurring cost can reverse order over short periods, so both must sit on the same 25-year basis.

S5 Geography | Tourism and Sustainable Tourism Paper 3 (Challenge)

2026-11-04

Tutor Prep Guide · Secondary Geography

Paper 3 works on policy and planning: beach area capacity, tourism value added in GDP, flight emissions, hotel electricity, the seasonality index, ballot quotas, payback and a 25-year comparison of two coastal options.

Unify the horizon and the units　Allow about thirty-five minutes; put both options on the same horizon and units, total each line, then compare the difference and the percentage.

01　Paper details (check answers afterwards)

Item	Detail
Questions	10 items
Suggested time	About 35 minutes
Difficulty mix	Foundation 4 · Intermediate 3 · Challenge 2 · Error redo 1
Chapter	Chapter: S5 Geography \| Tourism and Sustainable Tourism
Level	S5 (Secondary 5) Geography

02　Questions (10 items)

FoundationA beach is 800 metres long with 40 metres of usable width and needs 5 square metres per person. What is the daily capacity, and what is the overshoot at 8,000 visitors?
FoundationTourism value added is 16.8 billion directly and 25.2 billion indirectly, against a GDP of 420 billion. What shares do the direct and combined figures take?
FoundationEach visitor flies 3,000 kilometres return, emitting 0.15 kilograms of carbon dioxide per kilometre. What do 500,000 visitors emit in tonnes?
FoundationA hotel sells 69,350 room-nights, each using 45 kilowatt-hours at 1.2 dollars per unit. Find annual consumption and the electricity bill.
IntermediateFour peak months take 45% of annual arrivals. With the average month indexed at 100, what is the peak-month index?
IntermediateA site caps entry at 3,000 a day while peak demand reaches 4,200. What is the success rate in a ballot, and what happens if demand rises another 10%?
IntermediateTourist spending of 600 million is respent locally at 0.6 each round. Find the second and third rounds and their three-round total.
ChallengeAn eco-trail costs 45,000,000 dollars and earns 5,600,000 net a year. What is the payback period, and what annual net income is needed to pay back within eight years?
ChallengeOption A is a seawall costing 18,000,000 once plus 400,000 a year in maintenance. Option B is beach nourishment at 6,500,000 every five years plus 150,000 a year monitoring. Over 25 years, which is cheaper and by how much?
Error redoA student reads 15% more arrivals as 15% more receipts. If spending per visitor falls 8%, what is the actual change?

03　Answers and one-line notes

#	Answer	One-line note
1	Capacity 6,400; the overshoot is 1,600 visitors, or 25%.	Capacity is usable area divided by area per person; use the usable width only.
2	Directly 4%, combined 10%.	Both use the same GDP denominator; do not present direct and indirect as an already-multiplied total.
3	450 kilograms each, 225,000 tonnes in total.	Work out emissions per visitor first, then multiply; divide kilograms by 1,000 for tonnes.
4	3,120,750 kilowatt-hours and a bill of 3,744,900 dollars.	Consumption is room-nights times use per room-night; the bill then multiplies by the tariff.
5	An index of 135, since one peak month takes 11.25% against an average of 8.33%.	Compare with the all-year monthly average, not with the quiet season; divide the share by the months first.
6	71.4% success; with demand at 4,620 it falls to 64.9%.	Success is the quota divided by demand, and the new demand must become the denominator.
7	Second round 3.6 billion, third 2.16 billion, total 11.76 billion.	Each round multiplies by the same 0.6; the three-round total is a partial sum of the infinite multiplier of 2.5.
8	Payback 8.04 years; eight years needs 5,625,000 dollars a year.	Payback is investment divided by annual net income; a shorter period requires a higher annual figure.
9	A costs 28,000,000 and B costs 36,250,000; A is cheaper by 8,250,000, or 22.8%.	Put both options on the same 25-year basis, and count five nourishment rounds rather than four.
10	A rise of 5.8% (1.15 times 0.92 = 1.058), from 78 billion to 82.52 billion.	Percentage changes multiply rather than add; adding would give 7% and overshoot by 1.2 points.

04　What to do after marking

After marking, redo only the wrong items and write down which step went wrong (formula, unit, or misread number).
Repeat the same item two days later; move to the next paper only when both attempts are correct.
Parents only need the answer and note columns; there is no need to explain every item.

Need a tutor for this chapter? Register here Tutor Registration →

Questions and answers are written originally by the TutorZone team and are not taken from any school, publisher or examination authority paper. Every value is checked by computer.