The bar chart compares the proportion of overseas visitors to three areas of a European country
between 1987 and 2007. Overall, visiting to coast and the mountains became more popular, despite the
former showing higher numbers than the letter. In addition, the proportion rate for the lake experienced
a considerable fall at the end of the final years.
The coast and lake exhibited similar patterns. In 1987, 40 thousand of overseas visitors went to the
coast, approximately twice as much as higher than the people visiting the mountains in the same year.
The gap, however, became more pronounced for both areas (the coast and mountains) in 1997, as the
former reaching to about 55 thousand visitors and the letter increasing slightly to 26 thousand visitors in
the same year. After 10 years, the coast and the mountains continued their trajectory and ended the
period with the respective figures standing at 70 thousand and 30 thousand overseas visitors.
The figure for the lake, on the other hand, bucked the trend. Starting at 11 thousand visitors in 1987, the
number increased considerably to 30 thousand in 1982 before reaching slowly 35 thousand in 1997.
Surprisingly, the percentage of overseas visitors showed a staggering rise to 73 thousand. In 2007,
however, this number fell, showing 53 thousand visitors.
Countries which are keen to achieve successful goals when it comes to sports tend to prioritize
allocating some of their means for specialized facilities, which are especially dedicated for athletes
instead of other people living in the country. In my opinion, while this trend seems a positive one in
some cases, this is an undesirable turn of events overall.
There may be some reasons why some people think that creating only athlete- based facilities can be a
preferable approach. One of them is that its convenience in terms of budget. Government can allocate
smaller budget of money for the facilities that are only dedicated to athletes than that of facilities for
majority of people living in the area. Because when there is a high demand for sport facilities by so many
people, there should be also a high amounts of expense allocation. Therefore, they may rather avoid
and choose budget-friendly way. Another reason is structured and high maintained environment that
the athletes may get. If there are facilities mainly for athletes, they can boost their performance better
in a structured environment with their like-minded peers, and there may be no distraction with people
coming from different backgrounds. Also, when only the athletes access to facilities, it means that there
would be no need to maintaining and facilitating tools and equipment of sport facilities.
In my opinion, however, creating opportunities in terms of sports for the people who are not athletes
may hold a significant advantage for countries. One of positives of this development is that it can
increase overall well-being of the majority people. For example, in this fast-paced world and with the
advent of technology, more people experiencing unbalanced and unhealthy lifestyle, which in turn
requiring sporting facilities for not only athletes but also people from diverse occupations and
backgrounds. Consequently, more people will be able to be productive in every aspect of their life,
whether it can be social, financial, academic, health or job. Another advantage is that more passionate
people who are eager to exercise more and potentially leading to prospective future athletes. For
example, if the accessibility of sport facilities is higher, more people who did not practice exercising may
try and be interested in sport more than anything else. So, if chances for doing sports are available in the
facilities for more people regardless of their background, it can stimulate not only people`s overall
interest for it but also can be way for potential future athletes.
In conclusion, although there may be some benefits of providing sport facilities for mainly athletes, I
believe not limiting those chances from other people can have a significant consequences for not only
athletes to be successful but also the success of the country in terms of promoting overall well-being of
other people.
