VI. Written task

1. Read the text, translate it into Russian using a dictionary. Overseas markets (bta)

Overseas visits to Britain are increasing, as is the amount of money visitors spend once they are here.

Britain is now winning back the market share of world tourism which it lost during the 1980s and 1990s. Tourism is our fastest growing industry and the UK now accounts for around 5 percent of world tourism receipts.

The British Tourist Authority¹ (BTA) is the statutory body responsible for promoting Britain as a tourist destination worldwide.

BTA works in partnership with the Scottish, English, Wales and regional tourist boards, and is a government – sponsored agency funded by the Department of National Heritage.

BTA’s main responsibilities are:

– to promote tourism to Britain from overseas;

– to advise the government on tourism matters affecting Britain as a whole;

– encouraging the provision and improvement of tourist amenities in Britain.

In addition to its “head office” in London, the BTA has a network of over 40 officers overseas which handle enquires on Britain from members of the public, travel and media.

____________

¹Британское управление по туризму. (Государственная организация, создана в 1969 в целях привлечения иностранных туристов в Великобританию).

VII. Intensive reading task

1. Study the vocabulary list to the text

terrain (n)	местность; особенности территории
to a certain degree	в определенной степени
to be activity conscious	деятельно настроенный
cultural heritage	культурное наследие
in the main	большей частью
to be popular with smbd.	быть популярным среди кого-либо

2. Read an interview with Signor Pacini of the Sicilian Tourist Board who is talking about tourism in Sicily and how the regional government is trying to improve the industry there.

I. – the Interviewer S.P. – Signor Pacini

I.	Where do most of your tourists come from?
S.P.	Well, a high percentage is Italians, and then other Europeans in the main. And now we are getting a steady stream of tourists from the States, and from Japan.
I.	And what do they do when they come?
S.P.	The Italians mostly want to be able to enjoy the sun and the sea. Though of course, there are many other reasons why Sicily is so popular both with Italians and foreigners.
I.	Such as?
S.P.	There's the fact that we have here examples of almost every periods of Mediterranean culture, from the Greek period right through to the present day, which puts Sicily firmly on the map of the cultural and archaeological itineraries. Then there's the geography and geology, the terrain and the flowers and wild life.
I.	What, in particular?
S.P.	Well, for example, there's Etna with its still active volcano surrounded of course by its own national park. But we have such a diversity of geological formations and also of climatic changes that each area is entirely different. It's an amazingly beautiful and varied landscape for the ecotourist.
I.	... and so they come for a wide variety of reasons. But are their demands the same as, say, they were five years ago?
S.P.	To a certain degree, yes. They want to enjoy our cultural heritage, to enjoy our cuisine, to appreciate the countryside, to spend some time on our glorious beaches, though they are now far more activity conscious and more interested in visiting areas that are not established "tourism resorts". But they also want better services. In particular they demand, and quite rightly so, better accommodation. And we feel that all this is very important. We are now part of a European Community project to look at ways of developing and promoting sustainable tourism in the south of Italy. In this project we will be developing criteria to rate hotels uniformly, looking at the transport infrastructure, considering the main tourism cultural itineraries, and looking at the protected areas so we can produce strategies to develop their potential, to promote them internationally and to maintain our regional, cultural way of life. We need tourism. It is our chief employer – but it must be sustainable.