Resort Globes

Resort Globes: purpose-built, integrated, ski and eco resorts

This free game is part of our Cambridge iGCSE Travel & Tourism (0471) course for exams in EXAM YEARS 2027-2029.

The four types of resort

In the Cambridge IGCSE Travel and Tourism (0471) course, a resort is a destination built, or heavily adapted, around tourism. You need to know four types and one named example of each:

• Purpose-built resorts: created from scratch for tourism, often where little existed before. Cancún in Mexico was a sandbar with a tiny fishing village in 1970 before the government and the World Bank planned a 14-mile strip of hotels.
• Integrated resorts: self-contained mega-complexes with hotels, a casino, shops, shows and conventions. Marina Bay Sands in Singapore opened in 2010, cost around S$8 billion and has three 55-storey towers joined by a rooftop SkyPark. Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas is another example.
• Ski resorts: mountain destinations for winter sports, with lifts, graded pistes, ski schools, snowmaking and après-ski. Val d'Isère in the French Alps sits at 1,850 m and shares over 300 km of pistes with Tignes.
• Eco-resorts: small, low-impact and nature-based, supporting conservation and local people. Lapa Rios in Costa Rica has just 17 bungalows built from local timber, powered by its own hydroelectric plant.

In Gallery I of the game, Name that Resort, you read nine exhibit labels against the clock and decide which resort type each one describes.

Impacts and sustainability issues

Each resort type has its own problems. In Gallery II, Fix the Resort, you pick the best solution for eight of them:

• Economic leakage in purpose-built resorts: as little as 20 cents of every tourist dollar may stay in the local economy. Local staff, local suppliers and local ownership keep more money in the area. Hotel building has also destroyed mangroves and damaged coral reefs.
• Problem gambling and enclaves in integrated resorts. Singapore charges citizens and permanent residents a casino entry levy of S$150 a day, and Marina Bay Sands runs a free light show and open promenade for locals.
• Seasonality and climate change in ski resorts. Most income arrives between December and April, so resorts diversify with summer mountain biking, hiking and luges. Verbier now markets itself all year round.
• Greenwashing in eco-resorts. Genuine eco-resorts prove their benefits with third-party certification such as Rainforest Alliance or Green Globe, and employ and empower local people.

Comparing and evaluating resorts

Gallery III, Compare and Evaluate, starts by asking you to order the four types by scale: eco-resorts are small and low-density, ski resorts medium to large, purpose-built resorts large to very large and integrated resorts mega-scale. Six examiner's questions follow, with key facts to learn:

• A 2023 study of 2,234 European ski resorts found that without snowmaking, 53% face a very high risk of poor snow at 2°C of warming, and 98% at 4°C.
• Singapore's arrivals rose from 9.7 million in 2009 to over 15 million in 2013 after its integrated resorts opened, which also boosted MICE tourism (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions).
• Six Senses Zil Pasyon in the Seychelles shows high-value, low-volume tourism: only 30 villas, with premium prices that fund coral reef restoration.
• Mexico's Caribbean coast had over 20 million visitors in 2024, yet many Maya communities gained little and local culture has been diluted.

Exam tips

• Learn one detailed case study for each resort type. Examiners reward specific names and data.
• "Evaluate" means weigh both sides and reach a supported judgement. For integrated resorts, set jobs, tax revenue and MICE business against problem gambling, enclaves and social inequality, then conclude.
• Use the key terms accurately: economic leakage, seasonality, diversification, greenwashing and high-value, low-volume.

The game ends with a comparison table of all four types and a model answer to a 6-mark question on the benefits and problems of integrated resorts for Singapore.