Foreign visitors should pay more than local visitors for cultural and historical attractions. To what extent do you agree or disagree with this opinion?

It is sometimes argued that

tourists

from overseas should be charged more than local residents to visit important

sites

and monuments. I completely disagree with

this

idea. The argument in favour of higher prices for foreign

tourists

would be that cultural or historical attractions often depend on state subsidies to keep them going, which means that the resident population already pays money to these

sites

through the tax system.

However

, I believe

this

to be a very shortsighted view. Foreign

tourists

contribute to the economy of the host

country

with the money they spend on a wide range of goods and services, including food, souvenirs, accommodation and travel. The governments and inhabitants of every

country

should be happy to subsidise important tourist

sites

and encourage people from the rest of the world to visit them. If travellers realised that they would have to pay more to visit historical and cultural attractions in a particular nation, they would perhaps decide not to go to that

country

on holiday. To take the UK as an example, the tourism industry and many related jobs rely on visitors coming to the

country

to see places like Windsor Castle or Saint Paul’s Cathedral. These two

sites

charge the same price regardless of nationality, and

this

helps to promote the nation’s cultural heritage. If overseas

tourists

stopped coming

due to

higher prices, there would be a risk of insufficient funding for the maintenance of these important buildings. In conclusion, I believe that every effort should be made to attract

tourists

from overseas, and it would be counterproductive to make them pay more than local residents.