Changing economies
Explain employment change, globalisation and TNCs, then evaluate tourism using models, impacts and sustainable management.
Section Paper 2 · Human Geography · Topics 6–10
Exam scope and assessment notes
Cambridge IGCSE Geography 0460, 2027–2029 syllabus, Topic 9. The syllabus does not prescribe one universal set of named detailed specific examples: centres select places suited to their learners. Sixteen optional StudyForA evidence packs now cover all sixteen example objectives, but the centre's choices are unconfirmed. Match each pack to your centre's chosen place and replace any mismatch before treating the course as complete. Original StudyForA explanations and self-check practice are not Cambridge papers, official grades or teacher-marked coursework. Map, graph and written answers are not automatically assessed. Paper 4 practice uses supplied or invented data and cannot certify safe fieldwork, equipment use or real data collection. Centre-set coursework and specialist teacher review remain pending.
Before you begin
- No previous Geography course is assumed. Use the supplied map, data or scenario; distinguish observation from explanation and support conclusions with evidence.
Work on paper. Try each question before revealing help, and explain why your method works.
Quick readiness check
Which sector includes a hotel service?
What you will learn
- Classify industry and explain changing employment structures
- Explain globalisation and TNC organisation/impacts
- Use and evaluate the Butler tourism model
- Assess strategies with named examples
Economic structure changes with productivity and demand
Primary industries extract or grow resources; secondary industries process or manufacture; tertiary industries provide services; quaternary industries handle information and knowledge. Employment shares can change as productivity, incomes, skills, technology and demand change. A sector's share can fall while its output rises.
Industry location depends on land, labour, raw materials, energy, transport, markets, policy, technology, communications and containerisation. Different industries weight these factors differently.
Global links distribute production and influence
Globalisation is increased interconnectedness through trade, finance, transport, communication, culture and technology. A transnational corporation (TNC) operates in more than one country and may coordinate headquarters, research, manufacturing, suppliers and markets across borders.
TNCs can bring employment, investment, technology and tax revenue, but may also create low-paid or insecure work, environmental costs, profit outflows or pressure on local firms. Impacts differ between groups and places; evaluate evidence rather than assuming every host country benefits equally.
Tourism changes through stages but does not follow a fixed script
The Butler model describes exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation and possible decline or rejuvenation. It helps organise discussion but simplifies destinations and can miss uneven change or external shocks. Tourism can create jobs and foreign income while also increasing seasonal work, congestion, housing costs, waste or ecological pressure.
Sustainable management may include carrying-capacity limits, community participation, infrastructure, visitor dispersal, conservation fees and local ownership. Use a named tourism example and a named country/area affected by a TNC/globalisation.
Pause and explain
Why can a TNC increase jobs but still create concerns for a host country?
Worked example
A factory automates production. Manufacturing output rises while its share of employment falls. Explain how this can happen.
Show the worked solution
- Automation may increase output per worker.
- The factory can produce more with fewer workers or grow more slowly than services.
- Employment and output shares measure different things.
Answer Productivity can raise manufacturing output without a proportional rise in jobs. The sector's employment share may fall even while its output grows.
Try a topic test
Choose Easy, Normal or Difficult. Save your answers and open worked review after finishing.
Test this topic →From guided practice to a new situation
Write your answer and reasoning first. Use a hint only if you are stuck. The model solution is for self-checking; your written work is not automatically marked.
A country's workforce shifts from 40% primary, 30% secondary and 30% services to 15%, 25% and 60%. Describe the main change and give two possible explanations.
Give me a hint
Compare percentage-point changes and avoid claiming that absolute employment must fall.
Compare my reasoning
- Primary share falls 25 percentage points; secondary falls 5; services rise 30.
- Higher productivity can reduce the share of workers needed in farming or manufacturing.
- Rising incomes, urbanisation, education and demand may expand services.
The employment structure shifts strongly toward services. Productivity and changing demand are possible explanations, but absolute job numbers require workforce totals.
Look for these in your work
- Changes computed
- Two mechanisms stated
- Share and total distinguished
A TNC opens a factory in a MIC. Give one potential gain, one potential cost, and evidence needed for a balanced evaluation.
Give me a hint
Consider workers, local suppliers, public finances and the environment.
Compare my reasoning
- Possible gains include wages, training, exports or supplier demand.
- Possible costs include pollution, insecure work or profit repatriation.
- Use wage, job quality, tax, supplier, environmental and local-owner data.
The factory may bring jobs and skills but can also create pollution or low-paid work. A balanced judgement needs evidence about job quality, local linkages, tax contribution, environmental effects and profit flows.
Look for these in your work
- Gain qualified
- Cost qualified
- Evidence covers multiple groups
A coastal resort faces congestion and rising rent during peak season. Compare visitor caps with a tourist levy and recommend what further evidence would improve the choice.
Give me a hint
Compare a direct quantity limit with revenue for local services; consider residents and businesses.
Compare my reasoning
- Visitor caps can reduce pressure but may limit local income and be hard to enforce.
- A levy can fund transport or waste services but may not reduce peak volumes.
- Use seasonal visitor counts, housing rents, resident views, service capacity and business income.
Either tool may help under different conditions. Visitor caps directly limit numbers; a levy may fund services without reducing demand. Seasonal pressure and community evidence are needed to select or combine measures.
Look for these in your work
- Strategies contrasted
- Trade-offs stated
- Evidence-based judgement
Common mistakes
- Treating employment share as output share
- Assuming all TNC impacts are positive or negative
- Treating Butler stages as inevitable or precisely measurable
- Describing tourism growth without considering its costs and distribution
What can you explain now?
What is one limitation of the Butler model?
Compare with the explanation
Destinations may not move through the same stages or at the same pace, and external events can change the path
The model is a framework rather than a guaranteed sequence.
After trying it yourself, choose your next review. This is your self-assessment.
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Make it stick
How do globalisation and tourism create uneven effects across places, workers and businesses?
If you needed the solution, close it and solve the problem again from a blank page. A correct answer is stronger when you can explain the reason for each step.