Where the 200 marks go
GCSE Leisure, Travel and Tourism is examined through Unit 1, Understanding the Leisure, Travel and Tourism Industry, and Unit 2, Promoting and Sustaining the Leisure, Travel and Tourism Industry, each 100 marks in 90 minutes. Structured explanation questions carry the largest share of marks across both papers, and extended, levels-marked questions with quality of written communication follow close behind. The examiner reports keep flagging the same habit: candidates naming a factor correctly and then not explaining it.
A one-word answer like transport or money earns almost nothing on a 3-mark question. The mark scheme wants the mechanism behind it: better public transport infrastructure, or an increased cost of living, stated and connected to the outcome the question asks about.
Paper by paper
Each unit gives 90 minutes for 100 marks, roughly 54 seconds per mark, across five questions in Unit 1 and four in Unit 2. Read the mark value of every part before you answer it: a 3-mark item wants a developed point, not a label, and an 8 or 9-mark item is levels-marked and wants sustained, evaluative writing with a real conclusion. Give the longer questions the time their marks imply, and do not let an early short-answer section eat into the minutes you need for the extended writing at the end.
Answer every part of the question
Several questions ask for two things at once, cost and accessibility, or two market research methods, for example. A common way to lose marks here is developing one half well and skipping or trivialising the other. Before you write, check exactly how many elements the question is asking for, and give each one its own developed point, not just the one you find easiest.
Use the insert, do not copy it
Where a question gives you a stimulus, a leaflet, a bar chart, an advert, use it as evidence and then explain it in your own words. Copying a slogan or a label straight off the insert without saying what it shows or why it works does not answer a describe or explain question, however accurately it is copied. When a stimulus is a bar chart, check you have the right year and the right label before building an answer on it; misreading the chart is a frequent, avoidable way to lose easy marks.
Definitions need both halves
Two-mark definitions in this subject usually need a core concept and a qualifying condition, not just the concept alone. Tourism needs both the activity and its time boundary, under one year away, and its distinction from being in your usual environment. Missing the qualifying half of a definition typically costs one of the two marks even when the main idea is right.
Name the organisation, not the category
Questions that ask for a named example want a real, recognised name, Translink, the National Trust, a specific hotel chain, not a bus company or a hotel. Build a short list of named organisations for each topic, transport providers, visitor attractions, tour operators, voluntary sector bodies, so you have one ready whenever a question asks for it.
Quality of written communication
The higher-tariff questions, typically worth 6, 8 or 9 marks, are marked on quality of written communication as well as content: specialist vocabulary, clear paragraphing, and a developed conclusion. A candidate who lists three points without linking them or reaching a conclusion stays in the lower bands even if all three points are accurate. Finish every extended answer with a sentence that states your overall judgement, not a repeat of your last point.
The week before
Build a one-page list of named, real organisations across transport, accommodation, attractions and the voluntary sector. Practise turning single-word factors into full, connected explanations, and time yourself on one 8 or 9-mark question from each unit so the pacing on the day is not a surprise.