Jessica Lim, journalist or spin doctor?

Rock^Star SG

In an article with the most inappropriate headline “YOG boosts tourism“, ST journalist Jessica Lim proclaims that “the number of tourists to Singapore last month shot up 18 percent compared to August last year, DUE IN PART to the Youth Olympic Games”. (original article here)

According to the figures on STB’s website on visitor growth rate (over the year) for the last 4 months:

May 2010 grew by 30.3%
Jun 2010 grew by 26.7%
Jul 2010 grew by 24.1%
Aug 2010 grew by 18.0% <<<<<<<< LOWEST

So in fact the growth rate of 18.0% in August 2010 is the LOWEST in the past 4 months. How then can this be a “BOOST” due to YOG as claimed by her? Comparatively, the growth rate in May, June and July is higher without YOG.

In case Jessica Lim is not aware of, there is such a thing called the Internet and on the Internet, there are search engines called Google, Yahoo, Seek, etc which makes retrieving information a few keystrokes away. Why she choose to plug figures instead of spending a few minutes of her time to research these data is beyond comprehension, unless of course it was intentionally done to mislead.

Maybe Jessica Lim has a low IQ. She can’t distinguish the difference between the thousands of YOG athletes and officials and real tourists or even those that came to watch the YOG.

Or maybe the complacent local media is really thinking that Singaporeans are so very daft that their sorry excuse of a journalist can simply plug figures out of thin air, play some word twisting, spin a little and Singaporeans will swallow Bait, Hook and Sinker?

Forecaster Extraordinarie II

4sg SG

Jessica Lim and her likes are paid by their master to cook up storms and they jolly do. It's their livelihood.

Don’t be surprise if sizeable Sinkaporeans believe them, esp those lowly educated, singlet and short uncles.

hielo de fuego es perra SG

Music-Life SG

Technically, she's not lying.

As seen from your data given, the table lists the percentage growth rate of visitors. While Aug 2010 indeed saw the lowest percentage growth rate, the visitor numbers are still growing per month, albeit at a slowing pace. As such tourism has actually seen an 18 percent increase from the previous month and by extension a boost to tourism, but to decide whether or not YOG did play a part, other factors, such as environmental issues, supply of air tickets or future expectations must be considered.

Economics exam here I come!

trolol SG

Technically, she's not lying.

Economics exam here I come!

24.1% to 18%, are you sure this is a growing pace? growing negatively I suppose.

And good luck for your econs exam, you'll need it.

Music-Life SG

You must note that the data is for visitor growth rate, which means that any number above 0 would be a positive growth on visitors already. To put it simply, it is experiencing a decreasing positive growth rate.

trolol SG

Wouldn't you compare it to July, logically speaking ? Because the journalist says it shot to 18% which is great due to YOG, but July doesn't have anything and has a higher rate.

Oh yea, just saw it was compared to last year's stats, my mistake.

She was just playing facts about promoting the shamed YOG.

charlize SG

YOG boosts tourism in singapore.

Repeat a few thousand times and it will be true.

charlize SG

If you all want to discover the subtle propaganda machine at work, go read the Review and Forum page in the ST entitled "Mega Events : Make or break affairs"

In the caption below the pictures, it links the YOG up there with the South Africa World Cup and the Beijing Olympics as "successful" events.

Go figure.

And if you really thought the YOG was as successful as the media wanted you to believe, a few pages later in the Sports section, there is an article entitled "YOG sponsors not happy with coverage" in which some sponsors were not too happy that they got too little international coverage despite the millions they pumped in.

TooFree SG

The article compared last year August data with the current year August. Not sure whether it is seasonal or non-seasonal calculation, it simply shows that the tourists in August, close to Nation Day has an influx of tourists of 18.0%, probably based on the YOG event.

dechang SG

I think this jessica lim should go and work as a prostitute instead

dotaro SG

No, the journalist should lend her expertise to our feeble opposition. Seriously, our opposition need all the talents they can muster to make a mark in this election.

The coming election IS the last chance for Singaporeans to turn it back to a country from a corporation.

charlize SG

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/10/st-forum-letter-a-case-of-too-much-editing/

Too much editing.