Sometimes headline writers can get carried away.
Case in point. A story head in today’s Advertiser online editioin reads:
Wow! Weakest ever! We’ve been through a lot. WWII, Vietnam, the 1970s gas rationing, a series of recessions, all kinds of things, and this is the worst ever, they say.
Not so fast.
A couple of paragraphs down in the story, we learn “ever” isn’t really. Actually, according to these data, it’s the weakest summer in 22 years. Still bad, but we’re in the dark about whether it’s really the worst ever.
Occupancy for June, July and August was the lowest since Hospitality Advisors began conducting its survey in 1987, and compares with rates in the mid-80 percent range in the summer just three years ago.
So it’s the weakest summer since 1987 as measured by this one industry survey. Certainly there are statistical data going back beyond 1987. What do they indicate about the long-term?
I don’t mean to suggest the visitor industry isn’t experiencing hard times, but the rhetoric shouldn’t go so far beyond the data.
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I don’t think it’s rhetoric as much as it is just a sloppy headline. It’s missing one word at the end … “recorded”.
this post made me smile
anything to sell a paper!
and of course, they uh… (what do the mainlanders say;) Oh yea. “fail to mention”… the whole reason tourism is down: No more Hawaii. they have redeveloped Waikiki/Honolulu/our islands so it all has the same look as “Anytown U.S.A.” or “Anyresort, Globe”.
that post made me stagnant.