[JDI Report] USD $1.8B in economic benefits? LOL

[AF1219]

Hi Guys,

I've just read deceptive statements by Eamonn Fitzgerald, the Head of Communication at New7Wonders, on Minivan News (bit.ly/m6S8De). He insists that all finalists will benefit from the New7Wonders’ campaign and offers as a proof for his argument a new study from South Korea.

"New study published by JDI of South Korea in May 2011: up to US$ 1.837 billion each per annum in economic benefits for being successful in the New7Wonders of Nature."

Is the study reliable? I'm a Korean and I have an exact copy of the study Fitzgerald mentioned. I'll tell you the truth. In the thesis, Researcher, Taeho Go ([e-mail]), acknowledges the limits of his study as follows.

Shortfalls in Researcher Go’s own words:

Notes:
1. All translations are mine.
2. Contents that have little to do with the major points—for instance, wishful remarks or suggestions of tourism policies—are excluded from the original text.

- Direct surveys on foreigners and other tourist groups for tourist demands should be done for a more precise estimation, but we couldn't do due to temporal and financial restrictions.

- Since there was no New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign before, my study used the estimated results from the New 7 Wonders of the World campaign [held in 2007] to compute the net rates of tourism growth, which are subject to some limits.

- There is a notable difference between the two campaigns in terms of the degrees of the attractiveness of the two campaigns. Therefore, when based on the old campaign, the estimated net rates of tourism growth can be different from the actual ones that will result from the new campaign.

- Jeju Island is different from such objects of analysis as Jordan and India in terms of accessibility and surrounding tourism markets. Therefore, the net rate of tourism growth in Jeju during/after the new campaign can be quite different from expectations.

- The estimated predictions of this study only rely on estimated results of past examples (those from the New 7 Wonders of the World campaign). Therefore, they may not be similar to actual results in terms of the magnitude of effects and their duration that are susceptible to advertisements and tourism policies after the campaign.

Why am I telling you this? I think that the Maldives need to know the exact value of this study and its limits when arguing with Eamonn Fitzgerald. I'm sure that Mr. Fitzgerald does not know Korean, but your government can easily find a good translator for this paper which can be downloaded at bit.ly/kwEof4. I also want you to know that the chairperson of JDI is Jeju Governor who leads the New 7 Wonders campaign in South Korea. Good luck, Maldives!