argument42

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OPIC: ARGUMENT42 - The following appeared in a proposal from the economic minister of the country of Paraterra.

"In order to strengthen its lagging economy, last year the government of the nearby country of Bellegea began an advertising campaign to promote ecologically sound tourism (ecotourism). This year the number of foreign visitors arriving at Bellegea's main airport doubled, and per capita income in Bellegea increased by ten percent. To provide more income for the population of Paraterra and also preserve the natural environment of our tiny country, we too should begin to promote ecotourism. To ensure that our advertising campaign is successful, we should hire the current director of Bellegea's National Tourism Office as a consultant for the campaign."
WORDS: 415         TIME: 00:30:00          DATE: 2008-1-11 19:22:16

The author of this argument concludes that we should hire the current director of Bellegea's National Tourism Office as a consultant for the campaign. To justify his conclusion, the author points out that Bellegea began an advertising campaign to promote ecotourism and both the visitors and income were increased. However close scrutiny his evidences reveal that they lend little support for the conclusion.

To begin with, Bellegea began an advertising campaign to promote ecological sound tourism and get the good result, which don't mean Paraterra can also do this. In order Bellegea set as a model Paraterra can emulate, all the essential circumstance in these two areas should similar. Actually, there is no evidence to support this. Perhaps bellegea is an area where has lot of resources suitable for tourism, such as beautiful parks, many lakes and lots of plants, but Paraterra is a small place may haven't any resources for ecotourism. Without any evidence to support that Paraterra also suitable for tourism, the author's conclusion is questionable.

Even if Paraterra have the similar circumstance as the Bellegea, there is no reason that the income was increased due to ecotourism. It is possible that the government in Bellegea carried out some policies to improve the income such as building more factories. Also, there are more visitors arriving at the airport may due to an important international conference was held there, or they just transport planes there. Without more information of this, the author cannot convince me that ecotourism is the reason for them.

Furthermore, even if the ecotourism bring good results for Bellegea, the author's conclusion that we should hire the director of Bellegea's National Tourism Office is arguable. Even the director did a good job in Bellegea, we cannot conclude that he can also do a good work in Paraterra. Maybe the director is born in Bellegea and lives there for a long time, thus he is very familiar there, but he has never been to Paraterra, so he has no ability to direct the advertising campaign in Paraterra. Also, maybe the advertising’s success due to all the members’ hardworking, not only the director, thus only hire the director is useless. Without considering all these possibilities the author cannot safely arrived at his conclusion.

In sum, the author’s conclusion is easily arguable. To strengthen it, the author should provide more evidence about these two areas’ circumstance. In addition I would need more information about the reasons of the income’s increasing and the campaign’s success.