This post serves as an addendum to the "Making Love Out of Nothing At All" post on story ideas. My comments alert popped up today, reminding me that not only does my professor read my stuff, he also has the power to assign more work (regardless if I publish his comment or not!). Rick posed five research questions and gave 48 hours in which to find the answer. Below, in italics, are the questions. My answers - along with sourcing and an explanation of the research process for each - are included as well. Keith - I blame this on you (kidding).
The first place I decided to look for answers (for this and the other questions) is the CIA World Factbook. I had used it in high school and remembered that it had all sorts of info like GNP and population statistics. Being a government site, it's also trustworthy (fairly so, anyway) and frequently updated. There I was able to find my answer to question five regarding the numbers of media outlets (and do my own math of them in regard to population numbers. I also got some rough information on tourism's economic impact, but would have to search further for more concrete info.
I found my information on the internet, as I am far too lazy (and it is a little too cold) to go outside and drive to the library (yes - too lazy to drive to the library). I started with Googling ("world tourism statistics," etc) and found the information from there. One can find almost all the necessary information through either government-sponsored sites, NGOs, or other sources who are considered "credible" online. Basically, I'm too cold and lazy and stubborn to leave my apartment (unless it's to go watch football at the bar... which I will be doing in two hours). So - here goes. Note that all sources are cited after the question at hand (I'm also too lazy for endnotes).
1) How many tourists enter Cambodia in a given year?
2,015,128 international tourists visited Cambodia in 2007, up 18.53% from 2006
Source: Cambodian Ministry of Tourism
2) How many tourists enter Thailand in a given year?
14.46 million international tourists in 2007, up 4.65% from 2006
Source: Tourism Authority of Thailand
3) How much difference is the "impact" in terms of dollars or GNP?
Unfortunately, I was not able to find this exact number for neither Cambodia.
I was able to deduce the figure for Thailand by culling other figures. Here I found that the tourist revenue for Thailand in 2007 was 547,728 baht. I then converted this to dollars here; it equals $15,889.90. The GDP of Cambodia is estimated to be $245.7 billion. It would then seem that there is little revenue generated from tourism. I also think that one should not depend on my math. Something about this doesn't seem right, so, you know, go Google it somewhere else. One could also contact the embassy or consulate of the nation in question; I will bet that a press kit would have this information (if its flattering... we're not dealing with the most "open" societies here).
I did find the estimated number of US tourist dollars spent abroad (by region) and total GNP for each country.
4) Where do these countries rate in global tourist dollars?
Thailand ranks consistently high in global leaders in tourism (you can find a list of leading countries over the past decade here). Cambodia is not listed as a leader, perhaps because of its smaller size and "closed" society.
5) How many media outlets does Cambodia have compared to other countries (per capita in respect to the size of its population)?
For purposes of ease, I am eliminating the internet from this equation since the lack of true global location (as opposed to location of your host) causes some empirical inaccuracies.
Media outlets in Cambodia
- 2 AM radio stations
- 17 FM radio stations
- no shortwave radio stations
- 9 television stations (includes 2 relay stations which broadcast French and Vietnamese programs)
- Population = 14,241,640
- Media outlets per capita = 1 outlet for every 508,630 people
- Media outlets = 658 (combined AM/FM radio, shortwave radio, and TV)
- Population = 13,002,206
- Media outlets per capita = 1 outlet per every 19,760 people
Compare to the US:
- Media outlets = 15,987 (combined AM/FM radio, shortwave radio, and TV)
- Population = 303,824,640
- Media outlets per capita = 1 outlet for every 19,005 people.
Despite a far larger populace, the United States (arguably a free and open society) has more media outlets per capita.
Source for question #5 (population facts and media outlet statistics): CIA World Factbook - Cambodia, CIA World Factbook - United States.
Author's note: in retrospect, a trip to library might not have killed me. However, I still answered 4 out of 5!
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