Q16 - Tourist attraction revenue

[joseph.carroll.555]

I understand why D is correct, but I'm having trouble understanding why C is incorrect.

C states that the cost of the passes has remained the same, while hotel and meal prices have risen. Maybe I'm mistaken, but in and of itself, that fact alone doesn't seem undermine the hypothesis. My thinking was that, depending on the elasticity of the hotel and restaurant demand curves we can't say for sure what effect this would have on their revenues, and thus I figured it had no effect on the argument. Raising prices might result in increased revenue, or it might result in decreased revenue. We know in the problem that revenue rose, but do we automatically attribute this increased revenue to the price rise? I know I'm overthinking it, but this problem really annoyed me.


Also, long time lurker, and I just wanted to say thanks for all of the awesome information posted in these forums!

[maryadkins]

Thanks for being a lurker! We're glad to have you.

We want to weaken the hypothesis that the reason hotel and restaurant revenue has gone up but revenue from passes has not is because people are sharing. What are some other reasons?

(A) explains why more people might be coming to the town but not going to that specific attraction. So it's out.

(B) suggests that there are repeat visitors over the course of the year who don't buy new passes but spend money elsewhere.

(C) weakens it based on how much is being charged. If the attraction isn't charging more but hotels are, that potentially explains why they're making more money and the attraction is not! (To Joseph: yes, it doesn't guarantee they'd make more money. But it's a better answer than (D).)

(D) explains nothing! Bingo.

(E) gives us a reason to believe people aren't swapping passes; there's security in place to prevent it.

[csunnerberg13]

Thanks for the explanation - I'm still unsure why B couldn't be the answer.

It seems that B would explain why the attraction makes less revenue - the same people are revisiting with the same pass (thus not paying, but still following the attraction's rule since the pass is valid for a full year) but they are staying at the hotels and restaurants longer to do so - thus the restaurants and hotels are making more money, as well. This would then undermine the hypothesis that visitors were sharing their passes.

Can someone explain to me why this reasoning is incorrect?? I thought it made more sense than choosing D - which has no impact.

Thanks!
Christine

[tstark.ann]

@Christine - Your post is from a year ago but I thought I'd respond anyway...

This question is "Weaken Except" so you're looking for the answer that has no impact or strengthens the hypothesis. You're right, B weakens the hypothesis which is why it is the incorrect answer. D has no impact, and is therefore the answer.

[tommywallach]

Yeah, it's worth reminding everyone that one any Weaken or Strengthen EXCEPT question, the answer is usually IRRELEVANT. They like to take advantage of the fact that people don't like picking things that are irrelevant as the correct answer!

-t

[StanleyK825]

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