As far as I know, "the," as a definite article, is used to designate something already mentioned. However, this Economist article begins with
IF TRADE is the lifeblood of the world economy, then the ships that perform the mundane task of transporting goods and raw materials from where they are produced to where they are wanted are the red corpuscles. In 2004, the world's fleets carried around 90% of total global exports worth $8.9 trillion, largely unnoticed. This year, however, shipping firms are attracting the attention of investors as never before. On August 11th Seaspan, a container-ship firm spun out of Canada's Washington Marine, became the biggest of many shipping initial public offerings (IPOs) this year with a $600m listing of its shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
despite no attention mentioned beforehand. Likewise, Google shows about 200,200 results for "drawing the attention of researchers"
but 45,500 results for "drawing attention of researchers"
instead, 188,000 for "attracting the attention of researchers"
but 59,400 for "attracting attention of researchers"
, 110,000 for "catching the attention of investors"
but 11,500 for ""catching attention of investors
, and so on. Without the the, does This year, however, shipping firms are attracting attention of investors as never before. sound incorrect or unnatural?