Lebanon’s area is ranked 170th on the globe (CIA, 2014). It is smaller compared to the size of Connecticut, one of the smallest states in in America. Moreover, Lebanon is among the few democratic countries in the Middle East region. Regarding its economy, Lebanon is really a free market economy and has an extremely long tradition of laissez-faire economics. As well as its coastal location on the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Lebanon is considered as the central ‘window’ of the Middle East to Europe, North Africa, and all of those other world. Due to this, its economy went through some very prosperous times and was even once called the ‘Paris’ of the center East prior to the nation’s 15 year-long bloody civil war which ended in 1990.
Also, although Lebanon is tiny, additionally it is one of the most diverse nations on the globe. Christians, Muslims, Druze, along with other minority sects are spread all around the small nation and also Lebanon’s political system is based on sectarian power sharing.
However, this diversity had played a pivotal role in the country’s problems. This diversity was a required condition of the country’s sectarian civil war and currently plays an important role in its political paralysis, although other factors (mainly foreign) are at fault as well. There is currently no acting President and the country’s rival political parties keep bickering and preventing rather than facilitating the country’s development.
Furthermore, Lebanon’s proximity to Israel has managed to get a foreign policy/proxy battleground for foreign nations, each using Lebanon because of its own selfish ends.
The sad political realities of the united states have significantly hurt the country’s economy. Also, since Lebanon is really a service-based economy, this specific sector has taken the biggest hit.
Tourism plays a substantial role in the nation’s economy. In line with the Lebanese Ministry of Economy & Trade (MOET), “Tourism is definitely among Lebanon’s leading economic sectors” (Economic Research Unit, 2010).
Furthermore, THE PLANET Travel & Tourism Council estimated that the travel & tourism sector in Lebanon contributed over $4 billion dollars in 2013 (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2014).
The travel & tourism sector composed about 10% of the economy in 2012 but that share dropped to 9% in 2013 (ibid, p. 14). That is due to the political situation in the united kingdom as well as various other factors. Moreover, the number of tourist arrivals in the united kingdom kept decreasing from 2011 to 2013.
Since the tourism industry has been somewhat floundering in the past few years, the room for error becomes really small for businesses in this industry. The political & economic situations are squeezing tourist-related (TR) businesses in Lebanon. Because of this these businesses are forced to accomplish more to make up for increasing losses (or decreasing profits) and with fewer resources. There is absolutely no telling when the political & economy in Lebanon will improve especially since the civil war in neighboring Syria shows no signs of abating.
There are many ways that Lebanese TR businesses can adapt of these times such as for example implementing downsizing policies and cutting back on marketing & advertising budgets. When economic recessions and tough times affect businesses, the first what to get eliminated are often marketing budgets. But especially since TR businesses should do more marketing to create up for lost businesses, it isn’t really a good idea.
One solution to this problem is to take advantage of Social Media Marketing strategies given that they cost little to no resources, ideal for the current economy in Lebanon. Social media marketing allows TR businesses to overcome obstacles of limited budgets and decreased business.
Problem Statement
During the past few years, the positive effect of social media on business has been extremely high (Kaplan et al., 2010; Stelzner, 2010; Treem & Leonardi, 2012, p. 143; Baker & Green, 2014).
Moreover, Facebook and Twitter fans of a particular brand are much more likely to recommend and buy from these brands than non-fans (Cruz & Mendelsohn, 2011). But, we don’t need to make sure of social media’s impact on business through research studies. For social media users, which include over 30% of the world, this fact is known. Luxury Travel Guides increasing number of businesses are inserting Social media tools to their marketing strategies and, in some cases, have even become a fundamental element of their overall business strategy.
Naturally, you might expect that Lebanese businesses would quickly adopt SOCIAL MEDIA as a key role within their overall marketing strategies but this is not the case. In terms of the Middle East and especially Lebanon, the region is far behind the West in social media marketing usage. Not only that, with regards to businesses mixed up in tourism industry, there’s much room for growth. Little investment in technology is keeping tourist businesses away from maximizing marketing opportunities given by social media.
The Lebanese tourism industry is not taking advantage of social media tactics even though the benefits of doing so are apparent. This presents a great problem especially since the economy is going through a very rough time.
Moreover, Lebanese TR businesses and businesses in Lebanon in general are not adopting social media marketing tools because they should. This presents a huge problem in the waste of resources and also significant missed opportunities as a more substantial target audience could be reached via social media enabling businesses that adopt social media tools gain a better potential for success and prosperity