Lebanon’s area is ranked 170th on the planet (CIA, 2014). It really is smaller than the size of Connecticut, one of many smallest states in in America. Moreover, Lebanon is probably the few democratic countries in the Middle East region. Regarding its economy, Lebanon is really a free market economy and contains an extremely long tradition of laissez-faire economics. In addition to its coastal location on the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Lebanon is recognized as the central ‘window’ of the Middle East to Europe, North Africa, and the rest of the world. Because of this, its economy went through some very prosperous times and was even once called the ‘Paris’ of the center East before the nation’s 15 year-long bloody civil war which ended in 1990.
Also, although Lebanon is tiny, it is also just about the most diverse nations on the planet. Christians, Muslims, Druze, and other minority sects are spread all over 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 nation’s problems. This diversity was a necessary condition of the country’s sectarian civil war and currently plays a significant role in its political paralysis, although other factors (mainly foreign) are to blame as well. There’s 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 made it 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 a service-based economy, this specific sector has taken the biggest hit.
Tourism plays a substantial role in the country’s economy. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Economy & Trade (MOET), “Tourism has long been among Lebanon’s leading economic sectors” (Economic Research Unit, 2010).
Furthermore, The World 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). This is due to the political situation in the country as well as various other factors. Moreover, the quantity of tourist arrivals in the country kept decreasing from 2011 to 2013.
Since the tourism industry has been somewhat floundering before 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. Therefore these businesses are forced to accomplish more to create up for increasing losses (or decreasing profits) and with fewer resources. There is no telling once the political & economic situation 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 make up for lost businesses, this may not be a good idea.
One solution to this issue is to take full advantage of Social Media Marketing strategies given that they cost little to no resources, ideal for the current economic situation in Lebanon. Social media 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 specific brand are more likely to recommend and purchase from these brands than non-fans (Cruz & Mendelsohn, 2011). But, we won’t need to make sure of social media’s impact on business through clinical tests. For social media users, such as over 30% of the planet, this fact is known. Increasingly more businesses are inserting Social Media marketing tools to their marketing strategies and, sometimes, have even become an integral part 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 Personal Development of the center East and especially Lebanon, the spot 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 from maximizing marketing opportunities given by social media.
The Lebanese tourism industry isn’t taking advantage of social media tactics even though the benefits of doing this are apparent. This presents an excellent problem especially since the economy is going by way of a very rough time.
Moreover, Lebanese TR businesses and businesses in Lebanon in general are not adopting social media marketing tools as they should. This presents an enormous problem in the waste of resources in addition to significant missed opportunities as a more substantial target audience could be reached via social media marketing enabling businesses that adopt social media tools gain a better potential for success and prosperity