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 one of the few democratic countries in the centre East region. Regarding its economy, Lebanon is really a free market economy and has a very 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 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 Middle East before 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 in the world. Christians, Muslims, Druze, along with other minority sects are spread all over the small nation and even 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 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 Social Media Management services 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 country 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 significant role in the nation’s economy. In line with the Lebanese Ministry of Economy & Trade (MOET), “Tourism has long been 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 because of the political situation in the united kingdom 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 area for error becomes really small for businesses in this industry. The political & economic situations are squeezing tourist-related (TR) businesses in Lebanon. This means that these businesses are forced to accomplish more to make up for increasing losses (or decreasing profits) and with fewer resources. There is no telling once the political & economy in Lebanon will improve especially since the civil war in neighboring Syria shows no signs of abating.
There are many techniques Lebanese TR businesses can adapt during these times such as for example implementing downsizing policies and reducing on marketing & advertising budgets. When economic recessions and tough times affect businesses, the first things 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 since they cost little to no resources, ideal for the current economic situation 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 specific brand are much 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 effect on business through research studies. For social media users, such as over 30% of the world, this fact is known. A lot more businesses are inserting Social Media marketing tools into their marketing strategies and, sometimes, have even become a fundamental element of their overall business strategy.
Naturally, one would expect that Lebanese businesses would quickly adopt Social Media Marketing as a key role within their overall marketing strategies but this is not the case. With regards to the Middle East and especially Lebanon, the spot is far behind the West in social media usage. Not only that, in terms of businesses involved in the tourism industry, there is 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 marketing tactics even though the benefits of doing this are apparent. This presents a great 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 because they should. This presents a huge problem in the waste of resources and significant missed opportunities as a larger target audience could be reached via social media marketing enabling businesses that adopt social media marketing tools gain a better potential for success and prosperity