Lebanon’s area is ranked 170th on earth (CIA, 2014). It is smaller than the size of Connecticut, among the smallest states in in the us. Moreover, Lebanon is one of the few democratic countries in the Middle East region. Regarding its economy, Lebanon is 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 center East to Europe, North Africa, and all of those other world. For that reason, its economy has gone 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 one of the most diverse nations on earth. Christians, Muslims, Druze, along with other minority sects are spread all over the small nation and also Lebanon’s political system is dependant 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 an important role in its political paralysis, although other factors (mainly foreign) are at fault 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 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 a service-based economy, this specific sector has taken the biggest hit.
Tourism plays a substantial role in the nation’s economy. Based on the Lebanese Ministry of Economy & Trade (MOET), “Tourism has long been one of 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). 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 country kept decreasing from 2011 to 2013.
Since the tourism industry has been somewhat floundering before few years, the room for error becomes very 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 no telling once the political & economic situation in Lebanon will improve especially because 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 a down economy affect businesses, the first what to get eliminated are usually marketing budgets. But especially since TR businesses need to do more marketing to create up for lost businesses, it isn’t really a good idea.
One solution to this problem is to take full advantage of Social Media Marketing strategies given that they cost little to no resources, perfect for the current economy 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 much more likely to recommend and buy 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, which include over 30% of the world, this fact is known. Increasingly more businesses are inserting Social media tools into their marketing strategies and, in some instances, 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 simply not the case. In terms of the center East and especially Lebanon, the spot is far behind the West in social media marketing 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 from maximizing marketing opportunities distributed by social media.
The Lebanese tourism industry isn’t taking advantage of social media marketing tactics even though the advantages 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 tools as they should. Personal Growth presents a huge problem in the waste of resources and 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