Lebanon’s area is ranked 170th on earth (CIA, 2014). It is smaller than how big is Connecticut, among the smallest states in in America. Moreover, Lebanon is among the few democratic countries in the Middle East region. Regarding its economy, Lebanon is just a free market economy and features a lengthy tradition of laissez-faire economics. In addition to its coastal location on the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Lebanon is known as whilst the central’window’of the Middle East to Europe, North Africa, and the rest of the world. As a result of this, its economy has been through some very prosperous times and was even once called the’Paris’of the Middle East ahead of the nation’s 15 year-long bloody civil war which ended in 1990.
Also, although Lebanon is tiny, it can be one of the most diverse nations in the world. Christians, Muslims, Druze, and 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 nation’s problems. This diversity was an essential condition of the country’s sectarian civil war and currently plays an essential role in its political paralysis, although other factors (mainly foreign) are to blame as well. smm panel There is currently no acting President and the country’s rival political parties keep bickering and preventing as opposed to 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 for a unique selfish ends.
The sad political realities of the united states have significantly hurt the country’s economy. Also, since Lebanon is just a service-based economy, this particular sector has brought the biggest hit.
Tourism plays a significant role in the nation’s economy. According to the Lebanese Ministry of Economy & Trade (MOET), “Tourism has for ages 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 because of the political situation in the united kingdom in addition to some other factors. Moreover, how many tourist arrivals in the united kingdom kept decreasing from 2011 to 2013.
Considering that the tourism industry has been somewhat floundering in recent 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. Which means these businesses are forced to complete more to replace with increasing losses (or decreasing profits) and with fewer resources. There is no telling once the political & economic situation in Lebanon will improve especially considering that the civil war in neighboring Syria shows no signs of abating.
There are lots of techniques Lebanese TR businesses can adapt during this period such as implementing downsizing policies and cutting back on marketing & advertising budgets. When economic recessions and tough times affect businesses, the very first things to have eliminated usually are marketing budgets. But especially since TR businesses have to do more marketing to replace with lost businesses, this may possibly not be a great idea.
One solution to this problem is always to take advantage of Social Media Marketing strategies given that they cost little to no resources, great for the present economic situation in Lebanon. Social media marketing allows TR businesses to overcome obstacles of limited budgets and decreased business.
During recent years, the positive effectation of social networking 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 don’t need to make sure of social media’s affect business through research studies. For social networking users, including over 30% of the entire world, this truth is known. More and more businesses are inserting Social Media marketing tools within their marketing strategies and, in some instances, have even become a built-in part of their overall business strategy.
Naturally, you might expect that Lebanese businesses would quickly adopt Social Media Marketing as an integral role within their overall marketing strategies but this is not the case. When it comes to the Middle East and especially Lebanon, the region is far behind the West in social networking usage. Not only this, when it comes to businesses active in the tourism industry, there’s much room for growth. Little investment in technology is keeping tourist businesses from maximizing marketing opportunities written by social media.
The Lebanese tourism industry isn’t using social networking marketing tactics even although the advantages of accomplishing so are apparent. This presents a good problem especially considering that the economy is going through a very rough time.
Moreover, Lebanese TR businesses and businesses in Lebanon generally speaking aren’t adopting social networking tools as they should. This presents a massive problem in the waste of resources in addition to significant missed opportunities as a larger target audience can be reached via social networking enabling businesses that adopt social networking marketing tools gain an improved possibility of success and prosperity.
Purpose of the study
The fruits and features of social networking marketing tools might take significant time to come about in Lebanon if we are ignorant of the factors which have led to the prevention of widespread social networking marketing adoption.
Also, so long as no study switches into the issue of effectively implementing a social media marketing campaign in the Lebanese context, many TR businesses may be lost even should they choose to adopt social networking marketing tools.