Motivational Content is ranked 170th on earth (CIA, 2014). It really is smaller than the size of Connecticut, among the smallest states in in America. Moreover, Lebanon is one of 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. Besides 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 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 diverse nations on the globe. Christians, Muslims, Druze, along with other minority sects are spread all around 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 a required 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 instead of 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 for 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 particular sector has taken the largest hit.
Tourism plays a substantial role in the country’s economy. Based on 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 some other factors. Moreover, the amount of tourist arrivals in the united kingdom kept decreasing from 2011 to 2013.
Because 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. Which means that these businesses are forced to accomplish more to create up for increasing losses (or decreasing profits) sufficient reason for fewer resources. There is absolutely 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 usually marketing budgets. But especially since TR businesses need to do more marketing to create 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, perfect 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 marketing 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 certain of social media’s effect on business through research studies. For social media users, which include over 30% of the planet, this fact is known. Increasingly more businesses are inserting Social Media marketing tools to their marketing strategies and, in some cases, have even become an integral part of their overall business strategy.
Naturally, you might expect that Lebanese businesses would quickly adopt Social Media Marketing 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 region is far behind the West in social media usage. Not only that, with regards to 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 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 generally are not adopting social media tools because they should. This presents a huge problem in the waste of resources and also significant missed opportunities as a larger target audience can be reached via social media enabling businesses that adopt social media tools gain a better potential for success and prosperity