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 considered as the central ‘window’ of the center East to Europe, North Africa, and the rest of the world. Due to 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, additionally it is 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 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 at fault as well. There is 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 country have significantly hurt the country’s economy. Also, since Social Media Management agency is a service-based economy, this specific sector has taken the largest hit.
Tourism plays a significant 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 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 some other factors. Moreover, the amount of tourist arrivals in the united kingdom 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 do more to create up for increasing losses (or decreasing profits) and with fewer resources. There is absolutely no telling once the political & economy 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 implementing downsizing policies and reducing on marketing & advertising budgets. When economic recessions and a down economy affect businesses, the first things to get eliminated are usually marketing budgets. But especially since TR businesses should do more marketing to make up for lost businesses, it isn’t really a good idea.
One solution to this issue is to take advantage of Social Media Marketing strategies since they cost little to no resources, ideal 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 couple of 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 won’t need to make sure of social media’s effect on business through clinical tests. For social media users, which include over 30% of the planet, this fact is known. An increasing number of businesses are inserting Social Media marketing 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 Marketing as a key role in their overall marketing strategies but this is simply not the case. When it comes to the center East and especially Lebanon, the region is far behind the West in social media marketing usage. Not only that, when it comes to 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 is not taking advantage of social media marketing tactics even though the advantages of doing this are apparent. This presents an excellent problem especially because 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 marketing tools as they should. This presents a huge problem in the waste of resources together with significant missed opportunities as a more substantial target audience can be reached via social media marketing enabling businesses that adopt social media marketing tools gain a better chance of success and prosperity
