Introduction
Lebanon’s area is ranked 170th on the planet (CIA, 2014). It is smaller than how big is Connecticut, one of many smallest states in in America. Moreover, Lebanon is one of many few democratic countries in the Middle East region. Regarding its economy, Lebanon is just a free market economy and features a very long tradition of laissez-faire economics. In addition to its coastal location on the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Lebanon is recognized as while 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 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 very most diverse nations in the world. Christians, Muslims, Druze, and other minority sects are spread all around the small nation and even Lebanon’s political system is founded 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 important role in its political paralysis, although other factors (mainly foreign) are the culprit as well. There’s 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 caused it to be a foreign policy/proxy battleground for foreign nations, each using Lebanon for its own selfish ends.
The sad political realities of the nation have significantly hurt the country’s economy. Also, since Lebanon is just a service-based economy, this specific sector has brought the greatest 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 certainly 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 constructed about 10% of the economy in 2012 but that share dropped to 9% in 2013 (ibid, p. 14). This is as a result of 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 the past few years, the space for error becomes tiny 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 complete more to replace with increasing losses (or decreasing profits) and with fewer resources. There’s 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 numerous methods Lebanese TR businesses can adapt during 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 initial things to have eliminated are often marketing budgets. But especially since TR businesses have to do more marketing to replace with lost businesses, this may not be an excellent idea.
One means to fix this problem is always to make the most of Social Media Marketing strategies simply because they cost little to no resources, smm panel 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 effectation of social media marketing on business has been very high (Kaplan et al., 2010; Stelzner, 2010; Treem & Leonardi, 2012, p. 143; Baker & Green, 2014).
Moreover, Facebook and Twitter fans of a particular brand are much prone to recommend and buy from these brands than non-fans (Cruz & Mendelsohn, 2011). But, we don’t need to be sure of social media’s impact on business through research studies. For social media marketing users, such as over 30% of the entire world, this simple truth is known. More and 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 an integral role within their overall marketing strategies but this isn’t the case. In regards to the Middle East and especially Lebanon, the region is far behind the West in social media marketing usage. Not just that, when it comes to businesses mixed up in tourism industry, there is much room for growth. Little investment in technology is keeping tourist businesses far 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 accomplishing so might be apparent. This presents a good problem especially because the economy is going through a very rough time.
Moreover, Lebanese TR businesses and businesses in Lebanon generally speaking are not adopting social media marketing tools because they should. This presents a huge problem in the waste of resources in addition to significant missed opportunities as a more substantial target audience may be reached via social media marketing enabling businesses that adopt social media marketing tools gain an improved possibility of success and prosperity.
Intent behind the research
The fruits and advantages of social media marketing tools usually takes significant time ahead about in Lebanon if we are ignorant of the factors which have resulted in the prevention of widespread social media marketing adoption.
Also, so long as no study goes into the matter of effectively implementing a social media marketing campaign in the Lebanese context, many TR businesses might be lost even should they opt to adopt social media marketing tools.
Read More
Recent Comments