The Impact of SOCIAL MEDIA on Tourism

Lebanon’s area is ranked 170th on the globe (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 centre East region. Regarding its economy, Lebanon is a free market economy and has an extremely long tradition of laissez-faire economics. As well as its coastal location on the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Lebanon is considered as the central ‘window’ of the center East to Europe, North Africa, and all of those other world. For this reason, 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 on earth. Christians, Muslims, Druze, along with other minority sects are spread all around 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 country’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 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 particular sector has taken the biggest hit.

Tourism plays a substantial 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 made up 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 country as well as various other factors. Moreover, the amount of tourist arrivals in the country kept decreasing from 2011 to 2013.

Since the tourism industry has been somewhat floundering before few years, the area 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 make up for increasing losses (or decreasing profits) sufficient reason for fewer resources. There is no telling when the political & economy in Lebanon will improve especially since the civil war in neighboring Syria shows no signs of abating.

There are many techniques 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 a down economy affect businesses, the first things to get eliminated are often marketing budgets. But especially since TR businesses need to do more marketing to make up for lost businesses, this may not be a good idea.

One solution to this issue is to make the most 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 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 clinical tests. For social media users, which include over 30% of the planet, this fact is known. Motivational Content and more businesses are inserting Social Media marketing tools to their marketing strategies and, sometimes, have even become an integral part of their overall business strategy.

Naturally, one would 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. When it comes to the center East and especially Lebanon, the spot is far behind the West in social media marketing usage. Not only that, when it comes to businesses mixed up in tourism industry, there’s 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 so are apparent. This presents a great problem especially because the economy is going through a very rough time.

Moreover, Lebanese TR businesses and businesses in Lebanon in general are not adopting social media tools as they should. This presents an enormous problem in the waste of resources and also significant missed opportunities as a larger target audience could be reached via social media marketing enabling businesses that adopt social media tools gain a better potential for success and prosperity

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