The Impact of SOCIAL MEDIA on Tourism

Private Jet Travel is ranked 170th in the world (CIA, 2014). It is smaller compared to 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 contains a very long tradition of laissez-faire economics. In addition to its coastal location on the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Lebanon is recognized as the central ‘window’ of the center 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 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 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 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 to blame as well. There is 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 united states have significantly hurt the country’s economy. Also, since Lebanon is really a service-based economy, this particular sector has taken the biggest hit.

Tourism plays a significant role in the nation’s economy. In line with the Lebanese Ministry of Economy & Trade (MOET), “Tourism has long been 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 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 as well as various other factors. Moreover, the number of tourist arrivals in the country kept decreasing from 2011 to 2013.

Since the tourism industry has been somewhat floundering before few years, the room for error becomes very small 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 accomplish more to make up for increasing losses (or decreasing profits) and with fewer resources. There is absolutely no telling when the political & economic situation in Lebanon will improve especially because 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 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 should do more marketing to create up for lost businesses, it isn’t really a good idea.

One solution to this problem is to take full advantage of Social Media Marketing strategies since 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 couple of years, the positive effect of social media 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 purchase from these brands than non-fans (Cruz & Mendelsohn, 2011). But, we won’t need to make sure of social media’s impact on business through research studies. For social media users, such as over 30% of the world, this fact is known. A growing number of businesses are inserting Social media tools into their marketing strategies and, in some cases, have even become a fundamental element of their overall business strategy.

Naturally, one would expect that Lebanese businesses would quickly adopt SOCIAL MEDIA as a key role in their overall marketing strategies but this is simply not the case. With regards 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 given by social media.

The Lebanese tourism industry isn’t taking advantage of social media tactics even though the benefits of doing this are apparent. This presents a great problem especially since the economy is going by way of a very rough time.

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