wiki-europa Uncategorized The Impact of SOCIAL MEDIA on Tourism

The Impact of SOCIAL MEDIA on Tourism

Lebanon’s area is ranked 170th on earth (CIA, 2014). It is smaller compared to the size of Connecticut, among the smallest states in in the us. Moreover, Lebanon is probably the few democratic countries in the centre East region. Regarding its economy, Lebanon is really a free market economy and contains an extremely long tradition of laissez-faire economics. Besides its coastal location on the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Lebanon is recognized as the central ‘window’ of the Middle 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, it is also one of the most diverse nations on the globe. Christians, Muslims, Druze, along with other minority sects are spread all over the small nation and even Lebanon’s political system is dependant 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 at fault 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 managed to get 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 Lebanon is a service-based economy, this specific sector has taken the largest hit.

Tourism plays a substantial role in the country’s economy. According to 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 country as well as some 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 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 create up for increasing losses (or decreasing profits) and with 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 during these times such as for example implementing downsizing policies and reducing on marketing & advertising budgets. When economic recessions and a down economy affect businesses, the first what 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 issue is to benefit from Social Media Marketing strategies since they cost little to no resources, perfect 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 few 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 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 world, this fact is known. Increasingly more businesses are inserting Social media tools to 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 within their overall marketing strategies but this is simply not the case. With regards to the center East and especially Lebanon, the region is far behind the West in social media marketing 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.

Motivational Content isn’t taking advantage of social media tactics even though the benefits 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 generally are not adopting social media marketing tools as they should. This presents a huge problem in the waste of resources in addition to 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

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