Lebanon’s area is ranked 170th on the planet (CIA, 2014). It really is smaller than the size of Connecticut, one of many smallest states in in the us. Moreover, Lebanon is among 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. Along with Social Media Management services 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. For that reason, its economy has gone through some very prosperous times and was even once called the ‘Paris’ of the center East prior to 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 on earth. 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 required condition of the country’s sectarian civil war and currently plays an important 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 made it a foreign policy/proxy battleground for foreign nations, each using Lebanon for its own selfish ends.

The sad political realities of the united states have significantly hurt the country’s economy. Also, since Lebanon is a service-based economy, this particular sector has taken the largest hit.

Tourism plays a substantial role in the nation’s economy. In line with the Lebanese Ministry of Economy & Trade (MOET), “Tourism is definitely one of 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 because of the political situation in the country as well as various other factors. Moreover, the amount of tourist arrivals in the united kingdom kept decreasing from 2011 to 2013.

Because the tourism industry has been somewhat floundering in the past 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. This 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 once 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 need to do more marketing to make up for lost businesses, this may not be a good idea.

One solution to this problem is to make the most of Social Media Marketing strategies given that 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 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 particular 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 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. A lot 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, you might expect that Lebanese businesses would quickly adopt Social Media Marketing as a key role in their overall marketing strategies but this is 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, in terms of 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 isn’t taking advantage of social media tactics even though the benefits of doing so 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 marketing tools as they should. This presents an enormous problem in the waste of resources in addition to significant missed opportunities as a larger target audience can be reached via social media enabling businesses that adopt social media tools gain a better potential for success and prosperity