ABSTRACT
In the literature, a crisis is defined as being a temporary situation generating significant losses and jeopardizing fragile organizations (Urascki-Bryant et al. 2008). The crisis’ duration depends on the economic activity it concerns. In tourism, it can impact an event, a type of activity (Hotel, restaurants, transport, etc.), a season, a trimester or even a semester. If a back-to-normal status is not possible due to a series of various disruptions or to a market change, then a destructive situation emerges. This situation can be risky to organizations leading sometimes to a catastrophic stop in economic activities. One of the ways to overcome this danger is to develop new policies and strategies in organisational activities (Bourrier 2002). This positive perspective uncovers, however, some difficulties and losses for the organization, in some cases, even a sudden bankruptcy. Such situations take place when the service offering isn’t flexible enough to face the length of the crisis and the expectations for changes (Roux-Dufort 2003).
Since the beginning of the XXI century, the Lebanese touristic sector has been experiencing periods of crisis that are successive but spread over time. After each crisis, it became more and more difficult to return to the normal state without going through structural organizational changes. Companies’ policies were focused on managing the crisis and capturing post crisis opportunities.
Since 2011, especially after the Arab Spring, the Lebanese touristic market had been experiencing a drastic drop in arrivals of tourists, generating large losses and sudden closings of several institutions. However, statistical data collected for particular categories of activities, especially restaurants and entertainment, indicate the presence of new growth opportunities.
The objective of this research is to discover new strategies to adapt with the changes in the Lebanese touristic market, while expanding on the work of the surviving institutions.
To this end, we have “collected” retrospective data of the tourist’s arrivals between 1996 and 2016 have been collected to identify possible survival strategies and policies a new touristic growth strategy and its effect on the economic development will accordingly be proposed.
Keywords
crisis, losses, survival, strategy, growth, tourism, Lebanon