The Impact of New Emerging Technologies on Tourism Sector: Evidence from Lebanon

Abstract

In a world where innovation has a life cycle that is faster that giving birth to a child, going from railroad, electricity, telephone, automobile to the Internet has been the most important innovation in our century (Hoffman, Marketing Science 19(10):1–3, 2000). All of the innovation through out the years and decades has impacted the lifestyle of all the people living on planet earth and more specially the business world (Barwise, Elberse, & Hammond, Marketing and the Internet. In B. Weitz & R. Wensley (Eds.). Handbook of Marketing (pp. 527–557). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006). Nowadays, Internet has taken a part in the life of each human being where they rely on it for working, learning, leisure, socializing, entertainment and shopping (Barwise, Elberse, & Hammond, Marketing and the Internet. In B. Weitz & R. Wensley (Eds.). Handbook of Marketing (pp. 527–557). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2006). In our research paper, we are going to focalize on the part where the Internet has become an essential part of any leisure or business trip we are planning. We are going to compare and analyze the impact of social media, emerging new technologies and e-tourism on the sustainable tourism and tourism sector in the Middle East, taking into evidence the example of Lebanon. This research will be divided into different parts: a literature review, an interview and a focus group analysis of this interview held in the Lebanese University.