Resident Behavior Towards Marketing Tourism in the Middle East

The tourism industry has been on an exponential curve of growth worldwide, which resulted in an economic boom and a lot of social benefits for the cities and countries. This economic fallout has led many places to become tourism destinations. In such a context, residents are seen as one of the most important actors of tourism growth (Goeldner, C.R. & Ritchier J.R.B., 2009). Nowadays researchers added that when planners and developers are creating a marketing strategy, they have to take into consideration the perceptions, opinions and attitude of local residents, therefore marketers should concentrate on the residents to develop the strategy of marketing and promotion campaign dedicated to tourism (Chi, C. G.-Q., & Qu, H. 2008). During the 60’s and 70’s, Lebanon was known to be among of the best tourist destinations in the world. After the 70’s, the civil war has devastated the country and its economy and this is far from over in 2014. This thesis will focus on the involvement of residents toward tourism marketing and promotion campaign, unlike other research that highlighted the involvement of residents toward tourism development.