مدل آمیخته بازرایابی جدید جهت نجات صنعت مهمان نوازی: شواهد پس از بهار عربی مصر  A new marketing mix model to rescue the hospitality industry: Evidence from Egypt after the Arab Spring

1. Introduction The tourism and hospitality industry is the most diverse and vibrant economic activities. It represents one of the largest market segments in Mediterranean (MED) countries (Thulemark, Lundmark & Heldt-Cassel, 2014). The industry was built on active products and service innovators and frequently set trends that developed different brands. The brands’ popularities were developed so that customers could identify them with their particular values. The portfolio of this industry includes different hotels, companies, chain operators and small medium enterprises (SMEs). In south MED social or political challenges arena had negative consequences on the tourism industry. The turmoil that occurred in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia whether on the social or the political arena had negative cost on almost all aspects of the economy. The tourism sector in particular suffered huge losses in the years that followed the turbulence (El-Katiri, 2014). The unprecedented circumstances have driven the tourism sector to a continuous decline on the sector’s profitability. The drop in returns drove hotels to adopt short tactical strategies that could help in at least reaching the breakeven point. Among the adopted practices many rely on discounting advertising campaigns in national newspapers, downsizing in the labor force, and cutting the cost of operation are amongst the adopted practices. Applying these practices didn’t provide any clearly state fruitful results. Here appears the importance of this study. This study sheds light on, how embraced management practices in Egypt related to the employed marketing mix have led to maintain occupancy rates of hospitality properties at its safe boundaries. This country’s study will improve our understanding of the main issues characterizing the countries’ losing and wining visitors along the transition process. The study is organized as follows: it starts by overview to the Egyptian hospitality industry, then the theoretical frame work of the hospitality industry in Egypt, followed by the research methodology and finally the results, discussion and policy recommendation.