Evaluating Marketing Strategies during Crisis. The Case of the Egyptian Tourism Sector

Marketing during crisis has increasingly gained the attention of scholars in the marketing field due to the rise of the critical situations companies face and which accordingly require urgent action. Research has revealed that marketing strategies play a key role in crises. Therefore, the marketing strategies that companies adopt in normal circumstances change in respond to the crisis they are facing. The Marketing Crisis Theory is based on research during financial crises and are mostly conducted in developed countries. This study evaluates the marketing mix strategies during political crises, with a focus on the Egyptian Revolution in January 2011 and the period of political turmoil following it. The research is applied to the Egyptian tourism sector. The period the research covers, is from the beginning of 2011 until the end of 2013, which is the period of instability. The participants of the research were the Marketing Managers of the top one hundred travel agencies in Egypt. Structured interviews were conducted in order to evaluate the marketing mix strategies applied during the political crisis and examine how it affected their performances. The research has concluded that there is an increase in the focus on the marketing mix strategies during political crisis which has a positive effect on the institutions’ performances. In addition, the study has highlighted the importance of considering the services marketing mix when conducting research on marketing of services during political crisis. It also concludes that the personnel strategies are those that are mostly focused on and not the price strategies which is the case in other types of crises as revealed in existing body of knowledge. The main aim was to extend the Marketing Crisis Theory by adding information about marketing during political crisis, focusing on the services marketing mix in crises, and applying the research to a developing country.