Halal Tourism Profile
Muslims around the world want to vacation in environments that respect their beliefs and cater to their requirements. Such concern from providing halal food at restaurants and hotels, to the more diverse offering, such as accommodation that includes a prayer room, and resorts that have segregated as well as family-friendly facilities at swimming pools and beaches.
Before the COVID-19 outbreak, global-scale research reveals the size and future of the halal tourism market reveals that this market is growing rapidly in line with the increasing Muslim population worldwide. These increasing numbers are in accordance with the increasing education level and income of the level. population.
Turkey has become one of the most successful destinations in attempting the halal tourism market. Research on the Halal tourism profile had been done by the International Halal Tourism Organisation (IHATO) in collaboration with MUSIAD in Antalya's destination, one of the cities in Turkey. The research realized as the pilot scheme found some significant findings :
The main holiday motivation (the reason for the holiday) of the majority of the participants is leisure-entertainment.
The participants plan and spend their holidays with their families.
Although families make the final decision about holiday planning altogether, the advice of relatives also has a significant impact. As it is influenced by the kinship principles in Muslim livelihood. Based on this finding, we can conclude that “word-of-mouth marketing has a very significant impact.
The countries that participants visited or want to visit are varied.
It was expressed that Italy, France, and the Netherlands slightly stood out among the countries that participants visited or want to visit. The finding remarkable in that the countries that participants want to visit are the Mediterranean countries. The reasons are the framework of their holiday expectations are still on Sun, Sea, and Sand. Yet, Asian countries, such as Indonesia become their countries preferences.
The countries that were visited or the participants want to visit are not merely the one where Islamic heritage is found. This is in line with the tourist’s “sea, sand, sun” demands. It can be concluded that Muslim tourists are also interested in similar types of tourism in mass tourism destinations, as it is in Antalya. However, they required the holiday and services content suitable for their beliefs during their tourism activities. For that, it would be beneficial to develop a “halal tourism service chain” for the hospitality business. Halal tourism service chain in destinations are as follows:
A Travel agency with a halal concept offering tour/package tour services for the destination
A halal concept transportation service that provides transportation services, ground services, and transfer services to the destination
An accommodation business offering halal concept accommodation service in the destination.
Access to halal concept local tours, recreation, and shopping services in the destination.
It is found, that 58% of respondents in the research are willing to pay more for accommodation companies that have a concept in line with their religious beliefs.
Another remarkable finding of the study concern the extent to which the participants describe themselves as conservative in religious terms.
The level of satisfaction of the participants from Antalya holiday and the hotels they are staying in is examined, it was determined that female participants were more satisfied than male participants, married with children were more satisfied than the others in different marital status.
From the prior research that had been done in Antalya Turkey, there are still opportunities and challenges to imply for Indonesia. Yet, as the COVID-19 outbreak influences. In this respect, the market needs to recognized and the characteristic features of demand should be discovered in the finest detail to make a strong and sound introduction to the halal tourism market for Indonesia.
The findings of the research were further discussed last year in the benchmarking workshop held by Indonesia Halal Lifestyle Center in Jakarta. The speakers from the International Halal Tourism Organisation (IHATO) Antalya shared the highlights of opportunities and challenges.(Tetra)
IHLC and IHATO organized a sharing experience of Halal Tourism
IHLC, IHTO speakers together with The Ambassador of Turkey were discussing Halal Tourism with all the participants coming from tourism industries Indonesia.