Published on : Wednesday, November 14, 2018
Specific aspects of halal travel
According to Fazal Bahardeen, managing director of CrescentRating, the world’s leading expert on halal travel, the difference lies in specific shared values among Muslims that are much stronger than among other communities, regardless of their nationality. Whereas many associate halal merely with the way food is prepared, it actually refers to everything that conforms to traditional Islamic law. For the travel industry that means fulfilling certain faith-based needs of Muslim travelers. This includes preparing food according to halal rules, adapting meal times during Ramadan, offering prayer facilities in hotels, providing separate swimming pools for men and women and offering entertainment that caters towards Muslims.
High growth of Muslims traveling abroad
Currently, the most interesting source markets regarding the demand of international halal travel are Indonesia, India, Turkey, Malaysia and the Arab countries. According to IPK’s World Travel Monitor, source markets with a predominantly Islamic population showed growth rates that were 40% higher in the past 5 years compared to the rest of the world. Strong growth is also predicteded for the years ahead. Thus halal travel offers huge growth potential for destinations around the world.
City breaks top the list
Worldwide City breaks and Sun & Beach holidays are the most popular holiday types. However, the picture looks different for international Islamic travel. Here, City breaks top the list with a market share of over one-third. Second-placed are Tour holidays, which is then followed by Sun & Beach holidays with only around half the market share compared to the total market.
In general, for Muslims international holidays are less important than for other international travelers. By contrast, business trips, visiting friends and relatives and other leisure trips account for a bigger share of the market. Religious trips and pilgrimages in particular play a much greater role and make up ten per cent of foreign trips – which is ten times higher compared to the rest of the world with only one per cent market share.
More shopping, less sightseeing
Apart from preferring other types of holidays, Muslims also tend to pursue different activities when traveling. Whenever they visit cities shopping is on top of the list. In contrast, sightseeing – the number one attraction for other travelers –visiting museums, or good food, is less important for this segment. Also Tour holidays are shaped differently with less focus on sightseeing or museum visits and more focus on nature and shopping instead.
Source:-ITB Berlin
Tags: ITB Berlin, Travel Event news