Muslim Friendly Tourism (MFT):
Understanding the Supply and Demand Sides
In the OIC Member Countries
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2014, about 22.5 million tourist traveled from a OIC member state to a non-OIC
member state. This means that about one-third of total Muslim outbound tourist from
OIC member state travel to non-OIC states. Many countries are lifting visa
requirements to facilitate Muslim inbound travel. Both Japan and South Korea has
relaxed travel requirements for tourist originating from Malaysia and Indonesia.
- Islamophobia driven negative sentiments towards Muslim countries; The recent
terrorist attack in Paris, France and California-USA has resulted a negative sentiment
against Muslims and Muslim countries.
- Resistance of some travel stakeholders to develop MFT; Due to the negative
sentiments portrayed by media when it comes to words such as Muslim, Halal, Shariah
and Islam, even local travel stakeholders in some Muslim countries are resisting the
development of MFT. The main concern comes from a misunderstanding of what MFT
is and the perception that it will destroy the traditional tourism in the destination.
Better education and awareness of MFT to these stakeholders should alleviate the
fears of most of them.
- Limited availability of attractions including theme parks; A number of OIC
member states does not have high quality tourism infrastructure. This has hampered
the growth of not only Muslim tourism but also tourism as a whole.
- Low air connectivity; A number of OIC member states are not on major airline routes
to major cities of the world.
With a view to addressing these challenges, the study proposed the following
recommendations:
 Setting an overall MFT market goal to encourage growth in the MFT sector in the
OIC member states. In order to encourage the member states to develop MFT as one
of the main segments of tourist arrivals to the country, it is recommended to agree on a
goal of attracting 100 million Muslim visitor arrivals to OIC destinations in 2020.
 Increasing awareness of the MFT market among the travel industry stakeholders
by rolling out guidelines, workshops, training etc.
 Implementing and streamlining the basic MFT related services. Some actions can
be taken to help provisioning of prayer facilities, Halal food outlets and water friendly
toilets at airports, highway stops, hotels/resorts, attractions and other travel services.
SMIIC can play a role in this regard. It is suggested that OIC (possibly through SMIIC or
COMCEC) take up the issue of “Muslim Meal” (MOML) with IATA.
 Maximizing the inherent strengths of OIC member states . OIC member states have
rich Islamic history, Islamic heritage and Islamic elements of providing hospitality.
These inherent strengths can be utilized to provide visitors a unique experience. The
countries which have important Islamic heritage in terms of heritage sites, art and
religious importance can do more to promote these destinations to the MFT segment.