Muslim Friendly Tourism (MFT):
Understanding the Supply and Demand Sides
In the OIC Member Countries
14
hosted in Granada, Spain, which was the first of its kind in a European country, as well as the
World Halal Travel Summit in October 2015 held in Abu Dhabi.
Due to growing awareness of MFT, some of the general mainstream travel and technology
conferences have allocated panel discussions and presentations on the topic. These include ITB
Asia, Startup Asia and ArabNet. A growing number of workshops and conferences have been
held in non-OIC countries, which have covered the MFT topic either as standalone workshops
or as part of Halal or travel related conferences. These include countries like Japan, South
Korea, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
The topics covered in these events initially were related to a basic understanding of the
Muslim market size and their faith-based needs. These topics have evolved into discussions on
how to attract and cater to this segment with practical solutions. Current topics discussed
include standardization issues, overcoming Islamophobia and developing products and
solutions to cater to the MFT market.
Review of MFT Policies in the World
The study looked at MFT policies and practices by national organizations. Currently only a few
countries have some policies or national level initiatives on MFT. Following is a brief overview
of activities by some NTOs.
Malaysia is currently the leading country with a tourism ministry driven program to drive
MFT. In 2009, it set up the Islamic Tourism Centre (ITC) under the Ministry of Tourism
through a cabinet legislature. ITC has been instrumental in both educating the local service
providers on the MFT market and positioning Malaysia as a Muslim-friendly destination.
Malaysian Standards body has also worked with ITC to produce the Muslim-Friendly
Hospitality Services (MFHS) Standard. MFHS standard is the country’s first standard for the
MFT sector.
Indonesia is another destination which has been looking to develop a tourism ministry-driven
policy to position Indonesia to the Muslim market. There have been several documents drafted
on the standards for Shariah hotels, and other related services such as spas, etc.
In the UAE, both Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been launching initiatives to target the Muslim
travel market. Through the “Dubai – the Capital of Islamic Economy” (DCIE) initiative, “family
travel” has been identified as a key segment to focus. The term “family travel” is used in order
to target the Muslim market as well as the wider family-oriented tourist segment. Abu Dhabi
has been developing a NTO led initiative to become a “hub” for Halal travel and tourism. The
“World Halal Travel Summit” held in Abu Dhabi in October 2015 was a part of this initiative.
In summary, apart from Malaysia, Indonesia and UAE, there have been no major NTO driven
initiatives on MFT in OIC countries.
The situation among the non-OIC countries, especially in Asia, is vastly different. In countries
such as Australia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Singapore, the Tourism Ministries have
been actively rolling out programs to target the Muslim travel market. These include:
 Commissioning market research on the destinations for suitability for MFT
 Conducting seminars and workshops for the local industry