Muslim Friendly Tourism (MFT):
Understanding the Supply and Demand Sides
In the OIC Member Countries
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provide Muslim friendly tourist environment, it is necessary to explore the attitudes and reactions
of the Muslims travelers themselves vis-a-vis all spheres of everyday life, including dining and
maintaining halal-vigilance, education and dress code. Only with this understanding is it possible
to structure implicit and explicit policies towards Muslim friendly tourism.
2.3 Review of Demand Side Key Themes
This section looks at the key developments of mainly in Leisure travel, Business travel and
healthcare travel.
2.3.1 Religious Tourism
The main development here is related to developing the Umrah+holiday market. The Umrah
travelers are more and more interested in traveling to another destination while on the trip for
Umrah. As such a few destinations on the “stop over” path to Saudi Arabia are looking at
developing such packages working together with Tour operators. These include Dubai,
Istanbul, Amman, Cairo and Jerusalem. Airlines such as Emirates are also looking at tapping
into the market.
Karthik Visvanathan, Routes manager at Emirates, said they along with the Dubai Tourism, are
actively pursuing to develop products to target the transit Umrah passengers to do stop-overs in
Dubai.
2.3.2 Leisure Tourism
Most of the Muslims travelers on holiday seek to enjoy themselves akin to other tourists, for
instance the culture, shopping, sightseeing and dining experiences; only without
compromising their faith. Some of the key drivers for growth in leisure travel are:
1. Continued growth of the Muslim middle class, due to the economic growth in countries
like Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and GCC countries
2. 2nd and 3rd generation immigrant communities in the west becoming well to do.
Especially UK, France & Germany
3. Growing awareness about the Muslim-friendly choices available due to ease of access
to information through the internet
Non-OIC destinations are specifically targeting the “Muslim Holiday” market with facilities
targeted at this segment. For example, in Singapore, the most major attractions offer both
prayer facilities and Halal food for Muslim visitors. At theme parks, gardens, museums and
other prominent attractions in Singapore that offer a restaurant or eatery, often offer Halal
options or even a separate Halal restaurant option entirely. Many attractions also offer prayer
facilities in addition to staff that are capable of catering to specific needs of Muslim travelers.
Apart from Malaysia and Indonesia, there have not been many initiatives in OIC member
countries specifically targeting MFT leisure sector. Datuk Ong Hong Peng, Ministry of Tourism
and Culture Secretary-General said that looking at the country’s potentials in Islamic tourism; he
projects that the arrival of Muslim tourists can rise up to 30 per cent in the long term, and 25 per
cent in the short term. His confidence in this market segment is because of the robust dynamics of