Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
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The Tourism Council of Thailand is private and serves the link between tourism businesses
and the Ministry.
The Strategy to position Thailand as a Muslim-friendly destination was announced at the
Thailand Travel Mart Plus in June, 2015.267 Since then, the government has taken several
promotional initiatives which are outlined below.
 Muslim-friendly Tourism App
In 2015, TAT launched a Muslim-friendly tourist app to attract Muslim visitors. The app helps
visitors find mosques, Halal restaurants, hotels, shopping centers with prayer rooms and
cultural significant sites. The app is initially in English and Thai but will be expanded to
include Arabic and Bahasa Indonesia.
The App was launched in June, 2015 at a forum organized by TAT at its annual travel trade
show, the Thailand Travel Mart Plus. TAT invited 113 representatives from travel agencies
and media from Iran, Egypt, Kuwait, Tunisia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Oman, the UAE,
Turkey, India and Singapore to participate in the forum.268 The launch of the app garnered
widespread media coverage.
The Thailand Muslim-friendly destination app was developed with the support of the Halal
Science Centre of Chulalongkorn University, the Foundation of the Islamic Centre of Thailand,
Halal Standards Institute of Thailand and the Tourism Council of Thailand.
 Unified Thailand Diamond Halal Brand
In a bid to consolidate its marketing efforts towards Muslims, Thailand launched a unified
Halal brand “Thailand Diamond Halal” under which all Halal products and services sourced in
Thailand will be marketed, including tourism. The brand was developed by the Halal Science
Centre of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, the Central Islamic Council of Thailand and
Halal Standard Institute of Thailand. The developers of this brand are hoping that it will be
adopted by hotels equipped with Muslim-friendly facilities, by tour operators offering Islamic
heritage tours as well as Muslim-friendly travel packages.
 Muslim-friendly Destination Mega FAM (familiarization) Trip
In a media briefing on the occasion of Thailand’s Travel Mart Plus 2015, Juthaporn
Rerngronasa, Acting Governor, Tourism Authority of Thailand said that it was organizing a
Muslim-friendly Destination Mega FAM (familiarization) Trip by inviting about 100 travel
agents and media from Islamic countries to the Thailand Travel Mart. They will participate in
special forums, travel trade meet session, product presentations and familiarization trips to
places of interest to Islamic visitors.269 In January 2016, the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s
Dubai Office hosted a familiarization trip for 30 travel agents and social media influencers
from Tehran.
267 Muqbil, Imtiaz. “Thailand’s Muslim-friendly destination strategy goes well beyond just journalism.” Web. 17 June 2015.
268 “TAT to launch app for Muslim visitors.” 5 June 2015. Web.
269 “Positive tourism outlook dominates opening of Thailand Travel Mart Plus 2015.” 4 June 2015. Web.