Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
108
Standards and Metrology Institute for the Islamic Countries, an initial checklist of criteria for
Hotels to be eligible as “Halal Hotel”, especially for their kitchens. Currently, TSE’s Halal
Certification Management is working on broader rules especially for the Management System
side of Halal conditions, and TSE will upgrade its Halal checklist for the tourism industry.
Then, TSE will start to accept new certification application requests from the tourism sector,
after May 2016.”279
Bera Alanya Hotel was the first hotel in Turkey, obtaining the Halal Convenience Certificate
for its kitchen and food from TSE. But, the Halal certification was restricted to only the
kitchen not to other services.280
Turkey’s biggest private Halal certifier GİMDES has taken applications from some hotels to be
certified as “Halal”, but the certification management rejected these hotels because of not
complying with all Halal hotel criteria on the GIMDES checklist.281 As a result, in Turkey, there
is no hotel certified fully Halal, yet.
Government Policies
The Turkish government decided to support the 2nd Halal Travel Conference which was held
in Konya in May 2016. Konya is a middle Anatolian city well known for its cultural heritage.
282 According to the information taken from organization committee of the conference,
Turkish State Railways accepted to be the travel sponsor of the conference by providing free
fast train tickets for foreign visitors for their way from Istanbul Airport to Konya city.283
There are general government incentives valid for all companies including tourism
businesses such as KOSGEB (SME Development and Support Administration) to partake in.
KOSGEB compensates up to 75 percent of the total marketing expenditure for foreign
markets, such as attending an exhibition abroad or implementing a marketing campaign in a
foreign market, by an SME, including tourism companies. 284
For instance, a new online booking reservation website is looking for KOSGEB
support for their software. It provides Muslim customers with the ability to filter Halal
products and services for Turkey’s 700 hotels, including traditional hotels that decided to
customize their products and services to meet Muslim needs.285
In addition, due to a sharp decrease in the number of tourists after the crisis with Russia, the
Turkish Government announced Emergency Support Incentives for Turkey’s tourism industry
in order to attract foreign tourists from other countries, especially OIC markets, by 2016: 286
Travel agencies having an A Group License will be paid USD 6,000 per each of their charter
flights bringing 100 tourists to Turkey’s six tourist airport destinations from all over the
world, between April 1st and May 31th 2016. If these travel agencies bring at least 400,000
279 From the phone interview with Mr. Muhammet Özhan Gündüz, Halal Certification Manager, Turkish Standards Institute,
April 2016.
28 ecent News. Kombassan Holding (Parent
Company of Bera Alanya Hotel), 18 Jan. 2014. Web.
28 ow Should It Become a Halal Hotel? GIMDES, 2005-2016. Web.
28 alal Tourism Conference. CMMedia and Tura Tourism, May 2016. Web.
283 From the face to face interview with Mr. Akın Arıkan, Director of Planning and Product Development, Tura Tourism
Holding, April 2016.
284 upported Sectors. Turkish Republic Small and Medium Business Development and
Support Administration (KOSGEB), 2009. Web.
285 From the phone interview with Mrs. Zerrin Aydın Pekacar, Contract Manager of , April 2016.
28 urriyet Daily Newspaper, 23 Feb. 2016. Web.