Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
109
tourists from 26 countries including OIC member countries from the Gulf and Central Asian
regions, they would have earned financing with the right of using credit amounting to $35
million from Credit Guarantee Fund of the Government.287
MFT Stakeholders
 Culture and Tourism Ministry: Top regulator for MFT market. In recent years, the
Ministry has tried to play an active role in the MFT market.
 Industry professionals have some expectations from the Ministry of Culture and
Tourism for the growth of the Halal travel market. One of the suggestions was to
establish a new department under the Culture and Tourism Ministry to foster MFT
products and services. This is vital for Turkey if it wants to become a key player in
Muslim-friendly tourism market. 288
 TÜRSAB (Association of Turkish Travel Agencies): Represents 8,633 travel
agencies including all of the biggest travel agencies across Turkey. Tourism policy and
regulation is a partner with the government for the sector, and is one of the most
important pressure groups on behalf of the industry. It operates like a semi
government organization in intra travel agencies.289
 TÜROB (Hotel Association of Turkey): Represents more than 20 percent of
Turkey’s highly diversified tourism sector. Leads surveys conducted to improve
marketing, promoting and sales development in domestic and international markets
for the tourism industry. It collaborates with the government during legislation
process. A member of IH and RA (International Hotel and Restaurant Association)
and UNWTO (World Tourism Organization).290
 TÜROFED (Turkish Hoteliers Federation): Umbrella organization for 9 different
tourism associations, which represent 766 tourism establishments that have 1 million
employees around Turkey. It is one of the biggest pressure groups on behalf of the
sector. TÜROFED prepares periodic reports and do research for their members.
Organizes events for marketing tourism products and services for its members. 291
o TÜROFED organizes events inviting big travel agencies from Middle East
countries. in May 2016 several representatives of Middle Eastern travel
agencies were invited to Samsun, one of the top Black Sea region cities, by
TUROFED. (Event partners also included TURSAB, KATID, Black Sea Region
Touristic Businesses Association, and with the support of Turkish Airlines
and Samsun Municipality). They introduced resort travel facilities in the
region, which mostly appeals to Arab tourists from the Gulf, , as they mostly
request MFT products and services.292
287 Official Gazette of Turkish Republic (n.d.): n. pag. TURSAB, 5 Mar. 2016. Web.
288 From the face to face interview with Mr. Akın Arıkan, Director of Planning and Product Development, Tura Tourism
Holding, March 2016.
289 URSAB. TURSAB, n.d. Web.
290 n.d.): n. pag. Fields of Activity. TUROB, 2016. Web.
29 (n.d.): n. pag. Charter of TUROFED. TUROFED, 2016. Web.
292 “Arab Travel Agencies in Samsun”. Article. May-June TUROFED Magazine. Web