Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
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rating schemes being developed out of governmental entities such as Malaysia,
SMIIC, and private entities such as CrescentRating and TripFez’ Salam Standard to
adopt.
 Collecting statistical data on the MFT market: Collecting data on Muslim tourist
arrivals and receipts is a valuable way to encourage business to cater to the MFT
market when the numbers are already attractive. It also provides governments
with a benchmark against which to set future targets. Additionally, governments
can collect data on the number of MFT establishments, such as hotels and
restaurants, in each city and region to measure health of the ecosystem as well as
identify gaps.
MFT ‘Mature Markets ’ OIC Countries
 Strengthen Halal food and travel services compliance ecosystem: Strengthen Halal
food and travel services compliance and communication and address any gaps
identified earlier.
 Subsidies: MFT ‘Mature Markets’ can further strengthen their support through
subsidies for local service providers to serve the needs of Muslim tourists, for
example by facilitating proper Halal certification, etc.
 Easing Visa Policy: OIC destinations should ease visa policies for targeted Muslim
traveler source countries. For example, Japan established visa-free travel from
countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
2. Government-led destination marketing: A key means to kick-start and build
momentum of successful MFT product/service development and marketing will be to
seed and support marketing programs.
MFT ‘Progressing’ OIC Countries
 MFT Branding and positioning that local suppliers can leverage: The national
tourism body should develop an MFT branding and positioning for the local service
providers and suppliers to leverage. Given the challenges in best positioning the
Muslim-friendly tourism market, an ‘inclusive’ and ‘authentic’ positioning should be
developed332 .
 Seed marketing campaigns: Facilitate testing Muslim travel market potential by
funding short-term, target Muslim source market marketing campaigns and
monitor actual growth in Muslim tourist traffic based on the campaigns.
MFT ‘Mature Markets’ OIC Countries
Building on above mentioned areas, MFT ‘Mature Markets’ from OIC countries can further
strengthen MFT market product and marketing development as follows:
332 DinarStandard Presentation: “Effective Communication to Promote Islamic Tourism,” The 1 st OIC International Forum
on Islamic Tourism, June 3rd, 2014, Jakarta, Indonesia