Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
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 While total cost is the top criteria for destination choice, Muslim-friendly services,
which come as a close second, were seen by the largest percentage of the respondents
(65%) as extremely important;
 Friendliness of locals comes third with close to a third of the respondents (32%)
deeming it as extremely important;
 The presence of Islamic heritage sites was also seen as important by respondents
(79%), followed by that of cultural attractions (74%), children activities (68%), and
beach/water activities (62%);
 Geographical proximity to destination and presence of sports activities came low on
the list (52% and 42% respectively).
“Figure 12: Destination Selection Criteria
“How important are the following criteria for your choice of a leisure travel destination?”
4. Muslim Travelers’ Preferences at Various Journey Touchpoints
Respondents were asked to rate the importance of the provision of a number of services at
the various touchpoints in their journey including; hotels, restaurants and the different
venues they may use at a destination such as airport, tourist venues, shopping malls, and
theme parks. The findings are presented in the following parts of this section.
 Accommodation
Survey respondents were asked to rate the importance of a hotel providing a number of
services to accommodate their religious needs. The services categories were not randomized
to avoid creating confusion for respondents as some of the categories were asking about same
element in varying degrees, such as having Halal food options and having all food at facility to
be Halal. The scale used was a 5 point scale with the following response categories: extremely
important, very important, important, neutral and not important.
The graph below details the results from the survey and shows that;