Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
58
itinerary to accommodate prayer times and plans meals at Muslim restaurants or at
seafood restaurants in areas where no Halal offerings are available.
 Digital travel services products are expanding across OIC countries with a number of
travel websites and travel apps being created in OIC countries both by the
government or the private sector. Turkey has more than 15 websites including
Halalinn which has more than 700 Turkish hotels in its database and provides an
online filtering tool for booking hotels that offer Halal products and services.
 In Malaysia, government bodies launched a number of apps including Halal Square
and Halal Inside. Halal Square enables travelers to locate and rate Halal certified
facilities within Malaysia while Halal Inside allows them to authenticate the Halal
certificate of eateries.
3.3 Distribution of MFT Products and Services
The distribution channels used by MFT industry products and service providers include both
traditional tools such as direct sales, tour operators and travel agencies, as well as digital
tools such as providers’ websites and online travel agencies including B2B and B2C travel
websites.
In the case of online travel agencies, a number of mainstream distribution channels are
available such as Booking and Expedia as well as Muslim friendly online travel agencies such
as HalalTrip, and Lagisatu, Tripfez or the new B2B Muslim Travel
warehouse.
Interviews conducted within the scope of the case studies with MFT products and services
providers indicate that most MFT products and services providers use a combination of
traditional and digital distribution tools. Many MFT industry providers use both MFT
dedicated websites such as HalalBooking and Halal Trip as well as mainstream ones such as
Booking and Expedia. For the Malaysian hotel PNB Perdana on the Park142, both traditional
distribution channels such as direct sales through sales calls and selling through travel
agencies are used in addition to using digital channels such as selling through their website.
In Thailand143, many hotels rely on distribution through tour operators and online travel
agencies. For example, the Atoning Princeville Resort and Spa sales through online travel
agencies accounts for 60% of their sales.
In Spain144, hotels also rely on tour operators and travel agencies in addition to direct sales.
For example, the Alana hotel relies mainly on tour operators while Ibn Battuta Tours works
through local agents in various countries.
The findings from the survey, as illustrated in the following graph, suggest that Muslim
travelers prefer using online travel websites for booking accommodation with half of the
respondents citing booking through online travel websites their last trip’s accommodation,
followed by close to a quarter of the respondents (22%) stating that they have booked
through a travel agency and only 11% citing contacting hotels directly. The rest of the
142 Please refer to Malaysia’s case study for references and further information.
143 Please refer to Thailand’s case study for references and further information.
144 Please refer to Spain’s case study for references and further information.