Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Developing and Marketing MFT Products and Services
In the OIC Member Countries
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4. Marketing of MFT Products and Services
The government is taking the lead in promoting Indonesia as a Muslim-friendly destination
through the Ministry of Tourism. The following are some of the recent initiatives taken by the
Ministry.
 Recently appointed a special committee, reporting directly to the Ministry, to develop
and promote Halal tourism in Indonesia. The committee is called “Team for
Accelerated Development of Halal Tourism” and his headed by Riyanto Sofyan,
Chairman of PT Sofyan Hotels. The Ministry of Tourism had lacked a special person
responsible for the marketing of Halal tourism and that is why the Minister appointed
this committee.
 Indonesian Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said that the Ministry would allocate 10
percent of its promotional budget for Halal tourism in the proposed state budget for
2016, which was estimated to stand at Rp 4 trillion ($291.4 million). 186
 A Muslim visitor guide in English and Arabic was released jointly by the Ministry and
HalalTrip in November 2015. The guide provides information on attractions,
shopping destinations and additional experiences across the island. It also highlights
Halal dining experiences, Halal hotels, places to pray and mosques within the island.
The ministry conducted a marketing campaign to promote the new guide, which
included distributing copies of the guide among travel agents and partners across the
world as well as providing an online version on several websites.187
 An influencer campaign in partnership with HalalTrip was launched featuring three
celebrity bloggers, two from Malaysia and one from Singapore. The bloggers traveled
to Indonesia with their families and documented their adventures for blog posts on
HalalTrip’s website. The 3 celebrity bloggers spent seven days exploring Jakarta,
Bandung and Bali. Yuyu Zulaikha, from Malaysia, has over 113,000 Instagram
followers, over 63,000 Facebook followers, and 12,700 Twitter followers (at the time
of writing this study); Nurfatiin, from Singapore had over 16,700; while Fatin Suhana
from Malaysia had 100,000 followers, 36,497 Facebook followers, and over 8,500
Twitter followers.
 The Indonesian Ministry collaborated with Malaysia to strengthen MFT products as
well as to promote both countries as MFT destinations. The two countries plan to
have combined MFT packages including both Malaysian and Indonesian travel
products that meet the expectations of Muslim tourists.
 An initial Ministerial level meeting was held during the 43 rd ASEAN NTO Meeting in
January 2016 to share expertise in developing Muslim-friendly products that was
followed by a series of technical meetings involving travel trade professionals.188
 The ministry organized familiarization trips inviting tourism operators, especially
from the Middle East and specifically the GCC. Some of the recent trips included a visit
186”Indonesia to Further Develop ‘Halal Tourism’.’’ Web. 3 Nov. 2015.
187 ”Indonesia Targets Muslim Tourism Market with Interactive Guide.” Web. 20 May 2016.
188 Huduyo, Mimi. “Indonesia, Malaysia share strengths in Halal tourism.” Web. 20 Jan. 2016