Muslim Friendly Tourism:
Regulating Accommodation Establishments
In the OIC Member Countries
60
Table 14: MFT Standard Certification - Turkey
TSE’s MFT Standard Ministry of Culture and Tourism Certification
Steps  Hotels should complete an online
application from TSE website
 Application should include all suppliers
of the hotel, (e.g. where they buy food, to
understand if they are Halal certified)
 Pre-control of the document by TSE
management,
 Planning of inspector visits, from TSE
and Presidency of Religious Affairs,
 Inspectors do a field visit and prepare
his/her report
 If inspection result is enough, the report
is presented to the TSE Halal Certification
Committee, which includes an expert
from Presidency of Religious Affairs
 If the Committee approves, the hotel is
given a Halal management system
certificate.
 TSE Halal Certification Department
provides the certificates. The certificate
is renewed on yearly basis. Inspector
gives a visit without prior notice in a
year. But the frequency of visits can be
more than one based on needs.
 Businesses collect and prepare application
documents
 Businesses make an official application to the
Ministry,
 Experts examine the documents,
 If the documents are suitable, controllers visits
the business for field check
 If the business has realized obligations, the
controller reports it to the Ministry,
 Tourism certification is approved for the
business
 Controllers visit and check the business
regularly
 If the business fails maintaining the checklist or
gets a lower point in classification form, the
certification has to be cancelled. Then, if the
business wants to get a new certificate, the
process will start from the beginning
 Controllers give a visit to the business
according to the inspection programme. Other
visits are possible within the year upon
receiving complaints, demands or for other
important reasons.
Source: DinarStandard
4.2.3 Standards’ Effects on the Accommodation Sector
As mentioned earlier, there are currently no hotels certified under any of the Turkish MFT
standards. İkbal Thermal Hotel is expected to be the first certified hotel by the Spring of 2017
and will possibly be followed by Şah Inn Paradise Hotel. As such, it is not possible to evaluate the
effect of the standards on accommodation establishments. TSE officials believe that most
establishments will monitor closely the experience of the first applicants and if it proves a
success, they will seek to be certificated. The Ministry intends to prepare legislation on Halal
certification within the tourism market.147
147 Interview conducted for the Turkey case study, September 2016.