ASEAN COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS
SPOTLIGHT
Singapore, considering the present low awareness of these countries as halal-friendly destinations.
Combined with the fact that the country is home to the largest Muslim population in the world, and its rich nature and culture, Indonesia is perfectly suited to attract Muslim travellers from all over the world. The country is fast gaining a reputation as a world-class tourism destination. In the World Halal Travel Summit 2015 held in Abu Dhabi, the country bagged awards for the World’ s Best Halal Tourist Destination( Lombok); the World’ s Best Honeymoon Destination( Lombok); and the World’ s Best Family Friendly Hotel( Sofyan Hotel Betawi, Jakarta).
Lombok is an upcoming tourism destination which beauty is often compared to its sister island of Bali. The island is home to 3 million inhabitants with over 90 % of its population being Muslims thus making halal food and facilities such as mosques available in abundance. Recognising the island’ s huge potential to draw arrivals of Muslim travellers, plans are in the pipeline to introduce special zones for men and women. However, these areas have to be carefully identified to ensure that the strategy do not come at the expense of non- Muslim markets that are drawn to the island’ s party hotspots such as Gili Trawangan Island off the west coast of Lombok.
Indeed, balancing between catering to the needs of Muslim and non-Muslim markets are among the challenges faced by the SMEs in this sector. In addressing this issue, many players promote themselves as“ family-friendly” or“ value-driven” to maintain inclusiveness while accommodating to the needs of their Muslim guests.
Furthermore, as a whole, the industry does not have a universally accepted definition for the term halal or Muslim-friendly travel. While halal travel could be broadly defined as Muslim travellers who do not wish to compromise their faith-based needs while traveling for a purpose which is permissible, each player is currently applying his or her own interpretation of the term.
The Sofyan Hotel which operates several Sharia-compliant threeand four-star hotels in Indonesia broadcasts calls to prayers within its hotel rooms, conduct congregational prayers and showcase religious programmes on the TV screens at public areas. While it is clear that the Sofyan Hotel caters primarily to Muslim guests, other Muslimfriendly hotels may be more low-key by offering halal food, kiblat( prayer direction) in rooms or extensive buffet spread for iftar( breaking of the fast) during Ramadhan so as not to alienate non-Muslim guests.
These inconsistencies in the interpretation of the concept of Muslim-friendly travel raise the need to introduce a standard in order to preserve the integrity of tourism products which claims to be halal or Muslim-friendly. Towards this end, Malaysia has introduced the MS 2610:2010: Muslim Friendly Hospitality Services( MFHS) Standards which is dedicated to the Islamic tourism sector in 2015. The MFHS provides the much welcomed guidelines on three
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ASEAN COMMUNITY OF ENTREPRENEURS | ISSUE 2: 2016