Although targeting wealthy
Muslim travellers from the
GCC countries makes sense
for premium brands, there
are significant opportunities
for SMEs to develop mid-tier
products catering to middle
income Muslim travellers,
especially those from within
Southeast Asia. After all, intraASEAN travellers already
account for more than half of
the tourist arrivals to the region.
critical components of the Islamic
tourism supply chain, namely the
accommodation
premise;
tour
packages, and tourist guides.
Moreover, CrescentRating, a
leading authority in the halal travel
market, has also released an eBook
on the Terms & Definitions on the
Muslim Travel Market in an attempt
to bring some level of consistency to
the terms used by the industry.
Although the segment may have
some teething issues, the Muslimfriendly travel segment still offers
enormous potential for ASEAN
SMEs. The next question then is
where lies the opportunities?
While targeting wealthy Muslim
travellers from the GCC countries
makes sense for premium brands,
there are significant opportunities for
SMEs to develop mid-tier products
catering to middle income Muslim
travellers, especially those from
GLOBAL MUSLIM TRAVEL EXPENDITURE FORECAST
US$233 billion
US$142 billion
2014
2020
Source: State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2015 by Thomson Reuters, and Dinar Standard
within Southeast Asia. After all, intraASEAN travelers already account for
more than half of the tourist arrivals
to region. This is further supported
by the bourgeoning low-cost airlines
sector which enhances connectivity
with no visa requirements for travel
between ASEAN countries.
Conversely, SMEs could also
explore opportunities of convergence
between the concepts of Muslimfriendly travel and other growing
global trend in tourism sub-sectors.
An example of this is the potential
in converging Muslim-friendly travel
with voluntourism or eco-tourism.
Offering charitable and ethical trips
not only enable SMEs to differentiate
and gain competitive advantage but
are also in-line with the teachings
of Islam.
In essence, Southeast Asia is
teeming with tourist attractions from
heritage sites like Angkor Wat in
Phnom Penh to more modern sites
like the Universal Studios in Singapore
waiting to be explored by Muslim
travellers. Traits of Muslim travellers
are two sides of the same coin with
non-Muslim travellers from emerging
countries with the exception that
faith-based needs are influencing
their purchasing decision. For a vast
majority of Muslim travellers, this need
is simply access to halal food. There
isn’t much additional investment
required for new or existing SMEs to
start catering to the emerging market
of Muslim-friendly travel. So what are
you waiting for?
Ahmad Azuar Zainuddin is a
Senior Associate at the Centre
for Entrepreneur Development
and Research (CEDAR), a
wholly owned subsidiary of the
SME Bank Malaysia. He can
be reached at ahmad.azuar@
smebank.com.my.
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