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The Rise of Halal Tourism

Muslims now make up one of the fastest-growing segments of the global travel industry. In response, hotels and tour operators are increasingly trying to meet their dietary and religious needs.

By Debra Kamin

For one of the fastest-growing sectors of the global travel industry, there is no pork on the hotel dinner menus. There are flights with no alcohol on the drink carts, resorts with separate swimming pools for men and women, and daily itineraries with built-in break times for the five daily calls to prayer.

Since 2016, the number of Muslim travelers has grown nearly 30 percent, and a recent joint study by Mastercard and Crescent Rating , a research group that tracks halal-friendly travel, projects that over the next decade that sector’s contribution to the global economy will jump to $300 billion from $180 billion. With a population that is disproportionately young, educated and upwardly mobile, they are one of the fastest-growing demographics on the global tourism scene.

But this wasn’t always the case.

In 2015 , Soumaya Hamdi went roadtripping through Asia with her husband and her then 4-month-old baby. The trio visited Singapore and Malaysia, and then caught a flight to South Korea and on to Japan. The trip was thrilling, but Ms. Hamdi and her husband, who are both observant Muslims, found the daily search for halal-certified food a difficult one.

Ms. Hamdi, who is based in London, began blogging about the best Muslim-friendly restaurants she found, as well as prayer facilities and sites that were particularly welcoming for a family with a young baby. Those musings turned into Halal Travel Guide , an online platform offering tips, recommendations and curated itineraries for Muslim travelers.

Her timing was right.

“In Europe the Muslim community is now in its third or fourth generation. They are educated and have good paying jobs,” said Ufuk Secgin, chief marketing officer for Halal Booking , a Muslim-focused vacation search engine. “For the first generation, their idea of a holiday was visiting the family in the home country. This has changed.”

At ITB Asia this October, a leading travel show held in Singapore, organizers partnered with two halal travel authorities, Crescent Rating and Halal Trip , to offer specialized panel discussions and showcases targeting the estimated 156 million Muslims who will book travel between now and 2020.

At the heart of much of the discussion was matters of the belly. For Muslim travelers, “the number one factor is good quality halal food,” Ms. Hamdi said in an email exchange. “I’m not talking about curry or biryani — I’m talking about authentic local food that is halal. After that, it’s usually prayer facilities.”

Tourists’ global demand for halal food has grown so much, in fact, that Have Halal Will Travel , a Singapore-based online community for Muslim travelers, has also partnered with ITB Asia with a three-hour conference and special booth space focusing on foodie-centric outreach to the Muslim tourism sector.

Like Halal Travel Guide , Have Halal Will Travel was founded in 2015. Today, their content reaches 9.1 million users each month, according to their founder, Mikhael Goh. Mr. Goh dreamed up the site with three friends while studying abroad in Seoul; he found himself frustrated on a daily basis with a lack of information about where to find quality halal food.

“We were thinking, why is it in 2015, when there is Yelp and TripAdvisor and so many popular apps and services to tell you where to eat and where to travel, why on earth is there so little information for Muslims?” Mr. Goh said in a phone interview. “Not just about food — yes, halal food is the basis of a lot of things, but also about safety and prayer. There was a general lack of information out there and the information that did exist was so fragmented.”

Only a handful of years later, that gap in the market is now teeming with niche sites, many of them written specifically for young Muslim women. At Passport and Plates , the Los Angeles-based blogger Sally Elbassir chronicles her global foodie adventures where pork and alcohol are always off the menu; at Arabian Wanderess , Esra Alhamal writes about traveling as a female, Muslim millennial on a budget; and at the popular Muslim Travel Girl , run by the Bulgaria-born, Britain-based Elena Nikolova, readers can learn about Muslim-friendly honeymoon resorts with private pools and get tips for a D.I.Y. Umrah (Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca).

Many of the bloggers interviewed for this article echoed the same sentiment: Their goal is not just to make it easier for Muslim travelers to find food, prayer spaces and alcohol-free activities that appeal to them. It’s also to support those travelers to branch out of their comfort zones and feel empowered exploring the world.

“We specialize in pushing people to non-Muslim majority countries,” said Mr. Goh. “The most popular destinations we work on are Japan and Korea. Our audience is young — 25 to 30 years old — and very influenced by K-pop and Instagram, so we write a lot about how welcoming those places are.”

Ms. Hamdi of Halal Travel Guide agreed. “We encourage Muslims to seek culturally immersive travel experiences outside of the traditional Muslim-friendly destinations such as Dubai and Morocco,” she said. “Muslims are looking for added value to their trips — from private beaches where women can bathe without men to disturb them, and more than this, trips that offer the Muslim traveler the chance to experience something completely different.”

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Unlocking Halal Tourism: Attracting 2 Billion Halal Conscious Guests

by Halal Foundation | Oct 2, 2023 | Articles | 0 comments

Halal tourism is one of the fastest-growing segments in the global travel industry, with an estimated market value of more than $300 billion by 2030 .

But what exactly is Halal tourism?

Halal tourism refers to the provision of travel services and facilities that cater to the needs and preferences of Muslim travelers, such as Halal food, prayer facilities, alcohol-free environments, and modest clothing options.

So, how can you attract Halal-conscious guests?

There’s no doubt that the Halal tourism sector is significantly growing, but you’re mistaken if you assume that the market isn’t already competitive.

Worry not though! In this article, we will unlock the secrets of Halal tourism, discussing some of the main aspects you need to consider based on key insights and trends to successfully attract your share of the lucrative Halal tourism market.

1 Know Your Target Market
2 Get Your Marketing Mix Right
3 Get And Promote Your Halal Certifications
4 Leverage Partnerships
5 Go The Extra Mile
6 Conclusion
7.1 Connect with a halal certification expert.
8 Featured Insights
9.1 Connect with a halal certification expert.

Know Your Target Market

First things first, you need to understand that Halal tourism is not just a niche market, and that Halal-conscious travelers are not a homogeneous group. In fact, they all have different backgrounds, cultures, preferences, and levels of religiosity.

Some may be more strict in observing Islamic practices, while others may be more flexible or liberal. Some may prefer destinations that offer a rich Islamic heritage and culture, while others may seek adventure, nature, or entertainment. Therefore, it is important to do your research and segment your market according to their needs and expectations.

For instance, Muslims from Southeast Asia may have different preferences compared to those from the Middle East or Western countries. Some may be looking for family-friendly destinations, while others might be interested in romantic getaways or solo travel experiences.

Hence, you need to keep these preferences in mind to create tailored packages and services that effectively meet the diverse needs of Halal conscious travelers in different regions.

Get Your Marketing Mix Right

When marketing to Halal-conscious tourists, it is important to be respectful of Islamic values and culture. Halal tourism providers should avoid using images or language that could be considered offensive to Muslims.

In addition to that, it is also important to provide the right Halal amenities and attractions. Access to Halal food and beverages is a must, which means avoiding pork, alcohol, and other forbidden ingredients, as well as ensuring that the utensils and equipment are not contaminated with them.

Moreover, Halal-conscious travelers also appreciate having access to prayer facilities, such as prayer rooms, mats, compasses, and timetables. Some travelers may also prefer accommodation and entertainment options that are alcohol-free, gender-segregated, or family-friendly.

Carefully curating your Halal travel offerings based on these considerations will allow you to create highly attractive experiences that not only meet, but exceed the expectations of your target market.

Get And Promote Your Halal Certifications

Once you have ensured that your services and facilities are appropriately Halal-friendly, you also need to create an element of trust to effectively attract potential customers.

You can do this by obtaining relevant Halal certification from a reputable authority and displaying Halal logos on your website and premises. You can also leverage social media platforms and influencers to spread the word about your Halal offerings to promote your Halal certified offerings to attract more leads.

One of the key areas where you need to get Halal certification is food and beverage. This is often the first thing that Halal-conscious guests look for when choosing a destination or accommodation. The certification not only covers the food, but also the preparation methods, storage, and even the utensils used.

Applying for Halal certification has now become easier than ever through different Halal certification organisations such as the American Halal Foundation (AHF). Getting Halal certifications from trustworthy and prominent providers will assure travelers that the brand sufficiently adheres to Islamic laws and practices.

Whether you are a travel agency, hotel, restaurant, or an airline, getting sufficient Halal certification is vital to create trust and attract more Muslim travelers.

Leverage Partnerships

One of the key challenges of Halal tourism is to ensure that your products and services meet the expectations and standards of the target market. To overcome this, you should leverage partnerships to gain a competitive edge by partnering with other businesses and organizations who share your vision and values.

As also highlighted earlier, partnerships can help you build trust and confidence among your customers by showing that you are endorsed by reputable and respected partners. An example of this can be acquiring Halal certification from a recognized authority or joining a Halal tourism association.

Moreover, partnerships can also help you improve your operations and service delivery by providing you with access to resources, expertise, or technology that you may not have on your own. You could work with a Halal food supplier, a Halal-friendly booking platform, or a Halal training provider to help you optimize your processes and standards.

Go The Extra Mile

Halal tourism is not only about meeting the minimum requirements of Halal-conscious travelers, but also about exceeding their expectations and creating memorable experiences for them.

You can do this by offering unique and authentic experiences that showcase your destination’s culture, history, nature, or cuisine. You can also provide additional services or amenities that add value to their stay, such as free Wi-Fi, airport transfers or city tours.

Moreover, you can also surprise and delight them with personalized touches, such as welcome gifts, handwritten notes, or special treats. For instance, a welcome basket with local Halal snacks, a prayer timetable, and a small guidebook on Halal-friendly places in the area can make a world of difference.

Going the extra mile in Halal tourism means thinking beyond the basics and striving for excellence in service, amenities, and experiences. By doing so, you will not only meet the needs of Halal-conscious travelers but also turn them into loyal advocates of your brand.

With 2 billion Halal conscious guests up for grabs, the Halal tourism sector offers immense potential for economic growth.

By taking into account the aspects highlighted in this article, you can unlock the potential of Halal tourism and attract more Halal-conscious guests for your business.

To put it in a nutshell, Halal tourism is not just about catering to a set of religious norms, but is actually about creating unforgettable experiences for a rapidly growing segment of the global population.

Get in Touch

Connect with a halal certification expert..

Featured Insights

Industries Serviced by Our Halal Certification

Halal Meat & Poultry Certification

Halal Vitamins, Supplements & Nutraceuticals Certification

Halal Cosmetics & Personal Care Certification

Brand perception of halal tourism services and satisfaction: the mediating role of tourists' attitudes Brand perception of halal tourism services and satisfaction: the mediating role of tourists' attitudes

2019, International Journal of Tourism Science

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What is halal tourism and why is it so popular?

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Halal tourism is rapidly growing in popularity alongside the reeligion itself – but what exactly is it, and what makes it so popular? Let’s find out!

What is halal tourism?

Halal animals, other halal issues, the growth of halal tourism, halal tourist resorts, halal tourism in indonesia, halal tourism in turkey, halal tourism in croatia, halal tourism in the caribbean, halal tourism in malta, halal tourism- further reading.

Halal tourism is a specific branch of tourism aimed towards people of the Muslim faith – it involves travel to halal-friendly destinations. These are usually specific places which don’t serve alcohol or pork, and have segregated swimming pools or spa areas meaning they abide by the laws of halal.

What does halal mean

But what exactly is halal? This is something which Muslim people follow. According to the Halal Monitoring Committee, it is: an Arabic term which means permissible or lawful in Islam. In reference to food, it is the Islamic dietary standard, as prescribed in the Shari’ah (Islamic Law). And in the Qur’an it directly contrasts to things which are haram, or not allowed: haram is another Arabic term which means impermissible or unlawful in Islam.

Halal most commonly refers to food. There are certain foods (animals) which Muslim people are allowed to eat, and on top of this they must have been slaughtered in a particular – halal – way. The following information is also provided by the aforementioned Halal Monitoring Committee.

The following animals are fit for Muslim consumption:

All domestic birds
All types of buck

The aforementioned animals excluding fish and locusts will only be considered Halal when they are slaughtered according to the following guidelines:

The slaughter man must be a Muslim
Prior to slaughter, the slaughter man must invoke the name of Allah upon the animal to be slaughtered by reciting “Bismillahi Allahu Akbar” or at the very least recite “Bismillah”
He must immediately slaughter the animal after the recital without any significant delay
His knife must be extremely sharp in order that the slaughter may be conducted efficiently and easily and the animal suffers minimal agony
He must sever the following arteries:
Trachea (windpipe), Oesophagus (gullet), both Jugular Veins
If it is not possible for the slaughter man to cut all four arteries due to whatever reason then he must sever at least three in order to render the meat Halal.
He must conduct the slaughter manually (i.e. by hand) and swiftly. The knife must not be lifted before the cut is complete and the cut must be below the Adam’s apple

culinary tourism food tourism. Halal tourism.

Halal extends beyond meat . It also applies to certain ways of living. For example, in order to be halal one must not consume alcohol, or do anything else which is classed as being haram. This includes halal tourism, as will be explored in this blog post, and halal banking/finance – which involves banking and financial activities which are in compliance with Shari’ah law.

There has been a significant growth in the numbers of halal tourists in recent years. The Global Muslim Travel Index, produced by Mastercard in partnership with a research company called Crescent Rating, said that Muslim traveller arrivals grew from an estimated 108 million in 2013 to 160 million in 2019. It is widely documented that Islam is the fastest growing and also the most youthful religion across the world, so it is likely that we will continue to see growth on this scale if not more so.

It is the younger generation who are encouraging the growth of this sector. In the past, many Muslims would travel for pilgrimage or religious purposes. Young people, however, are more likely to want to explore places outside of this; to see more of the world and make holiday memories like their non-Muslim peers. Faiza Khan, a marketing lecturer, says that ‘you get this new, younger generation who may not necessarily want to keep going back to their home countries all the time. They’re more exposed to the world, and they want to see more. But they want to do it without compromising on some of their religious values.’

With this in mind, travel agents and tourism companies are capitalising on halal tourism and Muslim tourists, opening resorts which allow them to holiday in a way that is completely halal and aligns with their beliefs, religion and way of life.

Halal tourist resorts are hotels or whole resorts which cater to the halal way of life. This means they don’t serve alcohol, and the swimming pools are split into male and female-only. They often have a private beach and communal prayer rooms, and are usually in places where Islam is the most commonly followed religion.

There are sites which specialise in finding tourists a resort or hotel which is halal-friendly, such as HalalBooking.com and others. HalalBooking allows guests to narrow down their selection as to whether they want entirely alcohol-free properties, some or all halal food, the level of ladies’ privacy on offer and so on.

Halal tourism destinations

There are many destinations now offering halal friendly holidays. Below you’ll find some of the most popular, as well as a look at some places which don’t offer much in the way of halal tourism…

Indonesia has many resorts which are compatible with halal tourism. According to the 2010 census, 87% of the population there declared themselves to be Muslim – and there are at least five other religions present across the nation. With the high percentage of Muslims living here, however, it comes as no surprise that halal tourism is popular here.

According to HalalBooking there are 21 resorts which are completely alcohol free and only offer halal food. For example, three-star Sylvia Resort Komodo Labuan Bajo falls into this category and has a private-use wellness and spa facility, meaning only one family can use it at a time. It has mixed-gender pool and beach spaces allowing modest swimwear. All food is halal and there is no alcohol at the property. Another option is Ketapang Resort in Cisolok, which again only has halal food, doesn’t serve alcohol, and has a mixed-gender outdoor pool with modest swimwear allowed.

Islam is definitely the dominant religion followed in Turkey, with 90% of the population being Muslim. The sound of the call to prayer is one many tourists will associate with Turkey, and the country has many options for those looking for halal tourism.

HalalBooking showcases 54 options fitting the parameters laid out above: halal food only and no alcohol. One such hotel is the Wome Deluxe in beautiful Antalya. There is no alcohol on the property, halal food only and there are plenty of ladies-only areas such as a beach space, pool and spa. There are mixed-gender facilities too but for those wanting a female-only space, it is available.

Another option is the Villa Alya Boutique Hotel in Marmaris, offering private 3-bedroom villas each with their own secluded pool. There is also a mixed-gender beach with a modest swimwear policy. No alcohol is served here and all food is halal.

Croatia has seen a real growth in Muslim tourists coming over to visit; there has been an observed 40% growth in the number of visitors coming from the Middle East, Persian Gulf, and North Africa this year according to Total Croatia News in 2021. To this end, the Croatian tourist board is working alongside Iran to ensure halal tourism standards across the country.

While there aren’t many places to stay which are specifically catered towards Muslim travellers, there are still some halal-friendly places to stay in Croatia . They are mainly located in the capital, Dubrovnik. Hotel Aristos has a nice restaurant serving halal cuisine, while Valamar Lacroma Dubrovnik also offers halal food – their (free!) breakfast comes very highly praised. There are likely to be many more halal-friendly accommodation options popping up as Croatia and Iran work alongside each other.

Halal tourism is not something you’ll commonly find in the Caribbean. Islam is not a dominant religion in any of the Caribbean countries; it is at its highest in Surimane, though still only accounts for 15.2% of the populations’ religion. The Palms Resort in Barbados offer a 100% halal experience. You’ll get a personal Muslim chef, there is a private pool for women, Quran tutoring, access to Muslim doctors should you need one and much more. The ‘Barbados Halal Experience’ website says: BHE is pleased to offer “The Palms Resort Halal Experience”. These 100% Halal Experiences are specially designed holiday packages for the Muslim tourist who wishes a truly all-inclusive halal vacation on a tropical island at an affordable cost. All food items in the packages are prepared and handled under strict guidelines and are 100% certified halal by the local Islamic authorities.

There are a lot of hotels in Malta which have halal food on the menu. Again, it is not somewhere where you’ll find many specifically halal hotels; HalalBooking shows 219 hotels, but most only fall into the categories of ‘halal food on request’, or have private and secluded spas which in themselves are halal-friendly. Villa Layla in Gozo, as with any self-catering property if you choose to have it this way, is labelled as a non-alcohol property. However, all villas and self-catered holiday stays can be alcohol-free if you just don’t bring any alcohol; this is not specifically done for halal tourism purposes! MYN in Rabat is a hotel which is alcohol-free however – but it doesn’t serve halal food. This means a halal holiday in Malta might not be so easily come by…

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The Influence of Halal Destination Awareness on Halal Destination Loyalty: A Study on West Sumatera

Anya Safira Universitas Indonesia
Nabila Salsabilia

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A bibliometric analysis of Halal and Islamic tourism

International Hospitality Review

ISSN : 2516-8142

Article publication date: 11 October 2021

Issue publication date: 7 November 2023

Halal and Islamic tourism is gaining attention in the tourism literature in recent years. This study uses bibliometric analytical techniques to explore all the publications indexed in the Scopus database in the broad subject of Halal and Islamic tourism from 2004 to 2021.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors found 238 publications that fit the function, subject and set criteria. The papers were analysed in terms of publication by knowledge area, number of studies published every year, contribution by countries, number of authors and most influential journals. VOS viewer was used to perform a visual analysis on co-occurrence of keywords and document citations.

According to the findings, the Scopus database includes 151 (34.40%) documents on business, management and accounting, and 89 (20.27%) documents on social science. It was reported that 29 documents were published in 2018, followed by 54 documents in 2019 and 56 documents in 2021. Malaysia has contributed 86 documents on Islamic tourism, whereas Indonesia has contributed 64 documents. The paper also discusses other interesting findings.

Research limitations/implications

The bibliometric analysis carried out was confined to Scopus data. Other national and international databases were not taken into account for this research.

Originality/value

Between 2004 and 2021, this study examined relevant studies on Halal and Islamic tourism. The study presents a concise review of the literature accessible to researchers working in this area and provides recommendations for future research.

Bibliometric analysis
Halal tourism
Islamic tourism
Citation analysis
Spiritual tourism

Suban, S.A. , Madhan, K. and Shagirbasha, S. (2023), "A bibliometric analysis of Halal and Islamic tourism", International Hospitality Review , Vol. 37 No. 2, pp. 219-242. https://doi.org/10.1108/IHR-05-2021-0038

Emerald Publishing Limited

Published in International Hospitality Review . Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode

1. Introduction

The tourism industry has been rapidly expanding over the past few decades, and it proved to be one of the most popular and promising industries globally ( Ho et al. , 2009 ; Shi et al. , 2017 ; Zhao, 2018 ). According to Statista (2021) , the travel and tourism industry is expected to generate US$ 383,782m in revenue. By 2025, revenue is projected to grow at a rate of 24.05% annually and resultant to the market value of US$ 908,844m and online sales will reach 72% of the overall revenue of the tourism and travel sector. Globally, tourism is growing progressively and contributing immensely to the employment generation for stakeholders ( Sharma et al. , 2021 ). The tourist sector is widely recognized as one of the most important drivers of economic growth, with Halal and Islamic tourism emerging as a new tourism business idea throughout the world ( Prayag, 2020 ). Traveling is accomplished in Islam to appreciate Allah's grandeur and glorify Allah ( Boğan, 2020 ). The practice of Muslims traveling throughout the Islamic world has a strong tradition ( Henderson, 2009 ). Muslims' travel is discussed to as Halal, Islamic, Sharia or Muslim friendly tourism ( Henderson, 2016 ). Muslim tourists participating in halal and Islamic tourism activities make up one of the most significant specialized areas in global tourism, providing possibilities to Muslim and non-Muslim countries ( Cohen and Neal, 2012 ; Henderson, 2016 ; Lari et al. , 2019 ). By 2021, it is expected to attract 156 million tourists, accounting for 10% of the worldwide tourism market ( Mastercard-Crescent Rating, 2021 ).

Growth in demand for a variety of tourism products that conform to Halal and Islamic needs and requirements are becoming quite ubiquitous, which creates a necessity to explore more about Halal and Islamic tourism ( Adinugraha et al. , 2021 ). Despite this rising interest, academicians and practitioners continue to be perplexed by the usage of Halal/Islamic tourism terminology ( Wingett and Turnbull, 2017 ). Even though the words Islamic and Halal tourism are frequently used interchangeably in the literature, a standard definition has yet to be established ( Usman et al. , 2019 ), Islamic tourism, Halal tourism, destinations on halal friendly tourism and Muslim friendly travel, Halal travel, Muslim friendly travel destinations, as well as other terms still used. The distinctions between these words are described in this study, regardless of whether the broad strokes of these words are difficult to define.

As per Carboni et al. (2014) , tourism in Islam is a type of tourism that adheres to Islamic principles and involves Muslims who desire to preserve their religious practices while traveling. It's worth noting that no understanding about what constitutes Islamic tourism exists ( Preko et al. , 2020 ). Islamic tourism is profoundly rooted in Islamic Sharia, which mandates any Muslim to visit Makkah (in Saudi Arabia), where Hajj is performed, provided she or he can afford it financially and physically ( Battour and Ismail, 2016 ). In other words, Islamic tourism is the travel done by Muslims who want to remain true to their faith ( Addina et al. , 2020 ). Halal tourism is described as Muslims traveling for pleasure or business to tourist sites in non-Islamic and Islamic nations are not specifically prohibited by Islamic Sharia ( Boğan and Sarıışık, 2019 ). As per Global Halal Tourism Organisation (2021) , Halal travel is the fastest-growing market of the travel, and tourism business is having a global economic effect. The recent literature has given greater attention to Halal tourism because of the significant commercial influence of Islamic travellers ( Harahsheh et al. , 2019 ). Halal tourism equips to Muslim vacationers while adhering to the ideals of Islam and is predicted to expand by 73% from 1.6 billion in 2010 to 2.76 billion in 2050 ( Global Halal Tourism Organisation, 2021 ), making it the century's fastest-growing religious community. Halal tourism encompasses a wide range of sectors, from transportation to entertainment and restaurants to lodging ( Rahayu, 2021 ). It focuses on providing products and services for catering to Muslim travellers' needs, such as enabling desire and satisfying dietary restrictions, in order to assist them to adhere Islamic principles ( Adinugraha et al. , 2021 ; Prayag, 2020 ; Vargas-Sánchez and Moral-Moral, 2019a , b , 2022 ). Tourism of halal should cover various perceptible and non-perceptible components of Sharia law. Developing halal as a tourism product and preserving it is in keeping with the essence of Islam might be considerably dissimilar from merely providing a halal diet ( Rasul, 2019 ). It encompasses a wide variety of services in the hotel and tourism sector, including employee dress code and morals, non-involvement of casino, nightclubs and gambling ( Yagmur et al. , 2019 ). Traditionally, Halal tourism was aligned with the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. Prayer rooms, Halal cuisine, entertainment and dress codes as per Islamic code, general Islamic morals are all available to Muslim visitors ( Battour et al. , 2011 ). Travelers from Jordan, Bahrain Kuwait, UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other countries like the UK, Europe are also making up the halal tourism market ( Mastercard-Crescent Rating, 2021 ). Halal tourism has established itself as a global brand ( Al-Hammadi et al. , 2019 ). Muslim-friendly tourism refers to travel that adheres to Islamic principles ( Abror et al. , 2020 ). It has four characteristics: Islamic services, Islamic morals in general, Halalness and the prohibition of gambling and alcohol. Sharia tourism is a method of incorporating Islamic traditions into all facets of tourism operations. The importance of Islamic law as an ideology held by Muslims serves as a foundation for tourism growth ( Rusby and Arif, 2020 ).

In order to comply with Islamic law's requirements, it is the responsibility of every Muslim to travel Hajj and Umrah ( Zamani-Farahani and Henderson, 2010 ). Islam recognizes people's right to travel and encourages them to go to pilgrimage such as Hajj and Umrah and travel for medical, education, business, trade, entertainment and pleasure ( Adinugraha et al. , 2021 ). Halal and Islamic tourism is the type of tourism, which mostly attracts Muslims who prefer to remain immersed in their own culture ( Zamani-Farahani and Henderson, 2010 ). Prior research has confirmed that cultural and social activities in a tourism destination are perceived as important issues to be considered by tourism management organizations to create a Halal friendly environment and image ( Han et al. , 2019 ).

With a sizable Muslim population, traveling across the nations, the pressure to create Halal and Islamic tourism marketing practices is growing, and there is a lot of discussion about how it should modify their methods in order to manage productive relationships between tourists and service providers. Despite the rising interest in Halal and Islamic practices in the tourist sector and the resulting growth in the number of publications on the subject ( Faiza and Michelle, 2017 ), only limited studies offer a complete view of this field's structure and development.

Few studies have been conducted in the arena of Islamic and Halal tourism in current years, and those focused on specific research questions (such as the aims, drivers/barriers and outcomes) rather than providing an overall and comprehensive picture of halal tourism.

A recent research on Halal tourism revealed the views of Malaysian and Indonesian Government officials and senior executives on Australia as a viable vacation destination ( Ismail et al. , 2019 ). The continual rise in the number of researchers interested in the subject, and the number of scientific papers and publishers in the field demands the interpretation and summary of the informational convergence that has arisen in this environment. This circumstance highlights the importance of tourism-related bibliometric study.

Although research reported in the area of Halal is growing with an upward trend ( Alzeer et al. , 2018 ), to the best of the authors' knowledge, no study has used bibliometric and network analytic approaches to assess and evaluate the topic area of Halal and Islamic tourism ( Haleem et al. , 2020 ). Furthermore, scholars have not done a sufficient review, assessment or guiding study on this topic ( Yagmur et al. , 2019 ). Against this backdrop, with a quantitative bibliometric study, this work seeks to address this gap to summarize, examine and classify the body of knowledge on Halal and Islamic tourism. This study examines Halal and Islamic tourism methodical and transparent research to educate current and upcoming researchers on the current state of affairs of a topic field and, as a result, to reduce research bias by extensively mining/auditing literature databases. Bibliometric analyses quantify scientific communication by constructing a framework for a field of study, core topics, and existing relationships ( Sánchez-Riofrío et al. , 2015 ). In the instance of a thorough examination of advancement in research, the bibliometric analysis will aid in a thorough assessment of the many elements of the systematic landscape surrounding Halal and Islamic tourism.

It also analyses the number of publications by years, most popular authors with their citations, top listed journals in this area, author's affiliating organization with their contributions, the countries where the articles were written, the studies with maximum citations and network analysis of keyword co-occurrence, document citation, co-citations of source and author's citations.

2. Literature review

2.1 halal and islamic tourism.

Halal or Islamic tourism have been common study topics in recent years, with studies being undertaken in the United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Japan among other countries and contexts. We have studies conducted in Indonesia on halal tourism ( Abror et al. , 2019 ; Adinugraha et al. , 2021 ; Aji et al. , 2020 ; Rahmawati et al. , 2021 ; Ratnasari et al. , 2020 ). The literature has highlighted studies in different countries such as Malaysia ( Hanafiah and Hamdan, 2020 ; Rahman et al. , 2020 ; Said et al. , 2020 ), Turkey ( Battour et al. , 2018 ; Boğan and Sarıışık, 2019 ), China ( Jia and Chaozhi, 2020 ), New Zealand ( Prayag, 2020 ), Jordan ( Harahsheh et al. , 2019 ), Italy ( Carboni et al. , 2014 ) and the research on Muslim tourism from Malaysia ( Battour et al. , 2011 ).

Indonesia's significant number of public demands for Halal tourist visits compelled the creation of normative and positive regulations that govern the industry ( Adinugraha et al. , 2021 ). Lombok has adopted the Halal tourist idea, which encompasses services, Halal food service, spiritual requirements, communication and other Halal branding-related issues ( Rahmawati et al. , 2021 ). Halal tourism is built on three pillars in West Nusa Tenggara Province: legal, philosophical and social ( Jaelani et al. , 2020 ).

The scholars from Ghana ( Preko et al. , 2020 ) have established a correlation between Muslim tourists' perceived beliefs, happiness, commitment and the moderating influence of religion. This study was conducted among 396 Ghanaian Muslim tourists who visited Larabanga Mosque. Recent studies have highlighted halal food availability in the assortment of destination, satisfaction and experience of travel, and Muslim tourist retention ( Mannaa, 2020 ). On similar lines, various studies have been conducted among Muslims belonging to different countries, for example, Jordan ( Harahsheh et al. , 2019 ), Indonesia ( Rusby and Arif, 2020 ), etc. Relevant studies by several researchers from various countries have made significant contributions to the chosen keywords, which are taken into account in this current study ( Abror et al. , 2020 ; Addina et al. , 2020 ; Al-Ansi et al. , 2020 ; Al-Ansi and Han, 2019 ; Al-Hamarneh and Steiner, 2004 ; Al-Hammadi et al. , 2019 ; Battour et al. , 2010 , 2011 ; 2012 , 2017 ; 2018 ; Brdesee et al. , 2013 ; Douglas and Shaikh, 2004 ; Eid and El-Gohary, 2015 ; Harahsheh et al. , 2019 ; Khan and Khan, 2016 ; Mannaa, 2020 ; Neveu, 2010 ; Pradana et al. , 2020 ; Prayag, 2020 ; Preko et al. , 2020 ; Rahman et al. , 2020 ; Rahman, 2014 ; Said et al. , 2020 ; Taheri, 2016 ; Tiamiyu et al. , 2020 ; Wardi et al. , 2018 ; Wisker et al. , 2020 ).

2.2 Bibliometric analysis in the tourism industry

López-Bonilla and López-Bonilla (2021) conducted the bibliometric analysis considering papers from 2002 to 2013 indexed in the Scopus database and presented various academic viewpoints, disciplines and domains of knowledge. A review of 258 studies from journals indexed in the database of WOS related to tourism and hospitality published between 2013 and 2019 identified the tourism domains identified on smart tourism ( Bastidas-Manzano et al. , 2021 ). There are few studies in the literature on bibliometric analysis of the slow tourism sector, using criteria such as the number of articles published each year ( Mavric et al. , 2021 ). A count of 407 documents was retrieved from the Scopus and analysed using descriptive, conceptual, intellectual and social structure analysis approaches ( Sharma et al. , 2021 ). Recent work also provides gaps and research possibilities in the fields of sustainability and tourist marketing ( Cavalcante et al. , 2021 ). The article includes numerous lists of the most cited works and citation structure in the hospitality tourism during the previous few decades ( Merigó et al. , 2020 ). Behaviour, experience, methodology and theory, and patterns of knowledge production are explained, illustrated and analysed alongside the eight themes ( Li et al. , 2020 ). In hospitality and leisure, the most referenced publications in all journals are listed in Web of Science ( Merigó et al. , 2020 ). The keywords co-occurrence, co-citation and analysis on co-authorship and bibliographic coupling are used to examine the 4625 papers on this topic published till 2018 in the WOS ( Garrigos-Simon et al. , 2019 ). A study by Johnson and Samakovlis, (2019) considered journal articles during the years 2000–2018 were used to research smart tourism knowledge and its visual mapping and observation of the domain. Bibliometric analysis of specific topics on “tourism” ( Yilmaz, 2019 ), “tourism recreation research” ( Vishwakarma and Mukherjee, 2019 ), “tourism and hospitality” ( Evren and Kozak, 2014 ), “social media in hospitality and tourism” ( Nusair et al. , 2019 ), “sport tourism and sustainability” ( Jiménez-García et al. , 2020 ), “tourism research” ( Güzeller and Çeli̇Ker, 2018 ), “convergence in tourism management research” ( Estevão et al. , 2017 ), “Asia Pacific journal of tourism research” ( Guzeller and Celiker, 2019 ), “sustainable tourism studies” ( Profile and Profile, 2018 ), “journal ranking and the assessment of quality research in tourism” ( Michael Hall, 2011 ) and “trends and patterns in sustainable tourism” ( Ruhanen et al. , 2015 ) have been conducted. The current study has compared the contributions made by scholars from all around the world to halal tourism ( Cheng et al. , 2018 ; Evren and Kozak, 2014 ; Güzeller and Çeli̇Ker, 2018 ; Kaparthi, 2005 ; Koseoglu et al. , 2016 ; Köseoglu et al. , 2015 ; Mulet-Forteza et al. , 2018 ; Niñerola et al. , 2019 ; Nusair et al. , 2019 ; Okumus et al. , 2018 ; Ruhanen et al. , 2015 ; Theresa Waterbury, 2018 ; Vishwakarma and Mukherjee, 2019 ).

In light of this evidence, it is apparent that academics should investigate further the notion of Halal tourism, which is a relatively new concept. In this manner, the study seeks to assess the present situation by evaluating the worldwide literature using a bibliometric technique based on a variety of characteristics and guiding to future researchers interested in working in this subject. The retrospective assessment of scientific production is expected to aid in planning of future research and enhancing their quality. Furthermore, the study's findings are expected to contribute to the creation of academic knowledge in terms of defining and assessing publications and trends in this subject.

3. Methodology

3.1 bibliographic analysis.

Bibliometric indicators were applied to evaluate bibliographic data, including the total number of authors and articles, citations, institutions and countries. The use of quantitative and statistical analytical approaches to articles, such as journals, and their corresponding citations to assess literature's success is known as bibliometric analysis ( Estevão et al. , 2017 ). In recent years, this analysis has grown in acceptance in business research, and it is effective for decoding and a map of accumulating scientific and evolutionary knowledge subtleties of engrained areas by rigorously attempting to comprehend enormous amounts of unstructured data ( Donthu et al. , 2021a–l ; Khan et al. , 2021 ; Kumar et al. , 2021 ; Sigala et al. , 2021 ).

For years, bibliometric approaches have been used to map and research the information published in various fields ( Danvila-del-Valle et al. , 2019 ). It is often used to effectively manage all of the current studies in the chosen field and to provide a clearer picture of the study scope ( Haleem et al. , 2020 ). It can also be used to evaluate the efficacy based on the publication and citation outlines of a journal ( Vishwakarma and Mukherjee, 2019 ), and several governments now use it to assess the quality of state-funded universities' research output.

Scholars employ bibliometric analysis for several purposes, including identifying journal performance and new trends in article, patterns of cooperation and research mechanisms, as well as investigating the intellectual structure of a given topic in the existing literature ( Donthu et al. , 2021a , b , d ).

Our paper has presented bibliometric analysis covering descriptive and science mapping of halal and Islamic tourism ( Donthu et al. , 2021a , b ). Our descriptive analyses include the area of research, year of publication, publications by countries, publications by universities, leading journals, popular authors, author keywords co-occurrence, citation of documents, authors citations and co-citation of the source are part of science mapping.

We have also used the VOS viewer to do visual analyses on citations, co-citations and co-occurrences ( Chen and Song, 2017 ). VOS viewer graphically visualizes the nodal network using two standardized weights, such as the number and total strength of the links ( Donthu et al. , 2020a , b , 2021c ; Öztürk, 2020 ; Sureka et al. , 2020 ; Yang et al. , 2020 ). VOS viewer is a commonly used application for network analysis of this kind ( Estevão et al. , 2017 ; Güzeller and Çeli̇Ker, 2018 ; Kawuki et al. , 2021 ; Leong et al. , 2020 ; Michael Hall, 2011 ; Rey-Martí et al. , 2016 ). The author keywords co-occurrence specifies which keywords are most prominent ( Leong et al. , 2020 ), citation and co-citation analysis, and bibliometric visualization are examples of such techniques. Citation interpretation is based on the assumption that scholars can refer to sources that are relevant to their study ( Danvila-del-Valle et al. , 2019 ). The design of this study is, however, presented in Figure 1 .

3.2 Defining keywords

The identification of the keywords used for research paper selection is the first step in bibliometric analysis. As a result, the previously listed concepts in the Islamic tourism literature are used as keywords when searching for bibliographic documents in Scopus. The Boolean operator (OR) is used in this way to search for the following keywords in one search: “Islamic tourism” OR “Halal tourism” OR” Muslim tourism” OR “Sharia tourism” OR “Muslim tour” OR “Islamic tour” OR “Halal tour” OR “Muslim friendly tourism” OR “Halal friendly tourism” OR “Muslim tourist” OR “Halal tourist” OR “Islamic tourist” OR “Islamic religious tourism” OR “Islamic spiritual tourism” OR “Muslim spiritual tourism”. The search was conducted on May 2nd, 2021 before 09.20 AM and only documents published between 2004 and May 2nd, 2021 were taken into consideration for analysis.

3.3 Initial results

Despite the fact that a vast number of databases group global analysis, the current study focused on Scopus database for bibliographic analysis. We restricted our English-language searches to the Scopus indexed journals. With over 22,000 publications in the areas of research, social science, technology and medicine, scholarly journal, conference reports and book chapter ( Haleem et al. , 2020 ). In total, 293 documents were found during the initial search, which were then refined using the parameters outlined in the subsequent sections. This includes 225 articles, 23 book chapters, 20 conference papers, 18 reviews, three books, two editorials and two letters.

3.4 Redefining initial research

The initial results are then refined by excluding publications in press (19), papers in French (1), Japanese (1) and Spanish (1), as well as book chapters, books, short surveys and magazine articles. We only included scholarly papers (reviews and articles) which were published in peer-reviewed journals (journals and conference proceedings) since they are often referred to as “certified expertise” in the research objectives. We found 239 records using this method, and after extracting one duplication, the refinement yielded 238 related documents published between 2004 and 2021.

4. Results and discussion

We analysed the data of this study in two steps, the first of which was bibliometric analysis and the second of which was network analysis.

4.1 Area of research

The number of records (documents) reported in the research field is represented in Table 1 . Scopus database has 151 (34.40%) business, management and accounting records, 89 (20.27%) social science documents and 37 (8.43%) environmental science documents, according to the analysis. The results conclude that Islamic tourism is one of the emerging subjects of accounting, business and management. Also, the majority of documents published on Islamic tourism dealt with “business, management and accounting,” as well as “social science.” It indicates that scholars in this field are more interested in doing studies in the chosen area.

4.2 Year of publication

Table 2 shows the total quantity of journals from 2004 to May 02, 2021. These data show how interest in this field of study has grown year after year. According to Scopus database, the number of publications between 2004 and 2015 was very less (less than 3%), but it has steadily increased as follows: 2015 (11 documents), 2016 (21 documents), 2018 (29 documents), 2019 (54 documents), 2020 (56 publications) and 2021 (so far 14 publications). As a result, it may be argued that Islamic tourism has grown in popularity among researchers, but it also needs to be explored further. Figure 2 gives a graphical representation of the publication and its growth year on year.

4.3 Publications by countries

Table 3 depicts the various nations' contributions in terms of publishing around the world. In this analysis, only the top 15 nations were considered based on the number of publications per country. According to the Scopus database, Malaysia has contributed 86 documents on Islamic tourism, followed by Indonesia with 64 publications, the United Kingdom with 18 publications and Egypt with ten research papers. Apart from that, publications are documented from South Korea, Turkey, the Arab Emirates, Spain, Singapore and China. Some countries are not included in this analysis because they have written fewer papers. The findings show that Malaysia and Indonesia are extensively involved in Islamic tourism as these countries have the largest Muslim populations. According to Scopus results, Figure 3 depicts the pictorial information of publications published by various countries. Our studies document published articles from 42 countries.

4.4 Publication by universities

The number of publications produced by authors from various universities is shown in Table 4 . Out of 160 universities, the top 15 were chosen for this analysis. Institutions of more than four publications were included in this study. In total, these 160 organizations have published 320 documents. From the analysis, it is determined that the authors from the University of Malaya have published 20 documents; the authors of International Islamic university Malaysia have contributed 16 publications. With 11 studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA and Tanda University are next. The results reveal that the institutions from Malaysia have published maximum studies on Islamic tourism. Figure 4 gives a pictorial representation of author of the publication by the university.

4.5 Leading journals

Table 5 lists the articles that have been published on “Islamic tourism,” “Muslim tourism” and other keywords used in this study. Knowing the journals that publish Islamic tourism study is critical for choosing the journals for literature review and understanding each journal's emphasis on Islamic tourism. Only the top 15 journals were included in this study, and journals with less than four publications were excluded. According to the review, the “Journal of Islamic marketing” has 21 studies published, while “Tourism Management Perspectives” has 14 studies on Islamic marketing. These two journals are followed by Geojournal of Tourism and Geosites (seven studies) and the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage (6 studies). There are eight journals that have published five studies each: “Advanced Science Letters, African Journal of Hospitality Tourism and Leisure, International Journal of Supply Chain Management, International Journal of Tourism Research, Journal of Environmental Management and Tourism, Malaysian Journal of Consumer and Family Economics, Sustainability Switzerland, Tourism Recreation Research”.

4.6 Popular authors

Table 6 lists the first ten scholars to publish articles on halal. The term “articles” is used in this section rather than “documents” because the analysis filters out all documents that are not articles from the database to guarantee compliance with the h-index and number of author citations. This table only includes authors who have more than four publications, regardless of their citations or h -index. These ten writers have authored 51 publications with a total of 2420 citations. According to Scopus, 160 scholars contributed to the study's key words of Islamic tourism and other related topics. It was understood that Han, H has conducted greater number of studies (seven articles), followed by Al-Ansi and Battour, M each contributing to six articles. Henderson, J.C received 395 citations for his research, followed by Ismail, M.N and Battor, M , who each received 384 citations.

4.7 Co-occurrence of author keywords

The main keywords on Islamic and halal tourism were analysed using VOS's co-occurrence functionality, which represents a graphical overview of author keywords (as shown in Figure 5 ). In a scientific field, co-occurrence analysis on keywords creates a grid of topics and their associations ( Merigó et al. , 2020 ). We used the same authors' keywords co-occurrence analysis for the past five years, beginning in 2004, and ending on May 02, 2021, to classify the leading keywords of authors in recent years. We performed the same analysis from 2004 to 2021 using three as a minimum threshold of terms. The keywords “Halal tourism,” “Islamic tourism” and “Muslim tourist” are used often in the network. This network has 63 keywords, eight clusters, 321 nodes and connection strength of 488. The first major keyword was determined to be “Halal tourism,” which had 75 occurrences, three clusters and 45 connections, followed by “Islamic tourism,” which had 44 occurrences, 36 links and two clusters. “Muslim tourist” was the second most important keyword in this network, appearing 19 times with six clusters and 25 connections. The third keyword was “Malaysia,” which had seven clusters and 29 connections and appeared 17 times with one cluster and 22 links. The keyword “satisfaction” appears 15 times in this report. Other prominent keywords included “Halal,” “tourism,” “Islam,” “Indonesia,” “Muslim,” “Islamic attribute,” “tourist satisfaction” and “destination”.

4.8 Citations of documents

Figure 6 shows the citation analysis for the articles. The documents with more than five citations were subjected to this study. Out of 238 articles, 99 met the requirements according to the threshold limit. Some of the network's 99 objects were not attached to one another, with the highest collection of connected items consisting of 86 records. As a result, using VOS viewer, the network for 86 documents was established, with nine clusters of 530 connections. The first cluster contains 15 objects, while the second, third and fourth clusters each contain 10 articles. In the fifth, sixth and seventh clusters, nine studies were found. Eight and seven items make up the eighth and ninth clusters, respectively. The document by Zamani-Farahani (2010) has 169 citations, five clusters and 33 links, Battour (2016) received 120 citations and Al-Hamarneh (2004) received 115 citations according to VOS's citation analysis.

4.9 Citations of authors

Figure 7 demonstrates the outcomes of the author citation analysis outcomes to determine the most prominent scholar on halal and Islamic tourism around the world. There are 577 articles on halal tourism written by 577 scholars. The current study was based on authors who had at least one paper with ten citations. This criterion was fulfilled by 132 scholars. Some of the objects are not related, and the highest group of connected authors was 121. As a result, a network with 1510 connections was established for 121 objects in 10 clusters. According to the findings, Han H . has seven papers, Al-Ansi A. has six studies, Battour M. has five documents and Ismail M.N has four documents.

4.10 Co-citation of sources

The network overview of source co-citations is presented in Figure 8 . This research was performed on 4927 sources that had at least 20 citations. The VOS has produced 42 items within this limit. The source term “tourism management” has 661 citations, with 41 connections totalling 18,278 link strength. The journal “ Annals of Tourism Research ” received 389 citations, 2 clusters and 40 links. The key influences on co-citation reviews are understood to be “ Tourism Management Perspective ,” “ Journal of Islamic research ,” “ Journal of Travel and Tourism Management ” and “ Journal of Hospitality Research .”

5. Discussion

“Halal tourism” is clearly a growing segment, with muslim travellers engaging in tourism-related events. This population constitutes one of the largest niche sectors in the worldwide tourism. This growing demand warrants extensive study to realize its full potential and provide the finest services to visitors. To facilitate the flawless services to the tourists, we require scientific knowledge on Halal and Islamic tourism. Hence, this paper provides extensive bibliometric analysis on Halal and Islamic tourism to assess the various topics researched and also highlights important theoretical and practical implications for tourism business as well as to the researchers.

According to the Scopus results, research in this area has exploded since 2017, with 132 studies published between 2017 and 2020. With 150 research articles, Malaysia and Indonesia are two major contributors to the Halal and Islamic tourism literature. According to the study, 160 institutions have been active in conducting study on the present subject, with the majority of the studies coming from Malaysian organizations. The leading journals, “Tourism Management Perspectives” and “Journal of Islamic Marketing,” have published the maximum amount of studies in this area. There are 160 scholars who have contributed to this field, including Han, H. (seven experiments with 136 citations), Battour, M. (336 citations of six), Henderson, J.C. (five documents with 395 citations) and a total of 2420 citations.

The study contributes to the related literature as well as to the researchers interested in exploring this area. The findings of this study will aid Halal and Islamic tourism students, researchers and practitioners in determining its global spread. The study highlights the most promising regions to work on and the various patterns of publications to be aware of, if they choose to publish in this field. In addition, our research serves as a roadmap for future research studies by highlighting the strengths and limitations of the publications in Halal and Islamic tourism. Also, our research provides insights to non-Islamic countries to concentrate on Halal tourism which encourages Muslim travellers to visit these countries, thereby contributing the growth of tourism economy.

5.1 Theoretical implications

From a theoretical standpoint, this research paper follows the call of recent studies by ( Khan and Callanan, 2017 ) and ( Wingett and Turnbull, 2017 ), to develop the stronger theoretical basis for Halal and Islamic tourism domain. While the research domain has grown considerably, it lacks comprehensive insights into Halal and Islamic tourism. We synthesize the past and current research patterns in this particular domain by conducting this analysis using bibliographic coupling and co-citation. Furthermore, there is a clear distinction between Islamic tourism, which refers to travel for religious and pilgrimage purposes and is thus associated with acts of faith and Halal tourism, which is done for recreational, leisure and social reasons. In this context, the term “Halal” refers to acts permitted or authorised by Islamic law ( El-Gohary, 2016 ).

From the journal, it was summarized that the total number of documents from the years 2004 to May 2021 reached 293 documents in the form of articles. The most cited paper, entitled “Islamic tourism and managing tourism development in Islamic societies: The cases of Iran and Saudi Arabia” was written by ( Zamani-Farahani and Henderson, 2010 ). ( Al-Ansi and Han, 2019 ; Battour et al. , 2010 ) were the three best productive writers based on the number of publications. The most cited keywords in HIT's were Halal tourism, Islamic tourism and Muslim tourist. This implies that most of the research studies discuss those topics. Meanwhile, it is suggested to explore more studies based on the least keywords' occurrence such as Sharia hotel, Islamophobia and purchase intentions.

The number of keywords related to Halal and Islamic tourism studies literature shows an awareness of the need for an ethical and moral framework in the marketing field ( Lee et al. , 2019 ) and the growth of halal markets throughout the world ( Alserhan, 2010a , b ). Increasing the awareness of the Muslim population on Halal products is also a business prospect for Muslim entrepreneurs and those with other backgrounds ( Abuznaid, 2012 ), and this serves as a motivation for different groups to explore the Islamic marketing field. Furthermore, monitoring the usage of keywords also can determine the important areas to be focused on.

Finally, the methodology employed in this study has implications for future bibliometric and review research in general. The study also offers complete insight into the idea of Halal tourism that can be used as a reference by tourism business for any strategic efforts, as well as revealing the major research topics that can be used by emerging researchers for their future studies.

5.2 Practical implications

This research reported the significant development recorded by the journal over the years and also presented appropriate information required for the potential authors to publish. It is also intended to guide scholars in the Halal and Islamic tourism field toward new topics and also to support the development of knowledge on Halal and Islamic marketing by providing more space for conceptual papers. A special edition is also recommended to discuss the concepts and research on Halal and Islamic tourism to confirm the expansion of the halal business which is currently popular throughout the world. Collaborations with practitioners in the Islamic marketing industry are to be invited to conduct research and publish in the journals to improve the realistic conditions and needs in the field. As most of the studies are limited to Malaysia and Indonesia, this study also invites contributions from various other countries to add their cultural aspects influencing halal and Islamic tourism.

Building on the work of other scholars, this study offers certain practical implications for the tourism managers and policy makers. From a managerial perspective, this paper suggests that business managers should formulate and execute more extensive strategies to cater to the requirements of Muslim visitors while keeping their religious responsibilities in mind.

This bibliometric research finding might also be used to educate non-Muslim investors on how to respond to an expanding Halal tourist sector. They would get a competitive advantage as a result of this. To make the halal tourist business more acceptable, profitable and sustainable, increasing number of studies on the Halal tourism industry in non-Muslim nations and cross-country studies between muslim and non-Muslim countries are strongly encouraged.

Managers should consider applying for Halal certification as this would instil confidence among Muslim tourists. Destination packages should be designed and positioned by service managers to meet the needs and desires of various customers. This would aid customers in their destination selection processes, as well as facilitate the customers' expectations. Tourism managers should design promotional campaigns that help customers understand the distinction between Halal and Haram foods. Furthermore, smart strategies should be employed to improve access to raw materials, ensure halal food safety, quality and integrity and develop the requisite expertise in this thriving global industry.

Government should provide economic incentives such as tax relaxation for hotels and restaurants that apply for Halal certification. The government should also set up a committee that could develop, establish and monitor Halal and Islamic hospitality compliance standards wherever applicable. The government should devise strategies to encourage Halal and Islamic tourist businesses to use radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology to trace Halal products from the manufacturing floor to the supermarket shelf.

5.3 Limitations and future research

This study has some limitations. First, we rely on writers' forethought to include Halal or Islamic tourism in one of the three areas of search, which are “Title, Abstract and Keywords.” It is possible to overlook an article that does not include any of them in all areas of search. However, the probability is minimal and has no impact on the study findings to discover and disclose the influential components of the Islamic tourism sector. Second, we limited our analysis to articles and reviews published in English in the Scopus database; while the study represents moderate and high-quality publications published in this field, we failed to integrate other databases and languages, such as Arabic, which could have affected our results. Future research can address this research gap in their bibliometric analyses. Based on the bibliometric analysis, it is clear that Malaysia and Indonesia are two of the most important contributors to Halal and Islamic tourism, having conducted 150 studies, while other ASEAN member countries contribution is meagre. Future studies are invited from other countries to bring out cross-country differences in Halal and Islamic tourism. Further studies should contribute to the literature by providing a deeper understanding of how to make destinations of Halal friendly based on millennials perspectives. Future studies may look into how Halal tourism can be complemented in other specialty industries like medical tourism and wellness tourism.

Design of study

Gives a graphical representation of publications from 2004 to May, 02 2021

Showing the list of publications published by different countries

Shows the authors of the universities involved in tourism research

Network analysis for co-occurrence of author's keywords

Expresses the citation analysis of documents

Depicts citations of authors

Co-citation analysis of sources

Classification of publication by research area

Distribution of publication by years

Publications contributed by different countries

Author of the publication by the University

List of journals publishing Halal and Islamic tourism

Publications by authors with the citations

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Authors contribution : All the authors contributed equally for this study.

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Developing halal consumer behavior and tourism studies: Recommendations for Indonesia and Spain

Citra kusuma dewi.

1 Department of Business Administration, Telkom University, Bandung, Indonesia

Mahir Pradana

Rubén huertas-garcía.

2 Department of Business, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

Nurafni Rubiyanti

Syarifuddin syarifuddin, introduction.

In recent years, there have been several studies conducted on intentions of Muslim consumers to measure the right attitude in buying halal food so that business development of halal food products can be augmented (Wilson, 2014 ). Moreover, as revealed by Sandikçi ( 2011 ), acceptance of halal products is also increasingly widespread among non-Muslims. Furthermore, researchers on business and psychology have been busy in examining this phenomenon either in Muslim or non-Muslim countries.

It is essential for Islamic believers that the category of the products they consume is halal or haram (Madiawati and Pradana, 2016 ). “Haram” is unlawful according to Islamic holy bible (Al Qur'an) (Alserhan, 2010 ). In reality, some groups of Muslim consumers in certain countries still do not have access to sufficient information about halal certification or halal logo (Pradana et al., 2021 ). On the other hand, there is a lack of academic research regarding the effect or relationship between halal concepts and consumer purchase intention, in this case, consumers' attitude or subjective norms, halal certification and halal food purchase intention (Aziz and Chok, 2013 ).

At the world population level, Islam is a religion with a fairly large number of followers, reaching 23 percent (Garg and Joshi, 2018 ). Around 52 percent of the world's Muslims are still in the category of young consumers, making Muslims a significant and large potential market (Wilson, 2014 ). Several prominent publications related to this topic are Bonne and Verbeke ( 2008 ), Tieman et al. ( 2013 ), and many more.

In this article, we discuss the literature observing the behavior of the Indonesian and Spanish Muslim communities in purchasing halal products. Indonesia is an interesting location to conduct such study, mainly for the reason that it can be a representation of the world's Muslim community, while Spain is taken as a comparison because of the author's previous studies on related matter (Pradana et al., 2019 , 2020 , 2021 ).

Halal consumer behavior literature in Indonesia

In this case, the potential main study object is Indonesia. It is one of the largest contributors to the world's Muslim population, reaching over 12.6% in 2019 (Madiawati et al., 2021 ). The market potential for Muslims will continue to grow, as revealed by the Pew Research Institute, which predicts that by 2070 Muslims will become the largest religious group in the world (Madiawati and Pradana, 2016 ).

Studies have argued on how halal food consumers in different countries have different perspectives and levels of trust on the concept of halal certification (Rios et al., 2014 ; Meixner et al., 2018 ). Indonesia, as the largest Muslim country, already has a sufficient number of publications related to this matter (Prabowo et al., 2015 ; Adinugraha et al., 2019 ). Other prominent publications related to this topic can be seen in Table 1 .

Some Indonesian publications on halal topics.

Source: authors' own elaboration.

If we take a deeper look at the halal literature on Indonesia, it has not focused on halal tourism development. We might argue that Indonesia might not regard it as an essential topic since the majority of Indonesian population is Muslim. However, Indonesia is a potential destination for tourists from the Middle East who are mostly Muslims (KataData, 2017 ). Therefore, we suggest that more studies on halal tourism should be conducted in Indonesia, next to studies on halal consumer behavior.

Halal literature in Spain

Spain has a long Islamic history, dating back to the Moors' reign in 800 A.D (Mesa, 2012 ). Islamic consumption of halal foods in Spain has increased, proven by the facts that in Spain 62 percent of lamb and 56 percent of beef come from animals slaughtered according to Islamic law (Vargas-Sánchez and Moral-Moral, 2019 ).

Spain is currently expanding exhibitions for halal food and will increase the number of participating companies specializing in this type of food (Pradana et al., 2019 ). It will also host the third edition of the Halal Congress, which will include international experts and several cooking events (Bottoni, 2021 ). There is also a greater demand from non-Muslim consumers for products that are organic and healthy and that have a halal certification as a guarantee of quality (Abbasian, 2021 ). However, academic approaches supporting the growing halal market in Spain are limited. Vargas-Sánchez and Moral-Moral ( 2019 ) and Pradana et al. ( 2020 ) are among the publications that focused on this region. The limited number of publications can be seen in Table 2 .

Some Spanish publications on halal topics.

Although the numbers are few, three main publications regarding halal topics in Spain focus on tourism. The academic discussion has become popular in the last few years, mainly because Spain had welcomed over five million Muslim tourists until 2019, visiting ancient Islamic sites in Cordoba and Granada (Vargas-Sánchez and Moral-Moral, 2019 ; Walker, 2019 ). However, halal tourism in Spain remains stagnant although the country has been reaping Muslim visitors (Pradana et al., 2021 ).

Therefore, it is our offered future research recommendation that halal consumer behavior and halal tourism literature in Spain should be expanded. Comparison with the Indonesian case and collaboration between Indonesian and Spanish researchers can be beneficial in boosting the number of Spanish academic publications related to this matter. Both Indonesia and Spain need to explore halal tourism more, while Indonesian researchers can assist their Spanish counterparts in developing halal consumer behavior literature.

Author contributions

CD, RH-G, NR, MP, and SS discussed, wrote, and finalized the manuscript together. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank LPPM Telkom University and University of Barcelona for supporting the publication of this article.

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AUTHOR'S GUIDELINES

The Influence of Halal Attractions and Memorable Experiences on Tourists' Destination Choices: An Indonesian Perspective

Muaidy YASIN Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Mataram, Indonesia
Lalu Edy HERMAN Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Mataram, Indonesia

The objective of this research is to analyze the influence of the tourism brand on decision-making developments during the holidays, as well as the contribution of religious standards, hallucinations and memorable tourist experiences. Tourism, a prominent step in the brand, is gaining a lot of attention and promotion in Indonesia. The study perfect is empirically authenticated through a field survey, a questionnaire distributed to 150 people surveyed by sampling methods. The collected data was processed with the Amos 20 software using Structural Equations (SEM). The results of the study show that memorable tourist experiences affect the natural value of a person's religiosity and the decision to visit a destination, and captivation also influence tourism choices. However, neither the attractive tourist brand nor the attraction affects the religiosity of a place, and the value of religiosity does not play roles in the judgements that tourists make to visit it.

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5 Muslim-friendly holiday destinations to check out

Wednesday, 17 Apr 2024

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The Grand Friday Mosque is the largest mosque in the Maldives. — Visit Maldives

Based on a report by the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) in 2023, Muslim travellers’ estimated expenditure is projected to reach US$225bil (RM1.069 trillion) globally by 2028, with visitor arrivals reaching 230 million.

This is unsurprising considering the traction that halal tourism or Muslim-friendly travels have been gaining in the past decade or so. Momentarily halted by the pandemic, now the tourism industry is picking up again and travellers are eager to resume exploring the world.

It was reported that Muslim international arrivals reached 110 million in 2022, and are expected to match the pre-pandemic or 2019 figures of 160 million by this year.

As the market grew, offerings have also started to diversify in the Muslim travel sphere. Some travellers may seek only halal food, praying amenities and halal accommodations while they enjoy the standard attractions (think water parks, theme parks and the likes). But there are also those who seek, on top of the basic requirements, specific attractions that will broaden their knowledge and appreciation of their Muslim heritage.

If you’re one such traveller who appreciates the value of visiting mosques, shrines and historical sites with Islamic roots, then you may just want to visit these destinations that will offer you plenty to do and see, topped with an unexpected wealth of Muslim-oriented places of interest.

In Spain, Alcazaba of Badajoz’s history dates back to the 9th century. — DIEGO DELSO/Wikimedia Commons

In 2022, Spain was the proud recipient of the Halal In Travel Awards’ “Top Muslim-Friendly Emerging Destination” accolade.

Andalusia, one of Spain’s autonomous communities with the highest Muslim population, is understandably popular among Muslim tourists. It’s a place rich with Islamic heritage, from the Alhambra Palace (cover pic) in Granada and the Medina Azahara in Cordoba, to the Royal Alcazar in Seville.

However, in recent years, there have been ramped up efforts to promote Islamic heritage in other parts of Spain as well. The landlocked Extremadura, which borders Portugal, is one such example.

The eponymous capital city of Badajoz is home to one of the country’s most important historical monuments: Alcazaba of Badajoz. The citadel was founded by Ibn Marwan in 875, but it was only in the 12th century that it took on the appearance that it has now, following construction done by the Almohads.

Located within the citadel is the Archaeological Museum, where you can learn more about the province’s history through archaeology.

Another province in Extremadura is Caceres, which is also a significant historical area. Its capital city of the same name, a World Heritage City, also saw fortifications made by the Almohads that remain standing to this day.

For instance, the 1,174m-long wall that surrounds the historic Old Town of Caceres. Take a stroll along the Adarve or wall-walk to take in the sights of the city without fear of getting lost. As you wander, you will see the three towers that once served as watchtowers: Torre del Horno, Torre de Bujaco and Torre de la Hierba (also spelled Yerba).

With just 298sq km of land area, the Republic Of Maldives in the Indian Ocean is the smallest country in Asia. Its territory expands to 90,000sq km when factoring in the sea, which forms 99.6% of the island nation.

Turquoise waters, white beaches and overwater bungalows are synonymous with the Maldives. But venture to its vibrant capital Male, on the North Male Atoll, and you will see another interesting side to this tropical paradise.

One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Male features narrow streets lined with high-rise buildings. Amid these, you will find more than 30 mosques. These places of worship were traditionally made from coral stone.

Placed on the Unesco World Heritage Tentative List are six mosques collectively known as the Coral Stone Mosques of Maldives: Ihavandhoo Friday Mosque, Meedhoo Friday Mosque, Male Friday Mosque, Male Eid Mosque, Fenfushi Friday Mosque and Isdhoo Old Mosque.

Meanwhile, the Grand Friday Mosque is a more modern iteration with a stark white marble façade that belies the intricate wood carvings, lacquer work and Arabic scriptures within.

It is the biggest mosque in Maldives that’s able to accommodate up to 5,000 worshippers.

Malaysia, along with other nations such as Brunei and Pakistan, lent a hand in building the mosque that is easily identified – even from afar – by its towering golden dome.

Since Maldives is a 100% Muslim country (it requires citizens to be Muslim), rest assured that you will not encounter in its capital any alcohol offerings (these are only allowed within licensed areas such as resorts and cruise boats).

Visitors here are also advised to dress modestly, though activewear and swimwear are fine.

Other than mosque visits, other activities you can do on North Male Atoll include submarine tours, dolphin cruise, visiting the Male markets (one sells only fruit and vegetables, no meat products, while the other sells fresh seafood) and, of course, island hopping.

The Basilan Provincial Capitol was built to commemorate religious influences that shaped Basilan in the Philippines today. — RON RAMOS/Wikimedia Commons

A year after Spain’s win, the Philippines was next to be named Halal In Travel Awards’ Top Muslim-Friendly Emerging Destination.

The city of Zamboanga in the Zamboanga Peninsula, which has a large Muslim population, is among the Philippines’ destinations that is rapidly gaining popularity with Muslim travellers, as it offers a fascinating mix of sights and activities.

In the city’s Taluksangay Barangay, you will find the Taluksangay Mosque. Constructed in 1885 by Hadji Abdullah Maas Nuno, this is said to be the oldest mosque in the region. The religious site can be easily distinguished by its red roof and the minarets surrounding it.

About an hour’s drive from the historical mosque is the Yakan Weaving Village, where you can purchase colourful fabric that have been handwoven using the traditional weaving techniques of the Yakan people, said to be the original indigenous Muslim settlers of Basilan. Bags, seputangan (a square cloth used as head scarf or sash) and other forms of accessories and souvenirs are also sold here.

Basilan, located off the southern coast of Zamboanga Peninsula, has a series of places worth visiting. Its Basilan Provincial Capitol was built to celebrate the religious influences of Islam and Christianity that played a key role in forming the city today.

Previously standing on the site were Fort Isabela II and the Basilan City Hall. The former was destroyed during World War II, and the latter was devoured by fire back in the early 1990s.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a short nature retreat to include in your itinerary, the Great Santa Cruz Island is a slice of holiday paradise featuring pink sand beaches. This unique feature is caused by red corals (organ pipe corals). However, visitors have to book ahead with the City Tourism Office, as only a limited number of visitors are allowed onto the island each day.

Hazratbal Shrine is the only domed mosque (the other mosques are pagoda-like) in Srinagar, India. — ABDULLA NASAR/Wikimedia Commons

According to the World Population Review, India sits third in the ranking of top 10 countries with the largest number of Muslims, totalling 200 million. That makes up 13.87% of the South Asian nation’s total population, which stands at 1.44 billion as of January 2024.

A mention of India as a Muslim holiday destination might conjure up the image of Taj Mahal in your mind. Understandably so, since the majestic mausoleum is a Unesco World Heritage Site described as “the jewel of Muslim art in India”.

But there is more to the country than that. Take Kashmir for instance. The Muslim majority region is renowned for its mountainous peaks, verdant valleys and tranquil lakes. Don’t let the territorial conflict deter you from visiting this picturesque place, as it has been deemed a safe place for tourists.

Although as always, do practice caution when visiting, same as you would in any other country. Kashmir is also home to the Hazratbal Shrine. Situated on the left bank of Srinagar’s Dal Lake, the white marble mosque is revered because housed within it is the holy relic “Moi-e-Muqaddas”, a strand of Prophet Muhammad’s beard. You may visit Hazratbal Shrine from 9.30am to 5.30pm daily, but do note that photography is not allowed in the main sanctum.

Another destination in India that you can explore is Mysore, or Mysuru, down south in Karnataka. With its second largest population being Muslim, after Hindu, the city has plenty of halal food, Muslim-friendly facilities and several mosques to cater to Muslim travellers.

Nicknamed “City Of Palaces”, Mysore boasts seven stunning former royal residencies that now serve as an iconic landmark (Mysore Palace), hotels (Lalitha Mahal Palace, Rajendra Vilas Palace, Chittaranjan Palace), museums (Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion which houses the General, Folklore and Archaeology Museums), an art gallery (Jaganmohan Palace) and even a research institute (Cheluvamba Mansion).

The centuries-old Afaq Khoja Mausoleum is a unique attraction in Xinjiang, China. — DAVID STANLEY/Wikimedia Commons

Xinjiang is a Muslim-dominated region in China with a large population of Uyghur people and other ethnic minorities. Aside from its sweeping desert plains and rolling mountains, what you can also experience here is its colourful Muslim heritage.

One such destination that illustrates this is the old city of Kashgar – located in its heart is the Yusuf Khass Hajib Mausoleum. Interred within are the remains of the eponymous 11th-century Muslim poet and philosopher from Kyrgyzstan. He died in 1077, but the burial structure was only built – to pay tribute to his life – hundreds of years after his passing.

Over in Haohan Village, you can visit the 384-year-old Afaq Khoja Mausoleum, named after a religious and political leader renowned in the Uyghur communities. The tomb was originally constructed for his father, who was also an important figure, but today it is the resting place for five generations of the Afaqi family, including Afaq Khoja.

In Urumqi, Shaanxi Great Mosque and the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar will be among the highlights of your trip. Located on the South Heping Road, the mosque has been around since the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Take the opportunity to marvel at its architectural beauty, which incorporates traditional Chinese style featuring wooden structures.

Meanwhile, occupying over 10ha (inclusive of an observation tower and a mosque) is the Grand Bazaar that comes alive with some 3,000 handicraft stores.

You will also come across stalls selling local delicacies and other special commodities, such as clothes and knives.

If it’s traditional handicraft by Uyghur artisans that you seek, head to Gaotay Village where crafting skills are handed down as heirlooms through generations. You will even find traditional musical instruments during your visit to the village, which is surrounded by ancient dwellings and from afar, the khaki-coloured houses appear as if they are built on top of one another.

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