“Halal tourism”: is it the same trend in non-Islamic destinations with Islamic destinations?

ABSTRACT

Halal tourism is a young research area, especially in non-Islamic context. This research aims to explore Muslim tourists’ needs and tourism practitioners’ responses in China. Based on 32 interviews, the findings show that Muslim tourists’ needs include six aspects, namely food, hotel, transportation, entertainment and shopping, toilet, and service staff. In terms of religious-related needs, they only demand for halal food, water-friendly toilets and prayer facilities. Yet, while Chinese tourism practitioners hold positive attitudes towards receiving Muslin tourists, they only provide halal food. This research suggests halal tourism attributes developed in Islamic countries cannot be applied to non-Islamic countries.

KEYWORDS:

• Halal tourism
• halal hospitality
• Islamic attributes
• Muslim-friendly facilities
• Muslim tourists
• tourism practitioners
• faith-based marketing
• non-Islamic destinations
• Zhang Jiajie
• China

Acknowledgements

Thank all interviewees for providing the rich and valuable information. Thanks for the reviewers' comments. Thanks Dr Gao Jun for giving advices on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Zhang Chaozhi http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2588-8838

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People’s Republic of China under [grant number: 18TABG015].