Tourist companies and countries promoting holidays for Muslims can expect more revenue
Islam largely inherited a travelling trade culture from ancient Arab merchants who journeyed the world, even across the Sea of Darkness- currently known as the Atlantic Ocean. Wherever their destination, it was always necessary to calculate prayer times and the Kebla (direction toward Mecca). And historically, as world leaders, they had the knowledge and power to do as they desired.
No longer world leaders, Muslims still form a significant proportion of the world’s population- -approximately 20%. And in the services world, Muslims represent an economic force to be taken note of.
Halal tourism is not a fancy sociological term made up by academic orientalists. It is a growing market initiated by contemporary Muslims and attracting others to share its economic harvest.
Until recently, Muslims would handle their religious needs themselves while travelling- -not so easy for many. Muslims will travel with their own halal food and a compass to locate Mecca. But prayer times are always a problem, since modern believers are not good astrologists, unlike their ancestors. In a non-Muslim country, it’s hard to find an answer, which can lead to frustration.
Crescent Rating, owned by Singaporean Fadl Bahroddin, is according to AFP, the only company in the world that rates hotels across the globe according to Muslim travellers’ needs. It also advertises halal tours on its website.
In Singapore, Muslim Indonesian tourists represent the biggest portion of visitors to the country. Australia aslo has a growing number of Muslim visitors. Both countries have recently led tourist promotions for halal restaurants, hotels and even airlines where passengers can pray on board and are informed of prayer times and direction. Thailand is on the same path.
Bahroddin predicts that the global halal travel sector will hit US$100 billion per year by 2011. According to Bahroddin, the world’s halal food sector is currently worth about US$600 billion per year, while Muslims spend about US$930 billion on tourism, and this is expected to increase by 10% in 2011 and 2012.
“I spent half of my life in hotels and airplanes. Being a Muslim, I was always upset with the travel sector, which cannot provide the right services. You don’t know when the prayer time is, where the kebla is, or how to get halal food, ” Bahroddin told AFP.
Crescent Rating rates hotels on a ranking between 1 to 7, based on the availability of halal food, prayer spaces, prayer carpets, and the absence of alcohol and pornography channels.
According to the website, only one hotel in Dubai received a rating of 7, while three hotels in Saudi Arabia and one in South Africa received a 6.
Halal Initiative in the heart of the EU
Last Month the Belgian Chamber of Commerce in Brussels announced Europe’s first official Initiative to issue “halal certificates” for hotels and restaurants providing halal services to Muslim clients and tourists. It is certainly significant in the western non-Muslim world to have such recognition in the heart of the EU.
Bruno Bernard, chief of the Brussels Chamber of Commerce, had previously called for halal certificates. He says hotels and restaurants who want a certificate should not provide pornography channels or serve alcohol, and food should be halal. Hotels should further provide a Quran and prayer mat in each room, and make sure the kebla is marked.
Bernard explains that this will ensure a lot of revenue from tourists coming from the Middle East, the Gulf and other Muslim countries.
Currently the chamber receives one halal certificate request per day, and they hope the rate will reach 500 requests per year.
Houssine Alloul, a Belgian Muslim of Moroccan origin says to AlBorsa: “It doesn’t matter to me that much, but I think my parents will be so happy that the Muslim community in Belgium is more recognised. I’m partly happy, but I still believe it’s all about money.”
The halal certificate costs each hotel or restaurant EUR1500, and will operate as an official trade mark recognised throughout Europe.
Britain to Turkey and back
Britain has a longer and relatively more developed history dealing with the halal issue, since it has a large and prominently practicing Muslim population estimated at around 2.5 million inhabitants.
There is already a big halal business sector in the UK in different fields, including services and banking. What is new is a growth in outgoing tourism by British Muslims.
The sun, the sea and the halal was the slogan for an advertising campaign run by one company providing tourism services abroad for this specific community. But the packages organized are no longer only about pilgrimage services to Mecca, as they were the past.
The British Muslim is like in other typical Brit who travels abroad at least once a year. New emerging travel agents like Crescent Towers and Islamic Travels have made use of this fact and specialize exclusively in the kind of tourism that respects Islamic values.
Both companies provide all the above-mentioned halal services, which extend to airlines.
The biggest destination after Saudi Arabia is Turkey, and plans for future expansion include other destinations like Egypt and Dubai.
Turkey, under its current popular government, which has succeeded in softening the radical secular grip over religious practices and symbolism, is promoting this new trend.
Alanya, an 800-year-old city overlooking in the Mediterranean, is the country’s most famous halal destination for Muslim tourists and their families. The Government calls it “The Islamic Beaches Experiment.”
The idea to promote Alanya as a halal tourist destination came after success was achieved by Turks an providing financial and food production services to the Muslim migrants population in the rest of Europe.
Hello Egypt! Any Halal here?
Egypt bu default is a Muslim tourist destination, since Cairo is considered the intellectual capital of the Muslim world. It is the country of Al-Azhar, which some recognise as the world’s oldest university in the modern sense.
But there is no halal branding. Basically, halal food is the most familiar type served and alcohol is generally unacceptable, since Egypt is already an Islamic country. However nothing is done to promote this among the rest of the world’s Muslim population who consider Egypt a significant destination.
On the contrary, five-star hotels are obliged to serve alcohol in order to keep their five stars awarded them by the Ministry of Tourism.
Ironically, in 2008 there was much debate and negotiations between the Grand Hyatt hotel and the Tourism Ministry based on an unprecedented step by the former. The owner of the world class hotel, Sheikh Abdel Aziz Ibrahim, decided to ban the serving of alcohol throughout the hotel complex.
This created a big fuss in the local and international media, among Egyptian officials, the Grand Hyatt administration in Chicago, and among locals- whether in support of against Ibrahim’s “controversial” action.
Back then, the ministry threatened the hotel with being downgraded to a two-star hotel. A media blackout was imposed by both the administration and the ministry and it is not really clear how the clash was resolved.
AlBorsa visited the hotel to enquire about the development of halal tourism in Egypt, but was not received with cooperation. A senior employee diplomatically said, “We have orders from Chicago headquarters not to communicate with the media.” However, junior level employees say the hotel has become semi-dry. It does not serve alcohol in the lobby, but will do so in hotel rooms and in some upper-floor restaurants on request.
This seems to be the deal reached between the hotel owner and the ministry. A solution arrived at the Egyptian way- always in-between, whereas others, whatever their backgrounds, are clear about who they are and what they want. Luckily the Grand Hyatt Egypt is still a five-star facility, but this has come at the cost of compromising its halal credentials.
This article is originally published by Al Borsa