NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2022 | 11
Becoming an online-ready Muslim-friendly destination
National tourism organisations must make information on Muslim-friendly products and services accessible to Muslim travellers
BY FATIHAH MANAF
ASIA Pacific ( APAC ) tourism boards have dominated the top 10 rankings of the report , How Online Ready Are NTOs for Muslim Travellers in 2022 ?, for the third consecutive edition . They comprise over 62 per cent of the top spots and widen the gap between themselves and their European peers .
Launched at the 3rd World Islamic Tourism Conference ( WITC ), the 2022 report resulted from a first-time research collaboration between the Islamic Tourism Centre ( ITC ) and Pear Anderson , a consultancy specialising in the Southeast Asian tourism industry and the Muslimfriendly travel market .
The report examines the online resources national tourism organisations ( NTOs ) from the top 50 most visited non-Muslim ( non-OIC ) destinations worldwide have created to support Muslim-friendly travel , including information about Muslim-friendly food , prayer spaces and hotels .
“ This is the 3rd edition of the How Online Ready Are NTOs for Muslim Travellers in 2022 ?, and for me , it was fascinating . We looked at the top 50 most visited destinations that are not Muslim countries and what kind of online resources they ’ ve created around Muslim travel ,” said Hannah Pearson , Managing Director of Pear Anderson .
GREAT EFFORTS BY APAC DESTINATIONS
“ We look at non-Muslim destinations because it is interesting to see what kind of focus these NTOs are placing on the Muslim market . Are they seeing it as an important target market ? Or are they not emphasising it at all ? In fact , this year , over 62 per cent of the top destinations that put together these online resources are in APAC . The last edition in 2020 was 60 per cent .”
She noted a massive growth in APAC destinations to create Muslim-friendly resources as the destinations recognised the value of the Muslim travel market . They wanted to ensure Muslim travellers felt welcomed and comfortable in their countries .
Out of the 50 destinations studied , 54 per cent of them now have some level of Muslimfriendly travel information , compared to just 36 per cent in 2019 ’ s inaugural report , and up from 46 per cent in 2020 , a signal of the continued importance destinations are placing on Muslim travellers to boost tourism recovery .
In the 2022 edition , Korea and Taiwan came first , with Japan and Hong Kong jointly in second place and Singapore in third place .
MAKING INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE
“ For European NTOs , a few destinations like Austria and Switzerland put together some limited resources . They might have a webpage , for example , listing some halal restaurants or a few mosques . But , the interesting thing is that they almost seem to associate Muslim travellers with Middle Eastern travellers .”
Due to the association , some destinations would only provide the necessary information in Arabic . This situation will be an issue for Muslims who do not speak the language . She pointed out that Muslims were living in different parts of the world , not limited to Muslim-majority countries .
“ These tourism boards need to consider making this information more accessible . Also , think beyond that paradigm of Muslim travellers equal to Middle Eastern travellers because some of them can be from Southeast Asia or Europe ,” Pearson highlighted .
“ Tourism boards need to reflect on the fact that , one , Muslim travellers are worldwide . So , you can ’ t just limit it to only the Arabic language or only the English language . Ideally , you would have it in any language your travellers come from .
“ Next , to create a centralised place where Muslim-friendly resources are available , then integrate it into the rest of the resources .”
Hannah Pearson
ITC launched the report that examines How Online Ready are NTOs for Muslim Travellers in 2022 ?
She said it was good for NTOs to provide suggested itineraries for Muslim-friendly travel . However , rather than putting the information separately from the general itineraries , it will be better to integrate it with the rest of the information where Muslim travellers can filter through the options .
“ We need to see more of an integration of these resources . It is like a natural progression to make it easy for Muslim travellers to find this information . The easier it is for these travellers to find this information , the more likely they will consider the destination Muslim-friendly and put it on their list of destinations to visit .”
The full report can be accessed at https :// www . pearanderson . com / muslim-nto /. — R & R