Tourism Recreation Research

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Halal tourism: looking into the future through the

past

Girish Prayag

To cite this article: Girish Prayag (2020): Halal tourism: looking into the future through the past,
Tourism Recreation Research, DOI: 10.1080/02508281.2020.1762044

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Published online: 18 May 2020.

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TOURISM RECREATION RESEARCH
https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1762044
POST PUBLISHED REVIEW*
Halal tourism: looking into the future through the past
Girish Prayag
Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, UC Business School, Christchurch, New Zealand
ARTICLE HISTORY Received 22 April 2020; Accepted 25 April 2020
Despite halal tourism having received significant attention
in the tourism and hospitality literature recently, this body
of knowledge remains in its infancy. Embedded within
concepts of religion and religiosity, researchers have
attempted to understand both demand and supply side
perspectives of this global phenomenon. A recent paper
by Rasul (2019) attempts to systematically review this lit-
erature examining definitions, concepts, and scope,
while also charting a research agenda through the identifi-
cation of knowledge gaps and challenges. From the
outset there is a recognition by researchers (Battour &
Ismail, 2016; Hall & Prayag, 2020) that Shariah principles,
upon which the concept is derived from, are not inter-
preted and applied consistently across both Muslim and
non-Muslim countries in the design and delivery of halal
tourism experiences. As suggested by Razzaq et al.
(2016), there is not even basic agreement on the term,
with terms such as ‘Islamic tourism’ and ‘Sharia tourism’
used interchangeably but there are differences between
them (Battour & Ismail, 2016; Khan & Callanan, 2017;
Razzaq et al., 2016). Nonetheless, there is basic agreement
on what is considered halal (permitted) and haram (for-
bidden) when offering halal tourism experiences. In this
review, I build on the work of Rasul (2019) and others
(e.g. Mohsin et al., 2016; Vargas-Sánchez & Moral-Moral,
2019; Yagmur et al., 2019) to articulate under-researched
areas by looking at the past.
The geographical scope of studies must be extended
from Asia (Vargas-Sánchez & Moral-Moral, 2019), where
Malaysia and Singapore remain the most studied
context, to include other Muslim and non-Muslim
countries. Here, I can think of India and Bangladesh as
offering different sects of Muslim faith that can provide
nuanced understandings of both supply and demand
side of halal tourism. Research in non-Muslim countries
CONTACT Girish Prayag girish.prayag@canterbury.ac.nz
*The Post-Published Review (PPR) is a new department introduced to expand the insights produced by the published papers in Tourism Recreation Research,
particularly those attempting to develop a concept in pursuit of knowledge creation or pose some epistemological query and seek to fill in gap in received
information and so on. PPR contributions (in <2000 words) which must be constructive, re-inventing, academic and prejudice-free are welcome. For details
write to Editor-in-Chief (tchuan@mail.ncyu.edu.tw).
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
such as China, US, and UK on the topic can provide the
cultural context to understand how halal as a concept
and its associated practices have been adapted for
tourism and hospitality purposes. However, for me the
Muslim/non-Muslim dichotomy that qualifies the geo-
graphical scope and subject of the study (tourist and pro-
vider) in existing studies is limited given that often these
studies fail to recognise how migrant Muslim population
influences halal hospitality and tourism (e.g. food,
guest–host relationship). Homogeneity is assumed when
researching behaviours, perceptions and attitudes with
an inherent assumption that consumption practices are
similar. For example, there is no recognition of non-
Muslims converting to Islam as a consumer group or
emphasis on whether those visiting for VFR purposes
have similar behaviours to other Muslim tourists. There-
fore, typologies of Muslim tourists will add great value
to our understanding of this market (Khan & Callanan,
2017). Also, I believe not enough voice has been given
to transient populations beyond tourists such as students
and temporary workers in halal related research. In fact,
there needs to be greater recognition of halal consumers
(including tourists) and providers as representing a conti-
nuum of religious and consumption practices. When
different countries, businesses and individuals put empha-
sis on different facets of the Islamic faith in delivering halal
experiences, is it not time to tease out nuanced under-
standings of attitudes, behaviours and perceptions?
Rasul (2019) argues that the liberal stance of non-
Muslims (tourists and providers) on issues such as drinking
and explicit affection is a by-product of the value system
that potentially explain differences in hospitality provision.
In fact, profitability can play a more important role than
halal religious obligation as he argues. Research into this
behaviour must be expanded to capture the personal
2 G. PRAYAG
conflicts and dilemmas that Muslim providers go through
in delivering experiences to non-Muslim customers. Also,
much of the existing research argue that more of halal
tourism is desirable, implying a profit economy perspec-
tive rather than a sustainability or well-being economy
perspective. I would like to see more research fitting
Battour and Ismail’s (2016) halal lifestyle concept (food,
accommodation, transportation, fashion, shopping,
finance and medical needs) from the perspective of sus-
tainability. Some pertinent questions to ask: Are Muslim
travellers touring and consumption practices sustainable?
How can halal certification processes incorporate more
sustainability concerns? How can travel to Muslim
countries and attractions based on the Muslim faith (e.g.
Blue mosque, Sufi trails improve cultural sustainability of
destinations?). While these issues have been teased out
in other travel markets, the same cannot be said for the
Muslim travel market.
Also, at a time when the Middle East as a market and
Muslim tourists globally are facing significant challenges
(e.g. prejudices), it would benefit researchers to devote
some attention to the resilience of Muslim tourists,
markets and destinations. One issue that needs further
attention within a resilience thinking approach is whether
halal tourism and hospitality can be considered as an eco-
system in itself, and if so, what characteristics would this
have? Halal tourism also fits with mainstream tourism in
many destinations and I would like to see a systems-think-
ing lens (see Hall et al., 2018) being used to research this
phenomenon. Studies that examine resilience at different
scales within a destination (e.g. Malaysia) and across
Islamic countries would allow us to better understand
how change affects generating markets in such countries.
Here, I can also think of studies examining the resilience
of both Muslim and non-Muslim owned tourism businesses
in both Islamic and non-Islamic countries. Specifically
research on the ability of these businesses to anticipate,
respond, adapt, recover and learn from both continuous,
incremental and unexpected changes would be desirable
(Hall et al., 2018). Despite certification remaining a topical
issue (Boğan & Sarıışık, 2019; Hall & Prayag, 2020; Khan &
Callanan, 2017) in the halal hospitality and tourism litera-
ture, how this certification contributes to supply chain resi-
lience remains poorly understood. Determinants of supply
chain resilience such as intra and inter-firm social capital,
knowledge management, market position, financial
strength, IT capability, and risk management, among
others (see Ali et al., 2017) have not received much attention
in the tourism resilience literature in general but more so in
the halal tourism literature.
In summarising the literature Rasul (2019) identifies
three relationships in current studies: halal tourism as a
component of the halal industry; halal tourism as a form
of religious tourism and halal food as a component of
halal tourism. A fourth perspective that can be added is
halal as an expression of identity, lifestyle and values.
This would encompass viewing halal tourism as a source
of well-being and as a form of spiritual awakening. This
fits within both spiritual and well-being economy perspec-
tives. In such economies, how are principles of Islamic faith
such as sadaqah (voluntary charity), tawhid (faith), and
akhlaq (morality) incorporated from both tourist and pro-
vider perspectives to consumer and deliver experiences
respectively?; what are the co-creation opportunities?;
and what is also the role of entrepreneurship in such econ-
omies?. Related to the last question, the concept of halal-
preneurs has emerged in the entrepreneurship literature
(see Abdullah & Azam, 2020). Embedded within the
concept of halalpreneurship, the role of halalpreneurs in
the tourism industry remains yet to be charted. Recently,
the concept of halal digital economy has been proposed
and a recent study shows that halal-tourism-related
tweets about non-Muslim countries outnumber those
about Muslim countries globally (Ainin et al., 2020),
suggesting that online presence matters both to consu-
mers and providers. In their research Vargas-Sánchez
and Moral-Moral (2019) identify the digital economy as
being one of the ten key halal travel trends published
by Crescent Rating in January 2018. Digitisation of the
tourism and hospitality sector provides opportunities for
tech-based innovations and this issue has yet to be
explored among halal tourism and hospitality businesses.
Key questions include: What is the role of digital platforms
in halal tourism and hospitality businesses?; What are the
barriers to adoption and opportunities for such
businesses?; and How can block chain technologies be
used to support such businesses?. Related to digital plat-
forms, how are tourism and hospitality businesses
owned by Muslim providers capitalising on the sharing
economy? How are Airbnb listings by Muslim providers
different from those of non-Muslim providers? From the
consumer’s perspective the role of social media in the
decision making process of Muslim tourists needs to be
further explored. The experiences of Muslim tourists
with virtual and augmented realities remain sparsely
researched. In particular, the work of Tavakoli and Mura
(2015) provide the building blocks for further understand-
ing of corporeal patterns of mobility for Muslim tourists.
Tavakoli and Mura (2015) raised an important issue
related to Muslim women gendered identities, which is
not an area that receives much attention in the tourism
literature. Existing studies on halal tourism rarely recog-
nise women as distinct participants in such experiences,
and therefore as a segment they are not under studied.
Moufakkir’s (2020) study on immigrant and religious
based stigma of veiled and non-veiled Arab/Muslim

women visiting relatives in Western countries is an
example of how to advance knowledge in this particular
area. To my mind, we have only scratched the surface
and key questions that can be asked in future studies
include: What are the experiences of Muslim women tra-
velling solo and in group in western countries?; What are
the challenges faced by senior Muslim women travel-
lers?; Are there differences in behaviours when travelling
with family and relatives in comparison to travelling solo
or with friends?; and Does travel empower Muslim
women?. There are also under studied areas with
respect to Muslim women and entrepreneurship in
tourism and their perspectives on halal hospitality.
In conclusion, through this review I have sought to
highlight areas that I believe requires further research in
the halal tourism and hospitality field. By no means this
review is exhaustive but rather should be seen as comp-
lementary to existing systematic reviews (e.g. Rasul,
2019). I would certainly encourage researchers to take a
more critical and gendered stance toward this global
phenomenon. Moving the research agenda in this field
forward will require the hard questions related to religion,
gender, identity, and nationality to be asked in relation to
how these impact both consumer and provider experi-
ences of halal tourism.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes on contributor
Girish Prayag is a Professor of Marketing at the University of
Canterbury Business School, New Zealand. His research inter-
ests are related to emotional experiences of tourists, tourism
market segmentation, and post-disaster resilience of organiz-
ations and tourism destinations.
ORCID
Girish Prayag http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6243-2747
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