A Correspondent
Halal Tourism is beginning to gain ground in New Zealand, a proof of which is the success achieved by a Symposium held on March 23, 2015 at the Auckland Institute of Studies (AIS).
The one-day event attracted more than 50 participants in the tourism sector.
The Symposium was the second in an annual series, the first of which was held in Hamilton last year. Efforts are on to conduct the third Symposium next year in Christchurch.
Some drawbacks
While Halal Tourism is an accurate term for the phenomenon (Tourism for Muslim tourists avoiding haram items), it has two distinct drawbacks.
Firstly, most people around the world do not know precisely what halal means.
Secondly, while halal refers to anything that is permitted in Islam, it is most often encountered in relationship to food (halal butchers, halal slaughter, halal certification, halal restaurants, halal turkey bacon and so on,).
An alternative
The Symposium discussed ‘Muslim Friendly Tourism’ as an alternative term.
This seems like a better term, for two main reasons.
Firstly, everyone understands what Muslim-friendly tourism means (even if they may not know precisely what it takes to provide Muslim-friendly tourism).
Secondly, Muslim-Friendly Tourism resembles many other examples of ‘X-friendly tourism’ such as environmentally-friendly (eco-friendly), family-friendly, children friendly, pet-friendly, wheelchair friendly (handicapped-friendly), bike-friendly and others.
Distance places New Zealand at a disadvantage.
Tourism deals largely with two main factors: providing tourists with what they want, need and expect; and identifying target markets and promoting the country to those markets.
In terms of identifying markets, Australia is the closest country but it does not have substantial numbers of Muslims (476,000, or 2.2% of the population, according to the 2011 census).
Large population
This pales into insignificance compared with other regions at various distances from New Zealand: Southeast Asia (Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam with over 240 million); the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives, with over 500 million); the Middle East (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey with over 300 million).
While Southeast Asia is the closest of these three regions, tourists from these countries are not relatively big spenders (high yield). Rather, it is the Middle Easterners who spend big while on holiday. Effort therefore needs to be spent, not only in the easier job of attracting lower-spending Muslim tourists from nearby Southeast Asia, but also in the harder job of attracting big-spending Muslim tourists from the faraway Middle East. Once Muslim tourists make it to New Zealand, it is not difficult to attacking to their venues.
Attracting Muslims
Tommy Ning, Manager of Mustard Seed Malaysian Restaurant in the Auckland City Hotel, who spoke at the Symposium said that the Hotel and the Restaurant attracted Muslim tourists.
Halal Tourism involves both Muslims and non-Muslims.
According to 2011 census, there were 46,000 Muslims in New Zealand.
Of these, two-thirds live in the Auckland region, about 3000 in Waikato, 4000 in Wellington and less than 5000 in the Canterbury region.
However, tourists spend time in North and South, especially the latter, known for spectacular scenery. But large areas of South Island do not have Mosques or halal eateries.
The Symposium emphasised the need to work with non-Muslims, adding value to Halal Tourism.
Prof Chris Ryan of the University of Waikato, one of the organisers of the Symposium, said that he had asked a non-Muslim agent in Christchurch to cater to a group of Muslims who wanted to eat at halal eateries (there are plenty in Christchurch, which has 3000 Muslims) and go to the Mosque (which is centrally located).
The agent replied saying he did not organise ‘that kind of tour.’
Helpful operators
In contrast, Purwanti Rachmadi of Halal Tour New Zealand, based in Auckland, has a good working relationship with a non-Muslim agent in Queenstown, who was accommodating and happy to learn about Muslim tourists’ needs.
Saifol Haji Bahli, of the International Institute for Halal Research and Training (INHART) of the International Islamic University of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia3, pointed out that this problem has been solved in other countries by issuing certificates for either (i) the whole establishment, or (ii) just the kitchen.
It is important to convince existing tour agents and hotels that ‘going halal’ does not involve huge changes.
