By Mohd Nasir Yusoff

Jeju to build more Muslim-friendly infrastructure

JEJU CITY (South Korea): Increasingly more Muslims are travelling all over the world with the choice of destinations for many Muslims, apart from the major tourist attractions, hinging on two important factors – halal food and facilities like musolla to fulfill their prayer obligation.

Acknowledging the special needs of the Muslims, South Korea’s Jeju Island that anticipates more than 100,000 Malaysian tourists annually with the commencement today of AirAsia X direct flights from Kuala Lumpur is preparing to become more Muslim-friendly.

The four-season island, south of the Korea Peninsula, which was formed some two million years ago from volcanic activity, will soon have more musolla or prayer rooms in public places and several halalcertified restaurants.

“We expect to receive more Muslim tourists, hopefully more than 100,000 annually, especially with the start of AirAsia X direct flights from Kuala Lumpur on Dec 12.

“In our drive to welcome them, we want to make sure that they are comfortable and are able to enjoy Jeju better with prayer places and eat food prepared accordingly with the requirement of their faith,” said Hyun Hak-soo, Executive Director of the Tourism Policy Division of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. He told Bernama here recently that currently there are six Muslim prayer places in the city made available at several hotels and restaurants but mostly are for their guests only. While for the restaurants there are also a few self-certified halal ones.

During a short visit here recently, this writer found it a bit difficult to perform the two day-time solat, Zuhur and Asar, as none of the tourism major attractions here neither have a Muslim prayer room with running tap water for wudhu or ablution, nor a common prayer room or even a secluded corner for that purpose. A few Muslims in the group of visiting journalists either prayed at any available spot at the restaurants or inside the bus when it stopped at the destinations.

“We understand that and we are doing our best to accommodate their needs,” said Hyun. To the Jeju authority any number of Muslim tourists are most welcomed especially when the Chinese tourists who made up the largest arrivals before 2017 have declined drastically.

Now the Jeju authority is planning to build two public musolla for a start with easy access to Muslim tourists and six halalcertified restaurants are expected to open up soon here and in Jeju’s second largest city, Seogwipo.

Understanding the strict halal requirement in food sources and preparations for Muslims, he said Jeju authority will seek the halal certification from Malaysia’s Islamic Development Department (JAKIM), a world renown halal certification body.

“We will be sending a team of our officers to meet with JAKIM very soon so that the restaurants can start the process of getting halal certification,” he said, adding that the certification is important as Jeju also expects to welcome more Muslims from all over the world.

Hyun also understands that the term ‘self-certified halal’, ‘Muslim-friendly’ or ‘Muslims Welcomed’ restaurants may not be convincing enough to the majority of Muslims. Some Muslims might ask restaurant owners whether the food prepared is halal or not but many restaurateurs are in the dark about what the term really means. This is easily understandable as there are only about 750 Muslims living there among over 600,000 Jeju’s population.

However, statistics indicated that more than 60,000 Muslim tourists visited Jeju annually, and thus the display of halal logo at the entrance of restaurants is very important in welcoming them.

Citing 2016 statistics, Hyun said Malaysians made up the second largest number of foreign tourists to Jeju with 66,000 arrivals while Chinese from mainland China was the largest with over three million visitors.

With the start of AirAsia X direct flights, he said, Kuala Lumpur will become a very important transit point for tourists from West Asia and South East Asia too to fly to Jeju.

This Oct, AirAsia X announced that it would start flying directly from Kuala Lumpur to Jeju four times weekly, offering promotional all-in fares from RM199 one way from Oct 10-15 for travel from Dec 12 this year to March 28 next year.

AirAsia X CEO Benyamin Ismail was quoted saying that the new route would provide an additional 150,000 capacity annually and help the airline’s guests to avoid the hassle of domestic transit to the island province.