SA ‘not yet attracting’ halaal tourism market

SA IS ranked third among Muslim-friendly destinations after Singapore and Bosnia & Herzegovina respectively, but it is not attracting the large numbers of Muslims from around the world in the growing halaal tourism market, it emerged yesterday.

Halaal tourism — a subcategory of religious tourism geared towards Muslim families adhering to strict sharia law — is estimated to grow to $200bn in 2020 and SA would like to benefit from this burgeoning market.

This segment of the international tourism market is a relatively new concept to SA and it emerged at the first-ever halaal tourism conference held in Durban yesterday that the country is well positioned to attract tourists in this market.

The conference heard that SA already had several strong halaal certification bodies, numerous halaal restaurants and hotels and a host of halaal friendly destinations and activities.

Fazal Bahardeen, director of the Crescentrating, a company in Singapore that accredits tourism products which meet required standards of hospitality, said SA should do more to market itself as a halaal-friendly destination because it was already Muslim friendly. He said among the countries outside the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, Singapore is still regarded as the first-ranked country in this category, scoring 6.3 in the scale of 1 to 10.

It is followed closely by Bosnia & Herzegovina, and SA and Thailand are third with 5.8 points because they have strong halaal certification organisations.

“The Muslim tourist is getting more mature and discerning in the choices he takes when choosing a destination he and his family travel to. This provides opportunities for SA and KwaZulu-Natal because there are many great holiday destination and a lot to offer these travellers and this market,” he said.

He said countries such as Turkey, Malaysia, China and Germany were doing much to attract tourists in this segment and were making renovations and additions such as airport mosques, halaal restaurants and halaal-friendly hotels to accommodate mainly Middle Eastern tourists with petrodollars.

He said many of the travellers from wealthy countries such as Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates often travelled in large families, during school holidays and they wanted a nonalcoholic environment and halaal-friendly entertainment and recreation.

Moulana MS Navlakhi of the South African National Halaal Authority said tourist establishments had to keep to strict guidelines to get halaal certifications. These included separate halaal kitchen storages, nonalcohol sections and having separate swimming pools for men and women in their establishment.

Andrew Layman, head of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Durban was looking forward to hosting many of the halaal tourists.

He said the chamber was also lobbying for the return of Blue Flag status for the city’s beaches to attract more tourists, especially sport and religion-conscious tourists.

Yusuf Khan from Pakistan said SA was popular among Muslim countries because, unlike the West, Muslim tourists coming here were not seen as a terrorist threats.

“The country is in the right direction because everything wanted by the Muslim tourist is already here,” he said.