Halal – Halal.Plus

“There are some 22 million Muslims in Russia alone” stated Mr Gerceker GM of WOME Deluxe, a 5-star luxury hotel in Alanya, Turkey, one of the premier halal-friendly resort hotels in the country. He cited Russia as just one example, of the largely untapped potential of the sector.

From the UK’s perspective, Islam is the second largest religion in the UK, with London estimated to be home to 1 million Muslims alone. According to the Muslim Council of Britain’s 2013 report, the ‘Muslim Pound’, some 33% of all small to medium-sized enterprises in London are Muslim-owned.
Gerceker cited Russia’s huge Muslim population as a means to highlight the immense opportunities around the globe for Halal-conscious travellers. Something that until recently, has been according to ‘HalalBooking.com’ – the world’s leading international search and booking platform for Halal-friendly holidays – described as ‘the biggest travel trend you have never heard of”.

However, that visibility is transitioning from niche to mainstream, with the travel segment of the halal market following in the slipstream of the halal food sector worth around US$1 trillion globally, and fashion brands such as NIKE and H&M spearheading a US$270bn clothing industry. The halal-friendly trend has been rapidly growing, with destinations worldwide chasing the Muslim client; the newly released State of the Global Islamic Economy Report 2018/19, estimated the market spend on travel has been growing by $10 billion per year, reaching $177 billion in 2017. This is forecast to reach US$274 billion by 2023, making it one of industry’s fastest-growing sectors.
Travel has become the next major segment to make waves within the Muslim consumer market, across the leisure, business and MICE sectors, all looking to reap the rewards. Islam has the youngest population out of all the major religious groups; thus ‘Muslim Millennial Travellers’ have begun to reshape the Muslim travel industry, largely through the digital and social landscape, such as Soumaya Hamdi’s HalalTravelGuide.net.

The MICE sector is already defining itself as a valuable segment of the Halal market, whether as a platform to shine a light on the topic or as companies seek Halal-exclusive venues. Examples include the ‘Malaysia International Halal Showcase’ which took place in April this year, through to the ‘Halal Expo London’ taking place at Excel in December. Halal Expo’s Director Dr. Patel stated “we will be hosting a one-day ‘Halal in Travel’ conference bringing together thought leaders, entrepreneurs and international Halal travel sector leaders from around the world, to discuss future trends and destination opportunities. We anticipate around 10 percent of our exhibitors to be from the leisure, recreation business and MICE travel sector”.
Halal Holidays & Value Added Travel’s Anisa Syed, who are agents of Halalbooking.com, stated “Events such as ‘Halal Expo London’ is a chance to gain b2b insight on the Halal market, but also a b2c celebration of the sector”.
Other major exhibitions such as ITB Asia, ITB Berlin and Uzakrota Travel Summit Istanbul have all partnered with two halal specialists, Crescent Rating and Halal trip, to raise awareness of and propagate the potential of the sector through their conferences.

WOME Deluxe, the 545-room resort has 7 meeting rooms capable of catering for conferences of up to 1000 delegates, making it an ideal location for Halal-friendly MICE business. “Over the last few years, during the winter season we hosted governmental MICE business and other select companies, looking for Halal facilities. The prime example is the Religious Ministry of Turkey who sends thousands of staff for internal educational purposes. Across the last winter season we had some 10-12,000 delegates” Gerceker added, just as the call to prayer gently emanated from speakers across the complex.
The call-to-prayer is one of several key features of Halal-friendly hotels, which Islamic guests are looking for, says Gerceker: “we have dedicated and segregated women-only areas of 10,000sqm across the complex which include restaurants, swimming pools, spa and well-being centre and a beach area all nestled under a pine forest”.
The WOME group even has its own ‘Training Academy’ devoted to training staff about the halal concept to provide quality of service and a leader in the field. They also have a new city hotel, replete with meetings facilities opening in Trabzon in the imminent future.
Many of Halalbooking.com’s portfolio of hotel’s, mirror the quality and meeting facilities at WOME throughout Turkey and the other 10 countries they are currently present in. It is an area that Halalbooking.com has been monitoring developments.
Anisa Syed, commented further that “our Halal Holidays website does advertise the conference facilities and the Halal-friendly business options available in properties we sell; the MICE sector is a developing demand, which is a natural progression of our leisure products and links into other areas of our business”.
With 60% of Muslims under the age of 30, of which 36% are millennials and 33% part of generation Z, and “the rapid rise of digital and social media, plus the rise of digital Muslim influencers is driving the Halal travel sector forward” Dr. Patel confirmed. The appetite for Halal leisure, Business and MICE travel is stronger now that increased awareness has shown that cultural sensitivities can be preserved. “The opportunities for UK Halal focused businesses to export goods, products and services post Brexit are huge and very exciting” he concluded.
Once again the MICE sector will be the platform to spread awareness, fuel growth and provide sustainability in the long term for hotels and venues.

Ramy Salameh

Fact Box:
-Ramy Salameh was hosted by www.Halalbooking.com – the world’s leading international search and booking platform for Halal-friendly holidays
-Ramy Salameh travelled on the Gatwick Express – https://www.gatwickexpress.com/

A new Euromonitor report forecasts that Muslim consumers will make up more than a quarter of the world’s population by 2030, and China wants to play an active role in feeding them. Chinese companies are increasingly flexing their muscles in the burgeoning market for halal food – one a report last year commissioned by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce said would be worth $1.6 trillion by 2018 – while the government is also eyeing halal-focused pacts with regional partners to broaden the country’s export portfolio.

Under Islamic law, halal food must be strictly free of alcohol, pork, tobacco or lipids from animals. Animals destined to be sold as halal meat must also slaughtered in accordance with religious guidelines. China is not an obvious candidate as a halal food powerhouse. The 26 million-strong Muslim population make up just 2 percent of China total population, with the vast majority living in Xinjiang and Ningxia provinces in Northwest China, the most underdeveloped part of the country.
China, however, is forging ahead. Under its “One Belt One Road” initiative that aims to recreate the Silk Road land and maritime trade routes, China has sought opportunities for halal trade with Muslim and Arab countries through bilateral trade agreements. In Linxia city, in China’s Gansu province, several companies have struck trade agreements with Turkey and Kazakhstan to export manufactured food products, reported Want China Times. China has also set up networking conferences and seminars, including the Sino-Malaysian Halal Food and Muslim Supplies Certification and Industry Cooperation Seminar that took place in July this year. And it has created infrastructure to support the halal trade, including the construction of halal food and Muslim supplies manufacturing hubs such as the Wuzhong Halal industrial park, in the Muslim stronghold of Ningxia, which has attracted 218 companies.
It is not just external demand that is driving China’s interest in halal. Joy Huang, China research manager at Euromonitor International, told CNBC that demand was also underpinned by non-Muslim mainland residents. “Halal food is considered to be healthy and hygienic, given the high standards for manufacturers,” Huang said. “Non-Muslims think that [halal food] is safer, given the number of food safety scandals in China,” she added. Major local food players are jumping on the bandwagon to meet the growing domestic appetite for halal products. Shineway Group, one of China’s largest processed meat companies, was an early starter, investing $310 million in a halal meat production base in 2009.
But even halal providers in China have suffered from food safety scares. The country got its first large halal foods certification center, the Ningxia Halal Foods International Trading Certification Center, only in 2014. It is permitted to certify halal foods in several provinces. And while certification rules are improving, most halal centers are only operated at the regional level, and lack national standardization and legislative support. According to Euromonitor, this is because Muslims are a minority in China and the government is more focused on general food safety than the religious requirements of a relatively small group of consumers. There are also concerns that China’s slew of food safety scandals could hinder the growth of Chinese halal food exporters. This is unlikely, however, to be a long lasting roadblock.