Title: Halal tourism: guidelines for Oman

Authors: Asad Rehman

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Management Studies and Research, Frank and Debbie Islam Management Complex, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India

Abstract: Halal tourism caters to the travel needs of Muslim tourists seeking out a family friendly environment. As per the Global Muslim Travel Index 2019, Islamic nations like Malaysia, Indonesia, and Turkey lead the halal tourism industry, while nations like Singapore, United Kingdom, Australia, etc. are also entering into halal tourism industry. Oman having all the elements of making a top destination for halal tourism is on its way out of the top rankings. It is imperative to identify the reasons behind Oman's decline in the field of halal tourism and to suggest useful guidelines for encouraging halal tourism in Oman. This is an exploratory study based on secondary sources like the available research and reports on halal tourism. A comparison between Oman, Qatar and Singapore is done based on ACES model of Mastercard Crescent-rating and the findings have been used to draw useful suggestions for improving halal tourism in Oman.

Keywords: ACES model; destination; Global Muslim Travel Index; GMTI; halal; Islam; muslim friendly travel; tourism; Shariah; Oman.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMB.2020.109060

International Journal of Islamic Marketing and Branding, 2020 Vol.5 No.1, pp.1 - 16

Received: 21 Feb 2020
Accepted: 22 Feb 2020
Published online: 18 Aug 2020 *