Thailand Urged to Tap into Billion Dollar European Halal Tourism Market

Thailand is being urged to tap into the lucrative and fast-growing halal tourism market, especially from Europe.

According to the latest figures, the halal tourism sector was worth $140 billion in 2013 representing around 13% of global travel expenditures. This figure is expected to reach $192 billion by 2020.

Europe will host the first-ever international conference on halal tourism in September to look at how the industry can capitalise on one of the fastest growing sectors in the world.

Tourism experts say that Thailand can play a vital role in the future of halal tourism and attract an increasing number of visitors from across the world including Europe potentially bringing billions to the economy.

Next month’s event, which is being hosted in Andalucia, Spain, aims to equip countries like Thailand with market intelligence, industry forecasts and trends to understand how to market to the lucrative Muslim consumer and benefit commercially.

The two day event has attracted tourism boards, tour agencies, tour operators, restaurants, media, hotels and airlines. The event will also feature seminars from industry experts, workshops, networking sessions and an exhibition.

Confirmed delegates to the event include representation from across the world from the Middle East, Far East and Europe from those currently active in halal tourism and countries looking for help to break into this sector.

Organiser Tasneem Mahmood, from CMM, said the conference provides an excellent opportunity for countries like Thailand to understand how to attract Muslim consumers across the world.

Tasneem said, “In Europe alone there are 50 million Muslims who are spending more money on travel so this is something that Thailand can investigate further at the conference. Currently our data shows that Muslims, especially from Europe, are travelling to Malaysia and Dubai as the destination of choice for their holidays. However, they are now looking for something different. Thailand can emerge as this new place of choice if it markets itself correctly. This is the reason we have created this conference so countries like Thailand can understand the huge market out there for them. It will be an excellent knowledge forum and an ideal platform for exchange of experience between experts in the industry and countries who are actively engaged in halal tourism.”

The Halal Tourism Conference will be held on 22 and 23 September 2014, hosted in Andalucia, Spain.

The event is being sponsored by Turkish Airlines as the official Gold Sponsor and Turismo De Granada. Others confirmed for the conference include some of the biggest travel companies from the Middle East such as Dnata, Kanoo Travel, Al Ghanim, FM Holidays and Orient Travel.

Global halal travel experts Crescent Rating have come on board as the official knowledge partner.

Confirmed speakers include Fazal Bahardeen, Founder of Crescentrating, Hotel and Tourism Expert Hani Lashin, Elnur Seyidli, Chairman of the Board and Co-founder of HalalBooking.com and Reem El Shafaki, Senior Associate at Dinar Standard.

The conference will also see the launch of the Muslim Travel Index Europe 2014 which uses travel research from residents from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Malaysian residents.

The Travel Index Europe 2014 looks at the attitudes and behaviour of majority Muslim populations to tourism in the future and their experiences of countries they have already visited in Europe.

The Halal Tourism Conference will be followed by a two day tour of the region of Andalucia to provide businesses with a live case study of a region that is becoming more Muslim friendly and is actively working to meet the needs of Muslim travellers.