When it comes to halal tourism, the first thing that comes to everyone’s mind, including tourism hoteliers, are hotels and facilities that appeal to the conservative/religious segment. As a tourism hotelier of many years, I thought exactly the same way. However, the scope established by the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation) [1] /SMIIC (Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries) [2] with 9:2019 Halal Tourism Services – General Requirements is much wider than this. The reason is simple:

This standard does not only address facilities that are fully (100%) conservative. At the same time, it also provides the possibility to obtain different categories of halal certification for facilities that seek to appeal to the market by providing halal services in line with more modest and lighter criteria.  [1][2]

There are three types of documents;

  • Category A Accommodation Facilities with Advanced Scale Halal Tourism Services
  • Category B Medium-sized Accommodation Facilities with Halal Tourism Services
  • Category C Accommodation Facilities with Basic Scale Halal Tourism Services

Now let’s look at these document types. I am sure you will now understand exactly what we meant in the first paragraph.

Requirements for Category A Document;

Requirements for Category A Document;

As you can see, it has been prepared for facilities that provide completely conservative services by gathering a total of 25 points together with “Must Have”, “Must Not Have” and “Recommended to Have”. As we mentioned, this is the most detailed “Halal Tourism Certificate”.

Apart from these requirements for facility owners and managers, there are of course more details involved. In order to meet the expectations of conservative Muslim tourists who expect halal service in the same direction, this operation must be managed correctly and most importantly, the staff must be trained properly. The hotel must meet standards such as careful sourcing of food, beverages, cosmetics and hygiene products used in rooms and restrooms, etc., from sources that are certified and qualified according to OIC/SMIIC 1:2019 General Requirements for Halal Food and OIC/SMIIC 4:2018 Halal Cosmetics – General Requirements.

In Muslim-majority countries such as Turkey, it is naturally easy to source “Halal” production, but for non-OIC countries (such as South Korea, Japan, Spain) it is a bit more difficult.

Requirements for Category B Document;

With the Category B Certificate, we come to the distinction we mentioned at the beginning. As you can see in the list of requirements, there are only 9 points in the list of “Must have” and “Recommended to have”, and any ordinary hotel can fulfill them very easily. Hotels with this certificate can easily anticipate guest expectations by preparing the room accordingly and informing the relevant departments accordingly, without waiting for a command, according to the guest demands or preferences in the incoming reservation or if the booking source is an agency that appeals to the “Halal” market.

Requirements for Category C Document;

This certificate is a type of document that is easier and more suitable for facilities abroad that are mostly abroad and want to add “Halal” market guests to their portfolio. Of course, this can be applied very easily in any facility in Turkey.

At the moment, albeit very slowly, certain infrastructure related to Halal Tourism has started to form in countries that are not members of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation). For example; Cordoba in Spain has been declared a halal region for Muslim tourists and Instituto Halal [3] has been established. The increasing number of Muslim tourists in South Korea and Japan have led tourism authorities in these countries to establish halal standards. Taiwan has recognized the increase in the number of Muslim tourists coming to their country and has started to work on the related infrastructure.[3]

To emphasize one last time, Halal tourism certification has been prepared to meet the expectations of Muslim tourists traveling to domestic or international touristic destinations, not only for facilities providing conservative services. These facilities have to meet the preferences and expectations of the Muslim tourists they host. This need has paved the way for the establishment of these standards.

 

As 10K Consultancy, we support you and we would like to guide you in a new understanding of tourism that has just started to establish standards in the tourism market.

 

You can get support from us by accessing the training content here. [4]