Understanding the concept of Halal for Muslims and its impact on the tourism industry

• Main Authors: Zawawi, Majdah, Ramli, Noriah, Nublan Zaky, Sarafina Zaky
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Malaysian Consumer and Family Economics Association 2017
• Subjects: GV Recreation Leisure; KBP1 Islamic law.Shariah.Fiqh; TP368 Food processing and manufacture
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/62462/1/62462_Understanding%20the%20Concept%20of%20Halal.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/62462/; http://macfea.com.my/?page_id=51

While tourist operators claim that their products and services are "halal" or "Muslim friendly", many do not understand the reason behind the need for Muslims to observe to everything that is "halal". This article seeks to firstly explain the meaning of "halal" from the basic structure of the Muslim belief. From there an explanation will be made as to how a particular product and service is classified as "halal" and how this affects the decisions made by Muslims. Several issues that arise for Muslims when they travel abroad will be raised. The discussion on these issues is divided into those that arise out of travelling to an "Islamic" country as opposed to countries where Muslims are the minority. The article will also address why the tourism industry needs to cater to Muslim tourists and provide basic guidelines on how this is achieved without too much difficulty.