Halal tourism,is it really Halal?

The study of religion has attracted interest and considerable attention from researchers and practitioners as a result of wanting to know more about religions (such as Islam) and religiosity. However, regardless of the importance of religious studies, religious tourism is still very much under-represented in the literature. In fact, it is distressing to find that little is known about religious tourism in many developed and developing economies. Meanwhile, Islamic tourism (or Halal tourism) is deeply rooted within the Islamic Shari'ah as every Muslim is required to travel for many reasons, some directly related to Islamic Shari'ah itself (e.g. Hajj and Umrah) while many travel for education, medical treatment, and knowledge acquisition, etc. This paper examines the concept of Halal tourism (as a subcategory of religious tourism), its roots, principles and most importantly answers the questions: is Halal tourism really Halal? Is Halal tourism only for Muslim families who abide by Islamic Shari'ah rules? Should it be Halal tourism or Islamic tourism? Is Halal tourism only about Islamic countries or it is also important for other countries? What are the impacts of non-compliance to Halal principles on hotels (and other tourism organisations) performance?     

Halal tourism: Concepts,practises, challenges and future

Tourism recognizes the growing interest in Halal tourism from both the perspectives of industry and research. Halal tourism can be summarized by any object or action which is permissible to use or engage in tourism industry, according to Islamic teachings. Therefore, the success of developing and marketing Halal tourism destination must be guided by the adoption of Islamic teachings and principles in all aspects of tourism activities. This paper explores the concept of Halal tourism along with the components which constitute the industry. It provides worldwide examples of some of the current best practises. The opportunities and challenges in developing and marketing Halal tourism are also discussed.     

Current trends on Halal tourism: Cases on selected Asian countries

Halal tourism is one of the new phenomenon emerged from the growth of Halal industry. As Halal matters advancing tourism industry, many Muslim and non-Muslim countries are set to capture the Muslim tourists market by providing the tourism products, facilities and infrastructures to cater their needs. While affirming this new phenomenon, there remain a shortage of theoretical publications and research in this area. On top of that, when it comes to the real concept of Halal tourism and its trends, it has nevertheless been found that lack of research has been conducted in providing and determining the so called concept. Thus, due to the scarcity of literature and specific studies in this area this paper aims to explore and illustrate the concept of Halal tourism within the Islamic context with special reference to Quranic verse and Hadith (primary sources in Islam). Meanwhile, to appreciate the existing implementation on this concept, this paper will further provide cases on current trend of Halal tourism in selected countries in Asia. This study adopted qualitative research method and employ library research for data collection technique. The outcomes of this study include the current development of Halal tourism concept and comparison on Halal tourism cases in Asia. On top of that, it would also discover its opportunities and potentials for Muslim and non-Muslim countries to embark on the same journey.     

The impact of Halal tourism,customer engagement on satisfaction: moderating effect of religiosity

The research aimed at finding out the relationship between Halal tourism, religiosity, customer engagement, and tourist’s satisfaction. The population of the study were Muslim tourists who visited West Sumatra, Indonesia. The data were 450 respondents, but only 393 were useable responses. It is found that Halal tourism and customer engagement have significant impacts on the tourist’s satisfaction. Religiosity is a significant moderating variable on this relationship. Thus, this study gives some contribution to tourism sector especially on Halal tourism, religiosity, and customer satisfaction.     

Halal tourism: antecedent of tourist’s satisfaction and word of mouth (WOM)

The concept of Halal tourism has emerged recently in research. It becomes an important factor in determining the satisfaction of tourists or their loyalty. However, this concept is still not well known; thus, it needs to be developed in certain areas. The research was conducted to see the link between the attributes of Halal tourism (i.e. Islamic facility, Halalness, general Islamic morality, and alcohol drinks- and gambling-free), satisfaction of tourists and word of mouth (WOM). The respondents of the research were 345 derived from 5 municipals in West Sumatera, Indonesia. The research used structural equation model. The result of the research shows that the attributes of Halal tourism have significant impacts on satisfaction of tourists and WOM. There is no significant direct relationship between the attributes of Halal tourism and WOM. However, the satisfaction of tourists is significant as the mediator. Furthermore, some limitations and future research are discussed.     

Sentiment analyses of multilingual tweets on halal tourism

Halal tourism is a fast-growing segment of the tourism market, thus a study of its trends is warranted. This paper examines halal tourism trends by analysing posts (known as ‘tweets’) on the social networking service Twitter. A total of 85,259 tweets were examined. Nineteen keywords (English and Bahasa Malaysia) were used in the extraction process. Using the extracted tweets, the study (1) examined the origins of tweets among the global population related to halal tourism, (2) identified the major populations around the world that are engaged in halal tourism tweets, (3) analysed the sentiment valence in relation to halal tourism, and (4) identified the popular destinations that appear in tweets. The findings showed that Japan is the most-tweeted-about halal tourist destination, followed by Malaysia and Indonesia. The findings can be used by the various halal tourism stakeholders to plan their future strategies in relation to halal tourism.     

The language of Japanese tourism

This paper discusses the way in which language is used in contemporary Japanese travel brochures. What concepts do travel agencies use to attract tourists? What themes continually recur in the advertising literature? Many of these concepts and themes are the same as those important to tourism in the Western world, but there are certain cultural themes or ways of treating tourist attractions which are peculiar to Japanese tourism. A second aim is to consider the “keywords” of Japanese tourism: those stressed in the advertising for domestic tourism and those stressed for international tourism. The relation between these two possibly antagonistic sets of keywords is discussed in terms of the ideological principles around which Japanese society is organized, and it is hypothesized that keywords for international tourism portend great and long-term changes in the fabric of Japanese society.     

The current state of academic research into peer-to-peer accommodation platforms

The “sharing” phenomenon represents one of the hottest trends in the hotel and tourism industry. As the number of academic papers in this field is growing, now appears to be an appropriate time to take stock of the research. This article contributes to filling this gap by illustrating the state of peer-to-peer accommodation platforms (P2P APs) and identifying useful future research avenues. The paper is structured around two research questions: What is the state of the literature investigating P2P APs? What are some promising future research areas concerning P2P APs? This study proposes eight topics, while the literature review includes 189 published papers. After classifying the findings, this paper presents and discusses some pitfalls, as well as suggests implications for future research, while it also outlines specific research opportunities that are particularly suited for each of the eight topics.     

Measuring hotel performance: Using a balanced scorecard perspectives’ approach

This paper provides an examination of hotel performance research published in the seven leading hospitality and tourism journals from 1992 to 2011, through the lens of the balanced scorecard (BSC). The review seeks to answer three questions. What BSC perspectives are included in hotel performance research published in major hospitality and tourism journals? What are the trends and implications for future hotel performance research? What are the main geographical areas of publication outputs?Eleven hypotheses were tested using a database of 138 articles that fully met the key word selection criteria of hotel, BSC and performance. The results suggest hotel performance attracts widespread attention from hospitality scholars, but significant gaps remain. Researchers have recognised the benefits of including financial and non-financial indicators. Yet, more research is required in this area to offer hotel organisations better approaches to the management of their performance. We conclude by identifying three research gaps.     

中国旅游与酒店创业研究回顾与展望--一个基于文献和实践调查的理论框架

自20世纪末大众旅游兴起,一批旅游与酒店创业企业开始出现,如今已发展成为当前旅游企业中的领跑者。在“大众创业万众创新”的政策出台与国内外旅游需求出现新变化的环境下,更加多元化的、庞大的旅游与酒店创业企业群体正在成长。与如此蓬勃发展的旅游创业实践相比,国内外旅游创业学术研究还没有深入展开。文章在对国内外旅游与酒店创业文献回顾的基础上,发现旅游创业研究在对创业理论中的几个基础维度,包括创业环境、创业主体、创业企业、创业过程和创业绩效以及这些维度间的关系方面需要进一步深入研究。进而,在一般创业理论框架基础上,提出了一个旅游与酒店创业研究的理论框架,并结合自2007年以来对70多家旅游与酒店企业实地调研所发现的管理实践问题,提出了一个研究问题清单,为后续学者拓展旅游与酒店创业研究提供借鉴参考。     

What services do Muslim tourists want? Uncovering nonlinear relationships and unobserved heterogeneity

Halal tourism is a dynamic emerging market segment that is growing at a notable pace. Understanding the Muslim travelers' needs, interests and behaviors is a key priority for professionals. Therefore, the goals of this study are twofold: first, to examine the linear and nonlinear effects of Islamic physical and nonphysical hotel attributes on Muslim guests' visit intention and willingness to pay extra, and second, to employ an advanced segmentation method for revealing different types of Muslim travelers. Data were randomly collected from 559 Muslim in the United Arab Emirates. The study adopted the finite mixtures partial least squares technique to investigate the question of unobserved heterogeneity among Muslim travelers. The study results reveal important linear and nonlinear relationships and three new Muslim segments. The segment-specific findings offer distinctive insights for managers, policy makers and decision makers in developing long-term strategies for tapping into the Muslim travel market.     

Holiday Home Owners,a Route to Sustainable Tourism Development? An Economic Analysis of Tourist Expenditure Data

Although sustainable tourism comprises economic, social and environmental aspects, economic analysis has been less evident in the literature. This paper takes an economic perspective to evaluate the contribution of holiday home owners to a local economy. Tourism destinations which are at the mature stages of the tourism lifecycle wish to maximise revenue from tourism while minimising costs such as overcrowding. A prime objective has to be to attract the more economically valuable tourists. In this paper an analysis of North Wexford in Ireland poses questions such as: How does the holiday home owners’ expenditure in the local area compare to that of traditional tourists? Do they purchase different types of goods? What levels of local expenditure do holiday home owners engage in for the upkeep or development of their second properties? What are the implications of these findings? The results show that there are clear economic benefits for an area that people deem attractive enough to build or purchase a holiday home in. This type of tourist has a high annual spend relative to other tourists and much of this expenditure seems to be concentrated in the local area. These findings need to be incorporated into the broader debate regarding the advantages and disadvantages of holiday home owners and the possibility of them comprising a route to sustainable development for local tourist areas.     

Insights into Sustainable Tourists in Austria: A Data-based A Priori Segmentation Approach

An excellent market-driven way to successfully implement sustainable tourism in a destination is to find a segment of tourists or potential tourists interested in the unique natural beauty of the destination, willing to preserve it, and who are also highly attractive in terms of high expenditures, long stays, high return rate, high recommendation rate etc. The first step in seeking these visitors is through investigation of sustainable market segments. So far, only a few studies have systematically searched for 'eco-segments'or sustainable tourist groups and described them. This paper reviews the usefulness of such approaches, examines past studies investigating potential target segments and describes the group of summer tourists in Austria who care about maintaining the natural environment. The results suggest that this group of visitors has some highly attractive characteristics and is very large, thus offering a sound basis for additional sustainable niche segment creation.     

Anthropological contributions to tourism studies

What have we learned since anthropologists first realized that tourists alter the societies they study? Intended for non-anthropologists, this paper explores this question and critiques the hegemony of business perspectives in tourism studies. It discusses tourism as a complex and fluid set of phenomena that cannot be reduced to one dimension, highlighting five points: (1) Tourism is one of the names of power. (2) The complex nature of tourism cannot be understood without studying socio-cultural processes. (3) The socio-ecological processes that construct territory determine and are determined by social space. (4) The industries of seduction create a corpus of desires through which socio-cultural groups forge their own identity. (5) Anthropological studies allow researchers to propose alternative forms of tourism development.     

The concept of smart tourism in the context of tourism information services

Smart tourism has become increasingly popular in mainland China. Different types of events and activities have been classified as smart tourism, leading to the misuse of the term. What, then, is smart tourism? How to define it? Although researchers have defined the term, there has not been any consensus on a widely accepted interpretation. The definition provided by this study emphasizes smart tourism as an individual tourist support system within the context of information services and an all-encompassing technology. This paper compares the characteristics of both traditional tourist information services and those incorporated in smart tourism. Based on the concepts, recommendations are provided and future research/industrial directions are discussed. For the Chinese tourism market, smart tourism represents a new direction implying a significant influence on tourist destinations, enterprises, and also tourists themselves.     

Developing the Spa Assessment Model (SAM) and its application on the Kopaonik-Jastrebac spa zone (Serbia)

The principal aim of this paper is to establish a Spa Assessment Model (SAM) to help assess the current use and tourism potential of spas as tourism products as well as for determining spa visitor preferences. This was achieved through the inclusion of tourism experts who assisted in choosing the subindicators for the model and with the help of visitors who gave their opinion about the importance of each subindicator through a survey. Afterwards, this data was analyzed and compared between two market segments (medical tourists and recreation motivated spa tourists) in order to reveal their preferences. Results indicate the main differences between two market segments and reveal their preferences which further enables the spa management to create a tailor made product best suited to a certain market segment.     

Sustainability and integration – the principal challenges to tourism and tourism research

ABSTRACT

What are the biggest challenges facing tourism and tourism research? This paper answers this question by canvasing the opinions of recognized experts in the field. The analysis is based on 30 interviews with fellows of the International Academy for the Study of Tourism. Two key thematic issues were identified. First, the pragmatic issue of how to operationalize sustainability and its various sub-elements, such as climate change, overtourism, and tourisation to ensure the long-term future of tourism. Second, the need for further integration between disciplines within the tourism field, between tourism and other fields, and between research and practice.     

旅游资源概念及其认识

本文在考察不同旅游资源概念及相关论述后,提出旅游资源概念应坚持的几点共识,并以此为基础,针对旅游资源概念及其认识中存在的若干分歧,着重讨论个４个问题：⑴旅游资源是否必须已旅游业所利用;⑵如何理解旅游资源的潜在性;⑶劳务算不算旅游资源;⑷人力、市场等要素应否视为旅游资源。文章逐一分析并给出自己的看法。同时,为探讨更进一步深入,建议将旅游和旅游业资源两个概念进行区分。     

Host community perceptions a cluster analysis

This paper explores how residents in the Balearic Islands of Spain regard tourism as affecting their community, thereby providing a framework for research into attitudes toward this industry in a mature Mediterranean destination. Local attitudes were used to segment the sample into five different opinion groups using a cluster analysis. The overall results indicate that the respondents are aware of some of both the positive and negative effects, and are relatively ambivalent about development proposals that imply an increasing number of tourists. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that some development strategies incur considerable conservation-based opposition while others enjoy general support.     

Tourism theory and the earth

Given that tourism is an “earthly business”, why is it that the Earth rarely explicitly appears in tourism studies and tourism theory? In an attempt to grapple with this paradox, this paper seeks to contribute to a conceptual re-cognition of the Earth in tourism theory by probing some theoretical obstacles and possibilities. The paper demonstrates how the Earth has been conceptually erased in tourism theory by a privileging of the mapping of tourism and tourists onto the reference plane of the social. As an alternative the paper seeks to provide a geo-philosophically informed conceptualisation of the Earth as a primary plane of reference of which tourism is a particular form of de/re-territorialisation.