JAKARTA - Indonesian tourism has risen two places to become second in The Global Travel Muslim Index (GMTI) 2022. This is a sign of the huge potential and competitiveness of Indonesia's halal tourism.
Founder & CEO of Crescentrating & Halaltrip, Fazal Bahardeen, at the 'Halal in Travel Global Summit 2022' in Singapore announced this achievement in front of the Indonesian delegation led by the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy/Head of the Tourism and Creative Economy Agency (Menparekraf/Kabaparekraf) Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno.
"Indonesia has risen to the second rank after the previous year in fourth place," said Fazal Bahardeen.
Indonesia beat Saudi Arabia in third, Turkey in fourth, and the United Arab Emirates in fifth. While the first position is occupied by Malaysia.
On the same occasion, Fazal Bahardeen also directly handed over the "Halal Travel Personality of The Year" award from Crescentrating & Halaltrip 2022" to Menparekraf Sandiaga Uno.
Fazal Bahardeen said, the reason for choosing Sandiaga Uno was because he was considered a driving force in the development of halal tourism in Indonesia. The magnitude of Sandiaga Uno's attention has also influenced global awareness of the size of the world Muslim market.
"Since Sandiaga took over the Ministry and has been at the forefront of raising awareness of the halal tourism market, his policies and contributions have helped travel stakeholders in Indonesia to better understand and embrace this market segment," said Fazal Bahardeen.
Menparekraf Sandiaga Uno in his speech at the forum explained the potential of halal tourism in Indonesia as well as expressed his gratitude for the award he received. Sandiaga hopes that the award will be able to encourage efforts to restore the tourism sector and the creative economy (parekraf) as well as create job opportunities.
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"We hope that this award will bring recovery, create jobs and God willing, restore the economy through halal tourism," said Sandiaga Uno in his statement, Thursday, June 2.
This optimism was conveyed by Sandiaga Uno referring to the large potential of the halal tourism market. Data shows that in 2019, Muslims around the world spent a total of USD 2.02 trillion on food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, fashion, travel and recreation.
The global Muslim market is expected to grow to USD 2.4 trillion by 2024. Some of the largest expenditures for Muslim consumers are on halal food and beverages.
"In my opinion, we must create business opportunities based on halal tourism. There are several destinations (tourism) that we excel at, such as Aceh, West Sumatra, West Java, Lombok and South Kalimantan as leading destinations," said Sandiaga Uno.
"We want to create a lot of jobs with several activities that hopefully can generate the economy from this halal tourism segment," he said.
Kemenparekraf said Sandiaga had drawn up policies related to halal tourism. However, he stressed that halal tourism does not mean the Islamization of tourist attractions, but rather provides additional services related to facilities, tourists, attractions, and accessibility to meet the experiences and needs of Muslim tourists.
These additional services include accommodation and transportation services, provision of halal food, halal tourism packages, and halal finance.
"Let's all innovate, adapt, and collaborate together to restore the halal tourism industry, ensure the expansion of business opportunities, create jobs and empower creative economic actors," said Sandiaga Uno.
The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy said that people around the world have been waiting for Indonesia to raise more opportunities for destinations that provide additional services, ranging from accommodation, food, to other services and the convenience of worship.
"I think this is a good opportunity," said Sandiaga Uno.
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