Outperforming Saudi Arabia, Indonesia's Halal Tourism Ranked Second In GMTI 2022

Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno. (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Indonesian tourism is in second place out of 4th in The Global Travel Muslim Index (GMTI) 2022.

This achievement was conveyed by the Founder & CEO of Crescentrating & Halaltrip Fazal Bahardeen in front of the Indonesian delegation led directly by the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy Sandiaga Uno.

"This shows the huge potential and competitiveness of Indonesia's halal tourism," said Fazal, quoted from Antara, Thursday, June 2.

Indonesia beat Saudi Arabia, who was in third place, Turkey in 4th, and United Arab Emirates in fifth. For the first position, occupied by Malaysia.

On the same occasion, Fazal directly handed over the "Halal Travel Personality of The Year" award from Crescentrating & Halaltrip 2022 to Menparekraf Sandiaga Uno.

According to him, Sandiaga is a driving force for the development of halal tourism in Indonesia, thus influencing global awareness of the size of the world Muslim market.

"Since Sandiaga took over the Ministry and has been at the forefront of increasing awareness of the halal tourism market, his policies and contributions have helped travel stakeholders in Indonesia to better understand and embrace this market segment," he said.

Sandiaga hopes that the award will be able to restore the tourism and creative economy sectors and create jobs.

This optimism was accompanied by his presentation regarding the total expenditure of Muslim tourists in the world in 2019, which amounted to USD 2.02 trillion for food, pharmaceutical cosmetics, fashion, travel and recreation.

The global Muslim market is expected to grow to USD 2.4 trillion by 2024. The largest expenditure for Muslim consumers is in the halal food and beverage sector.

"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," he said.

His party has formulated a policy on halal tourism that focuses on providing additional services related to facilities, tourists, attractions, and accessibility to meet the experiences and needs of Muslim tourists.

Additional services provided include accommodation and transportation services, provision of halal food, halal tourism packages, and halal finance.

"Halal tourism does not mean the Islamization of tourist attractions," said Sandiaga.