Halal on the go

COVER STORY

HALAL

ON THE GO

34 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016

OVER THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS, THE HALAL TRAVEL MARKET HAS EXPANDED AT A FORMIDABLE PACE AND EARLY ADOPTERS STAND MUCH TO GAIN. IN THIS ISSUE OF QATAR TODAY, WE EXAMINE THE INTERNATIONAL GROWTH OF THIS SEGMENT AND HOW QATAR CAN CAPITALISE ON THIS TREND TO EDGE CLOSER TOWARDS MEETING ITS AMBITIOUS TOURISM GOALS.

BY AYSWARYA MURTHY 35 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016

COVER STORY

THE TOP 10 OIC DESTINATIONS IN THE GLOBAL MUSLIM TRAVEL INDEX 2016 Malaysia

United Arab Emirates

Turkey

Indonesia

Qatar

Saudi Arabia

Oman

Morocco

Jordan

Bahrain

Source: Global Muslim Travel Index

THE TOP 10 NON-OIC DESTINATIONS IN THE GMTI 2016 Singapore

Thailand

United Kingdom

South Africa

Hong Kong

France

Taiwan

Japan

Sri Lanka

USA

36 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016

D

estinations, hotels and resorts, airlines, and travel agents are increasingly looking to woo Muslim travellers. This is evident by the sudden growth in the number of Halal travel conferences and events from Indonesia, Japan, to Spain and the prominence of the topic in global media. NonMuslim majority destinations, especially ones that are new to targeting this market, are focusing on getting the basics right by increasing their Halal food offerings and providing places to pray. More seasoned places are advancing to the next level, like Turkish resorts that offer segregated pools and beaches and Malaysian cruise companies which are marketing family-friendly/Halal cruises for Muslims.

Compared to a couple of years ago, when most potential markets were still questioning the viability of the Halal travel market, the question now is not what is this market, but how do we best benefit from it.

According to the 2014-2015 report by Thomson Reuters on the State of the Global Islamic Economy the global Muslim spending on travel (outbound) has increased by 7.7% to reach $140 billion in 2013 (excluding Hajj and Umrah). This is 11.6% of the global expenditure and is expected to reach $238 billion by 2019. Qatar is among the top source countries of Muslim tourists who spent $7.8 billion, third in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Tourists from the Middle East and North Africa and Gulf Cooperation Council countries represent only 3% of the global Muslim population, but 37% of total Muslim travel spending. These numbers speak for themselves about how this sector is demanding to be catered to and can no longer be ignored. This is apparent in how countries like Malaysia, UAE, Turkey and Singapore have worked on developing their Halal travel ecosystems and are reaping rich rewards as a result.

Singapore-based CrescentRating could be considered one of the early pioneers in this segment. Founder Fazal Bahardeen, a veteran of the telecom industry, was made aware of this gap in the travel market during his business travels. “Even as recently as ten years ago, I had trouble

Ahead of the game There were many countries, both of Muslim majority and otherwise, who had the foresight to capitalise on this trend and adapted their products and services to accommodate

INSIGHT INTO THE HALAL TRAVELLER

> 30% 15-29 years old

Hyper-planning mode for family trips

High spending power

Travel to both familiar and new places

Rely heavily on word of mouth and increasingly on social media

Tech-savvy

High educated

Exp grow ebcted to y in volu50% me

35% se rea in Inc alue rs in ve yea fiv

meeting my most basic needs as a practicing Muslim – Halal food, places to pray, etc. And I knew many others like me were going through the same issues. The travel industry hadn’t yet realised that there was this important section of travellers who had very specific requirements and I wanted to do something about it,” he says. The company was started towards the end of 2008 with an aim of rating hotels on a scale of 1 to 7 on their “Muslim-friendliness”. Today, they also rate restaurants, airlines and spas/wellness centres and will soon be expanding into other areas like theme parks, malls, attractions, convention centres, etc., have a thriving consultancy and training arm, started a B2B business called Muslim Travel Warehouse and acquired online travel portal HalalTrip. The growth has been nothing short of staggering. “We were early in identifying this as a segment and it was a novel idea for many,” says Bahardeen. “But I was convinced that this would grow once we started talking to the travel industry and showed them tangible numbers through our Global Travel Muslim Index.” With several high-profile partnerships, this annual index soon started to attract a wider audience. “In the last 24 months we have seen a huge interest from almost every sector in the travel industry,” he says.

DinarStandard started looking in-depth into the Halal travel market in 2012 when they partnered with CrescentRating to produce the first Global Muslim Lifestyle Tourism Market Landscape and Consumer Needs Study, according to Reem El Shafaki, Senior Associate, Halal Lifestyle Markets. “Being in the Muslim lifestyle space we noticed the need for Muslim-friendly travel services and wanted to quantify the outbound and inbound Muslim travel markets globally to highlight the business case for addressing this multibillion-dollar customer base whose latent needs were yet to be met by the tourism industry,” she says. "Since then, great strides have been made in the industry; several annual conferences on Halal travel have taken place, mainstream companies in the travel industry have started producing research studies on the market, and many more Halal-focused travel companies and service providers have emerged.”

The growing value of the Halal brand is apparent when speaking with founder of UK-based Serendipity Tailormade and Luxury Halal Travel, Nabeel Shariff. With its Arabic logo that translates to "the journey", it was always meant to cater to the luxury Muslim traveller, even though it didn’t explicitly say so. But soon the unsaid would demand to be proclaimed loud and proud, and Luxury Halal Travel was developed on the back of the core business. “This branding strategy was needed to take advantage of the opportunity especially in the UK, mainland Europe and North America which were seeing huge demand from a young, vibrant Muslim population that was eager to travel to new and exciting destinations but was unwillingly to compromise on their Islamic lifestyle,” says Shariff.

Women are strong influencers in destination choice and holiday planning

All Halal travellers are not equal: They have different needs and expectations

Halal travellers want to unlock untapped desinations and visit nonMuslim countries as easily as Muslim countries

Source: Amadeus Traveller Trends Observatory 37 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016

COVER STORY

MUSLIMS GLOBALLY SPENT

I35 BILLION ON TOURISM IN 2012

(12.5% OF GLOBAL EXPENDITURE)

EXPECTED TO REACH

I8I BILLION IN 2018

(12.5% OF GLOBAL EXPENDITURE) Source: State of the Global Islamic Economy, 2013

WE WERE EARLY IN IDENTIFYING THIS AS A SEGMENT AND IT WAS A NOVEL IDEA FOR MANY. BUT I WAS CONVINCED THAT THIS WOULD GROW ONCE WE STARTED TALKING TO THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY AND SHOW THEM TANGIBLE NUMBERS. FAZAL BAHARDEEN Founder CrescentRating

38 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016

the unique faith-based needs of Muslim travellers. Many like Turkey embraced Halal travel primarily in order to cater to their own domestic travellers, while Malaysia and Singapore aggressively courted those from countries with huge Muslim outbound travel. There are lessons here for Qatar which is looking to market itself as a family-friendly destination and most of whose leisure travellers come from the neighbouring Gulf countries.

Let’s start by examining the circumstances in Turkey, which is well known for its Halal beach resorts that offer separate swimming pools and even beaches for women.

Most resorts even have their own mosque. Can this be replicated in other Muslim majority countries? Marketing Manager at HalalBooking, Ufuk Secgin, takes us through the organic growth of Halal travel in his country. “Turkey is surrounded by sea and beach holidays are a very popular national pastime. A lot of large beach resorts opened but they weren’t suitable for the Halal-conscious traveller who either had to compromise on their beliefs, and hence on the comfort, satisfaction and fun factor of holiday, or didn’t go to those resorts at all and had to find alternate solutions.

When the first Halal resort opened 21 years ago, it was such a huge success that others soon jumped on the bandwagon.

It was a win-win situation for both the customers, who could have a fulfilling holiday, and entrepreneurs, who were not offering just another beach resort that is one among thousands but something niche that guaranteed higher earnings and increased occupancy,” he says.

Among the non-OIC countries, Singapore is heralded as an example of a Muslim-friendly tourist destination. “The Halal travel market picked up here for two reasons,” says Bahardeen. “Proximity to big Muslim markets – Malaysia, Indonesia and, to certain extent, Brunei – who make up 20% of their arrivals, and also a growing domestic Muslim population. The major drivers already existed.” Similar conditions prevailed in Muslim-majority Malaysia which is ranked number one in the Halal Travel Indicator. But they have also gone above and beyond. “Malaysia has launched a Muslim-Friendly Hospitality Standard and hotels that wish to adhere to the standard need to have certain criteria in place,” explains El Shafaki. “Even hotels applying to the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism and Culture for a conventional star rating must have in place certain minimum Muslim-friendly criteria. Indonesia has established a dedicated committee for Muslimfriendly tourism that reports directly to the Ministry of Tourism, and 10% of the Ministry’s promotional budget is dedicated to Halal travel”. These are a perfect examples of how Muslim countries, even though they have the infrastructure and services needed to cater to Halal travel, have to do much more if they are to compete with global destinations that are increasingly trying to woo the Halal-conscious traveller. “It’s about reaching out to the international market and demonstrating that you have these facilities,” says Bahardeen. “The tourism industry is not like how it was 10-15 years ago when the choices were limited. Today thousands of cities beyond Tier I and II are opening up because of budget airlines. It’s one of the most competitive industries and you can’t afford to say ‘I am a

Muslim country and that is enough to attract the Muslim traveller’.”

Countries like Japan showcase what kind of competition is coming up in this market. It has been making a concentrated effort in improving Muslim friendliness primarily because a large majority of visits come from Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore which accounts for around 65% of all Muslim visitors to Japan. To meet the growing demand for Halal facilities, Japan has been implementing steps to upgrade its prayer facilities, Halal food availability and other travelrelated services for Muslims. It has started subsidizing Halal certification in order to encourage restaurants and hotels to provide Halal food for Muslim guests and it recently introduced visa requirements for travellers from Southeast Asian countries. With increased awareness, local businesses and firms in Japan are gradually shifting their approach to cater to the Muslim travel market.

Tourism juggernaut Thailand was not too far behind.

It already was a very popular destination for Muslims from the Gulf (especially those going there for medical tourism) and it just had to build on that base. Thailand has developed a Muslim-Friendly Tourism App that lists Halal restaurants, mosques as well as other Muslim-friendly services, says El Shafaki. “It developed a Unified Thailand Diamond Halal Brand to promote restaurants and other small businesses that offer Halal. Thailand has opened a series of gender-segregated 'Halal' spas and the Thai resort city of Pattaya has opened Islamic prayer rooms in nearly all of its top shopping centres,” she says.

It is no wonder that Shariff says for his clients at Luxury Halal Travel, the most popular destinations remain the Indian Ocean and the Far East – Mauritius, Maldives, Seychelles, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and increasingly Sri Lanka. But he also aspires to help Muslims travel to fringe destinations that are not generally on their radar.

“China, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, New Zealand... I am heading out to the Caribbean next month to speak about Halal travel to a whole new set of stakeholders who want to look into it,” he says. In the end, in marketing Halal travel one shouldn’t lose sight of our motivations to travel. “For us, it’s important that our clients experience the culture of the destination. One doesn’t want to go to Japan and eat Lebanese food. We want Japanese food but with no pork and Halal meat,” says Shariff. “So this is what we are looking for when we put together, say, a guide to Halal restaurants.

Places where you can try local food, explore local culture and meet local people; that is what travel is about.”

The fact is that most destinations can market themselves as Muslim-friendly. “Some, obviously, are more suited than others,” says Bahardeen. “That’s what our ranking is all about. But one doesn’t need to do a huge amount of work to deliver at least some basic services. Japan is a great example of that. I was in a mall in Shinjuku recently and was surprised to find out that they had created a prayer room on the one of the floors for Muslim shoppers,” he says.

If the Japanese, with their secular and largely homogenous environment, can do that, it’s not difficult to imagine other destinations making more of an effort in this direction. It

EVALUATING THE MUSLIM-FRIENDLINESS OF A DESTINATION Suitability as a holiday destination, family friendliness and safety Muslim visitor arrivals Family-friendly holiday destination Safe travel environment Muslim-friendly services and facilities available at the destination Dining options and Halal assurance Ease of access to prayer places Airport services and facilities Accommodation options Halal awareness and reach-out to Muslims by the destination Muslim travel market awareness and reach-out Ease of communication Source: Global Muslim Travel Index

SEVERAL COUNTRIES IN THE GULF HAVE STARTED PAYING ATTENTION TO THE MUSLIM MARKET SEGMENT; HOWEVER, THEY PREFER TO USE THE TERM ‘FAMILY-FRIENDLY’ RATHER THAN ‘HALAL’ OR ‘MUSLIM-FRIENDLY’.

REEM EL SHAFAKI

Senior Associate, Halal Lifestyle Markets DinarStandard 39 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016

COVER STORY

ultimately comes down to whether you want a piece of the business that Muslim travellers are bringing, he says.

GLOBAL MUSLIM MARKET BENCHMARKED AGAINST TOP TOURISM SOURCE MARKETS ($ BILLION, 2012)

$I37 Source: State of the Global Islamic Economy, 2013

$I22 $95

$89 $65

GLOBAL MUSLIM MARKET

UNITED STATES

GERMANY

CHINA

UNITED KINGDOM

$52

FRANCE

NON-MUSLIM COUNTRIES TODAY ARE MAKING MORE OF AN EFFORT TO WELCOME MUSLIM TRAVELLERS. HOTELS IN MUSLIM COUNTRIES HAVE A MARKET SITTING RIGHT THERE AT THEIR DOORSTEP THAT IS LARGELY IGNORED. NABEEL SHARIFF

Founder Serendipity Tailormade and Luxury Halal Travel

40 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016

The missing Middle East Why is it that the Halal brand of travel has picked up both to the east and west of us, but not here in the Muslim heartland? What differentiates the Gulf Muslim from, say, a British Muslim? Travellers from the Gulf tend to take the availability of Halal food options as well as other Muslimfriendly services, such as availability of prayer spaces and women-only services such as spas, for granted, since they are widely available in the region. However, Muslims from the West are more accustomed to having to search for businesses that accommodate their needs, so when they travel on holiday, they similarly seek out services that meet their needs as Muslims, and are especially interested in being able to eat freely at restaurants without having to worry that everything is Halal. They also tend to be interested in visiting Islamic heritage sites and learning about the Islamic history of the areas they are visiting.

While local travel agencies will gladly customise your tour packages for you, the concept of Halal travel is a bit bizarre to most of them. This is also because the term Halal might confuse people who’d associate them with a religious or spiritual holiday. This is where services like Muslim Travel Warehouse come in. They put together Muslimfriendly packages across various destinations and help travel agencies market them to their local audience. But more importantly, it also works in reverse. They can help Qatar market itself as a Halal-friendly destination in other outbound markets globally. This might seem laughable at first, for Qatar needs to say that it is in fact Muslim-friendly.

But as we discussed before, just being an Islamic country is not enough anymore.

“Gulf countries have a tremendous advantage in that many Halal facilities are already in place. Halal food is widely available as are prayer spaces, as most shopping centres as well as amusement centres have prayer spaces and ablution facilities. In addition, because of the conservative and family-oriented culture of the region, many attractions and facilities are already family friendly,” says El Shafaki.

"Several countries in the Gulf have started paying attention to the Muslim market segment; however, they prefer to use the term ‘family-friendly’ rather than ‘Halal’ or ‘Muslimfriendly’, in part not to alienate non-Muslim visitors to the region, and also because travellers from the region are not accustomed to ‘Halal’-related branding or communication, since it is understood as being so. However, I would advise countries in the Gulf to highlight their ‘Halal’ offering as part of their marketing communications to Muslims from outside of the Arab world, and not take them as a given.”

Targeted marketing aside, there is also the fact that even in Islamic countries the travel sector is used to catering primarily to the non-Muslim market. Facilities and staff in hotels are geared to them. So while Halal is implied and certain aspects are Muslim-friendly by default, facilities like segregated pools (which men are increasingly demanding) and dry properties are rare. “Banana Island by Anantara is one property that does tick a lot of the boxes,”

says Shariff. “It’s a dry hotel with villas that have private pools. But this is not happening enough in the Middle East.

Non-Muslim countries today are making more of an effort to welcome Muslim travellers. Hotels in Muslim countries have a market sitting right there at their doorstep that is largely ignored. Morocco, for example, has a large domestic Muslim population which travels within the country and are not supported. The burkini ban in France has generated a lot debate but there are hotels in Morocco that quite clearly state that burkinis are not allowed at their pools.

That’s incredible for a predominately Muslim country to say that. It all comes down to how they view the value of the ‘Halal pound’ (or dollar or euro),” he says.

Policy at play Opinion is divided on whether a few bold businesspeople are enough to make a destination Muslim-friendly or a national strategy needs to be in place, and whether politics play a role at all. “There was no policy in Turkey to start catering to Muslim travellers,” says Secgin. “In fact it was just the opposite. There was no support from the local councils, because they came from secular backgrounds.

Over the last 10-15 years, the political scenery has changed and there isn’t any preferential treatment towards Halal hotels and resorts. Obviously government policy would be helpful in encouraging more investment but if someone wants to replicate this in their country, they’d just have to open up such resorts, partner up with the right channel and market it well.”

Hotel rooms that indicate prayer direction

TOP MUSLIM TOURISM EXPENDITURE SOURCE COUNTRIES (2013) COUNTRY

SIZE (BILLION)

SAUDI ARABIA

$17.8

ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

$14.3

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

$11.2

QATAR

$7.8

KUWAIT

$7.7

INDONESIA

$7.5

MALAYSIA

$5.7

RUSSIA

$5.4

TURKEY

$4.5

NIGERIA

$4.4 Source: Global Muslim Travel Index

41 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016

COVER STORY

He goes on to cite the case of Lombok, Indonesia. “Their tourism board is very keen on Halal-friendly initiatives because they want to differentiate themselves from the neigbouring island of Bali and attract a different type of customer. So they have supported and promoted this new industry and have won awards for being a Halal-friendly destination,” he says.

In non-Muslim majority countries, however, some groundwork needs to be laid. El Shafaki says the priority in these cases is to regulate the Halal food certification industry and ensure strict compliance, as well as ensure the availability of prayer spaces and family-friendly facilities.

“Countries should develop a clear marketing strategy focused on promoting themselves as Muslim-friendly destinations, starting from developing their branding and positioning, to launching campaigns directed at targeted source markets. It is much harder for destinations to market themselves as Muslim-friendly without government support. For example, there are individual efforts in Spain to promote Halal travel, but they do not have government backing. Instituto Halal, which is a Halal certifying body, has certified hotels and travel agencies as Halal. It has also launched a programme for Cordoba to become a Halal city.

However, if these efforts had national level government support and national destination marketing efforts were in place, the results would be much more impactful,” she says.

THERE IS A LARGE GENERAL TOURISM MARKET AND THOSE CHOOSING TO SERVE THE HALAL-CONSCIOUS TRAVELLER ARE JUST COMPLEMENTING THE CHOICES. SO IF A HOTEL OWNER MAKES A CONSCIOUS CHOICE TO TARGET THE MUSLIM TRAVELLER, HE IS MAKING A BOLD CHOICE TO GO AFTER THIS SEGMENT. UFUK SECGIN

Marketing Manager HalalBooking 42 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016

Exclusively Islamic Is there a downside to marketing yourself as a Halal-friendly destination or hotel? And what are the challenges faced by those who want to? Shariff, who says he inadvertently ends up doing some consulting in the course of growing his business, says his role is to allay fears. “Being Halalfriendly is not scary or difficult,” he says. That may be true but it definitely requires one to be bold. Apprehensions that arise come from a lack of understanding of the market and also the courage to invest in such opportunities, according to Secgin. You might end up targeting only to a certain segment but that segment is huge. “The market is clearly huge. There are different segment in the general tourism market that cater to different kinds of travellers – Halal is just one of them. For example, look at Antalya.

It’s one of the top five beach holiday destinations in the world. There is a large general tourism market and the resorts catering to serving the Halal-conscious traveller are just complementing the choices. So if a hotel owner makes a conscious choice to target the Muslim traveller, he is making a bold choice to go after this segment,” he says, decrying half-hearted attempts that some hotels make in order to market to Muslims. “They might say Halal food is available on demand or if an order is placed in advance or the spa is available one hour per day for women. This is not enough. If you want to tap into this market, you have to be bold. People will generally see through something that’s being used just as a marketing tool.” And it’s really like targeting any other segment. “At the end of the day it’s about the business,” says Bahardeen. “If you want the Chinese to come, you have to cater to the Chinese requirements. It’s the same for the Russians. So if you want the Muslims to

come, there are certain requirements which just happen to be linked to their faith.”

But the concern of business owners that catering to Muslim travellers will alienate non-Muslims might be valid, according to El Shafaki. And in most cases, such as when it comes to hotels, for example, they want to avoid appealing to one segment at the expense of the other.

This is where the semantics are important. It has been CrescentRating’s policy never to brand a hotel as "Halal" or "Shariah-compliant". Their ratings have always been about Muslim-friendliness. “So we don’t require hotels to discard what they do for other segments but if they need a higher rating, they need to meet certain criteria. Ultimately the choice is with the traveller,” Bahardeen says.

El Shafaki points out that there are many ways brands can cater to Muslim travellers without alienating nonMuslims. “The Gulf-based luxury hotel brand Shaza, for example, focuses on communicating its authentic Arabian hospitality rather than calling themselves a ‘Halal’ brand despite the fact that they are a dry hotel and accommodate Muslim needs. Another example is Alanda Hotel in Marbella, Spain. When they converted to a Halal hotel after being bought by a Saudi Arabian investor, they were afraid to lose their existing customers; however, they found that a large percentage of their guests were nonMuslims who found the family-friendly nature of the hotel and the absence of a nightclub appealing; so businesses may position themselves as 'family-friendly' for more mainstream appeal.”

“One way to avoid the dilemma of marketing to Muslims while not alienating others is to market to the Muslim audience through targeted marketing channels, such as Muslim media, local publications in Muslim majority countries, as well as targeted ad campaigns,” she says.”

DinarStandard is starting to work with destinations to market them as Muslim-friendly through targeted email campaigns, by working with Muslim influencers and travel bloggers and through targeted social media campaigns.”

Even without these challenges, there are some important issues that need to be sorted out. Ambiguity remains in terms of acceptable standards for the Halal tourism industry, as there is still no global Halal tourism certification system. According to the State of Global Islamic Economy report, besides the Halal integrity-related controversies as well as the geopolitical challenges that brand "Islam" faces, there are also structural and operational challenges faced by the sectors. Key issues that still need to be dealt with are regulations, standardisation, compliance; Halalcertified raw materials, supply chain integrity; human capital development and training; consumer education; global positioning (variances in terminology, e.g., Shariahcompliant, Halal, Muslim-friendly, family-friendly); SME/ venture financing; IP protection; operational excellence in quality, competitiveness, innovation, and profitable solutions. But these will have to be solved on the go because Halal travel is here and about to take off and ambivalence would just leave one standing on the runway, watching the vapour trails

SPENDING FROM EACH REGION Central Asia

Sub-Saharan Africa

Eastern Europe

South Asia

North America

Other

6% 3%

MENA (GCC)

3I%

MENA (Other)

25%

5% 2%

4% I%

GCC TRAVEL FOCUS 3% OF GLOBAL MUSLIM POPULATION BUT 3I% OF MUSLIM TRAVEL EXPENDITURE

East / SE Asia

I2%

Western Europe

6%

Source: State of the Global Islamic Economy, 2013

THE HALAL HOTEL

1

HALAL-CERTIFIED KITCHENS. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS TO SERVE FOOD LATE DURING RAMADAN

2

MALE/FEMALE PRAYER ROOMS OR LOCATED CLOSE TO A MOSQUE. ALTERNATIVELY, PRAYER DIRECTION INDICATED IN ROOMS WITH PRAYER MATS AND TIMINGS AVAILABLE ON REQUEST. QURAN AVAILABLE IN THE ROOMS

3 4 5 6

BATHROOMS IN ROOMS FITTED WITH BIDETS AND HAND SHOWERS NO ALCOHOL SERVED ON THE PREMISES (NO PUBS AND CLUBS)

NO CASINO ON THE PREMISES SEGREGATED BEACHES/POOLS/SPAS/GYMS/ WELLNESS CENTRES WITH ENOUGH PRIVACY. APPROPRIATE SWIMWEAR ALLOWED FOR FEMALES

7

FEMALE ROOM ATTENDANTS AND OTHER STAFF FAMILIAR WITH THE NEEDS OF THE MUSLIM TRAVELLER

43 > QATAR TODAY > SEPTEMBER 2016