Halal Tourism Business

What Makes the Muslim Travel Industry so Attractive?

by Azer Suleymanov Digital Marketing and Advertising Manager at HalalTravels.com

The Muslim Travel industry has been hard hit by the pandemic, and it will require some time and effort to rebound and steadily grow in the near future. The outlook for the Muslim Travel Industry for 2021-2024 is quite positive due to some objective reasons and the nature of the business, overall.

The unstoppable interest in Halal Tourism has not decreased even during the recent pandemic. The case of HalalTravels.com, one of the most technology-oriented players in the market, clearly shows an increased interest in the Muslim Travel Industry, especially OTA’s. HalalTravels.com has seen a huge interest from media, potential partners, and investors around the world even though the industry as a whole suffered from a low growth rate and profitability. The interest has seemingly doubled or even tripled as compared to the pre-Covid years. We need to say that HalalTravels.com is not representative of the whole population, statistically speaking, but the discussions held with other stakeholders (partners, media representatives, clients, hotel owners, and investors) allow us to think that the interest has dramatically increased since the beginning of Covid 19. The State of the Global Islamic Economy Report also confirms a positive outlook for the Muslim Travel Industry.

While steps were taken towards growing the customer base since revenues were seriously limited by the conditions imposed on the market, the signals we were getting from the market show that market players directed their efforts toward product development and technology. Many of the major market players and startups declared that they have been focusing a lot on developing their technology and marketing know-how while waiting for the market to rebound.

There are some solid arguments and research which make us all believe that the Muslim Travel industry will get back to the pre-Covid level approximately three years from now. If we go back and have a look at the growth rate in the previous years, we will see that Muslim Travel spend was growing at about 2.7%(CAGR). The prediction covering 2019-2024 is around 1.4% (CAGR).

There are some objective reasons that make the Muslim travel industry so attractive even during the global pandemic. One of the main reasons is the business proposition of the Islamic travel market players, which is too attractive to be ignored. It is the value proposition that creates an increasing demand for halal hotels, villas, and other types of accommodation within the travel industry despite the difficult times for the global economy. Prepositions such as privacy and halal food may have no substitutes meaning that it is a question of time and patience until the industry returns to its previous growth levels. Obviously, this will only happen if the buying power of Muslim travelers is not jeopardized by the economic turmoil.