Indonesia is hoping for a sharp rise in tourist arrivals from Chinese Muslims over the next few months following a successful trade visit to the country.
According to DinarStandard™, the Halal Tourism Acceleration and Development Team of the Ministry of Tourism of Indonesia led a delegation of travels experts and businesses on a sales mission program to three key areas in China to showcase and promote its Halal offering.
Alongside presentations and seminars, the trade delegation developed key strategic partnerships with local communities, Muslim business groups and national Halal associations to help strengthen economic, tourism and trade ties.
Tourism chiefs believe the success of the visit to Xi'an, Yinchuan and Beijing will contribute to a significant spike in visitor arrivals from China in the next few months to hit the 2.4 million mark.
The visit to China is part of a wider initiative by Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia to target 20 million international tourists by 2019 including five million Muslim visitors.
Indonesia aims to become the world’s number one destination for Halal Tourism. The fast-growing Halal Tourism market is expected to be worth $243 billion by 2021.
The trade delegation was led by Riyanto Sofyan, chairman of the Halal Tourism Acceleration and Development Team of the Ministry of Tourism of Indonesia.
During the visit they have reportedly laid the groundwork to forge strong ties with a number of Halal industry Associations, China's Halal Food Chamber of Commerce and several Chinese Muslim communities in Xi'an, Yinchuan, and Beijing.
The Chinese counterparts especially became interested in the 10 new Bali destinations and the spread of halal tourism destinations and strong infrastructure across Indonesia.
Official data from the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism has shown that from 2013 to 2016, Halal tourism has been growing significantly showing a rise of up to 15.5%.
Chinese tourists visit to Indonesia grew to 1,452,971 tourists in 2016 – 27% higher than the previous year.
Earlier this year, Indonesia improved its ranking for the second consecutive year by climbing one position to take the third spot as the top performing destination in the Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) 2017 – officially launched in Jakarta.
China and Indonesia are also part of the One Belt, One Road initiative, which aims to recreate the Silk Road and increase investment and tourism among countries on that road.
DinarStandard™ is a growth strategy research and advisory firm empowering organizations for profitable and responsible global impact. Its focused markets are: OIC economies, Halal/Ethical food & lifestyle sectors, Islamic finance, Impact investment, and NGO’s/Non-Profits.
Halal tourism is a subcategory of tourism which is geared towards Muslim families who abide by rules of Islam. The hotels in such destinations do not serve alcohol and have separate swimming pools and spa facilities for men and women. The Halal tourism industry also provides flights where no alcohol or pork products are served, prayer timings are announced, and religious programs are broadcast as part of entertainment offered on board.
Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey and many more countries are trying to attract Muslim tourists from all over the world offering facilities in accordance with the religious beliefs of Muslim tourists.
