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Worldwide growth in both the Muslim middle class and younger generation has resulted in Islamic tourism becoming a significant global market segment, and a key growth sector for the economies of Islamic countries. The 121 million Muslim tourists of 2016 were expected to be 156 million in 2020, whereas the total spendings of US $220 billion of Muslim tourists will reach in 2026, $300 billion. This chapter focuses on Iran as one of the important Muslim-friendly destinations. With Islamic principles already in place, Iran is aiming to become a world hub for Islamic or halal tourism, while meeting new challenges and pursuing creative alternatives.

The present research extends the existing literature of halal tourism and Muslims’ travel decision-making by applying information-seeking models and the planned behavior theory to identify the process of decision-making to travel to non-Islamic destinations. This study aims to identify the views of Muslim travelers who traveled before to non-Islamic destinations to evaluate their information search experience and how their travel decision is formed.

Semi-structured interviews are conducted with a sample of Muslim travelers who visited a non-Islamic destination during the past five years. Data saturation resulted in 17 interviewees from different Islamic destinations, namely, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Pakistan.

Muslim interviewees indicate the relative importance of reference groups compared to the government websites as a source of information. This study concludes some remarkable results regarding the importance of some halal marketing strategies such as halal searchability and availability, halal certification and appraisal, halal at airports and halal hotels. It presents an emergent framework that shows the factors affecting visiting a non-Islamic destination regarding halal issues for Muslim travelers.

It provides destinations’ official tourism managers with various strategies to brand their destinations as Muslim-friendly destinations.

Investigating the process of decision-making of traveling to non-Islamic destinations from Muslim travelers’ perspective is limited. Examining the role of information-seeking behavior in Muslim travelers’ decision-making is scarce.

This study aims to identify the terminology that is in accordance with the reality of Muslim tourism market, especially from the perspective of Sharia motivation, between Halal tourism and Islamic tourism; provide information on the special needs of Muslim travelers based on the dominant motivational differences; and find the impact of Sharia motivation and the special needs of Muslim tourists to their satisfaction.

The target population in this study is Muslim traveler at least 18 years old who has been traveling throughout Indonesia. Paired sample t-Test, multivariate analysis of variance and the multiple linier regression are applied for data analysis.

This study finds that Sharia motivation is less dominant in encouraging Muslims to travel; Sharia motivation has no impact on the importance of Sharia transportation, generic transportation and generic activities; and the dominance of Sharia motivation does not affect Muslim tourist satisfaction. However, the dominance of Sharia motivation has an influence on the importance of Sharia accommodation and Sharia activities, where both variables have positive effect on satisfaction. In the end, this study concludes that it is better to use the concept of Halal tourism than Islamic tourism.

This paper investigates the term of Halal tourism and Islamic tourism that are still ambiguous; even some researchers consider that the definition of both is similar.

This study aims to provide an insight into research related to Muslim travellers in the past 42 years.

Using 342 articles collected from the Scopus database from 1981 to 2023, this study adopted the Bibliometrix in RStudio package and Biblioshiny Web application to analyse the research on Muslim travellers in two main categories: overview and intellectual structures.

The first publication related to Muslim travellers occurred in 1981 and number of publications remained few in the first three decades. Starting 2015, publications on Muslim travellers experienced a growing development of discussions and publications. Four prominent research clusters were identified: “halal tourism”, “hajj”, “Islamic tourism” and “tourist post-purchase”. Themes within the research on Muslim travellers have evolved from the “pilgrimage” to “Islamic tourism” theme. Then, the “Islamic tourism” theme has been expanded to a variety of topics that were primarily relevant to Muslim tourist behaviour. Themes related to “climate change” and “Syria” have been identified as the niche themes that need further study.

Scopus database is regularly updated as the number of papers and journals may increase or decrease from time to time. This may impact on the fluctuation of the theme analysis from the article search at that time.

This study reviews publications related to Muslim travellers over the past four decades. Accordingly, it can aid interested researchers and stakeholders in gaining a more thorough understanding of Muslim traveller research.

The first problem when diving into this topic is the confusion caused by a number of terms intended to designate the same concept, in addition to the lack of a shared interpretation on what Islam requires from tourism services to secure their acceptability. This paper aims to contribute to the clarification of what halal tourism is, as it seems to be the most appropriate term to refer to practices allowed when travelling, in accordance with the Islamic law.

A synthesis of the current situation was carried out, based on the papers contained in Web of Science and Scopus databases. Moreover, a consultation of tourism experts was implemented to extract a number of practical implications for the promotion and development of this segment.

As the literature review suggested, halal tourism is a field of study that is still in a very early stage. In spite of this fact and the ambiguity found, halal tourism can be understood as the offer of tourist services designed to meet the needs of Muslim tourists in accordance with their religious obligations.

It is imperative to offer halal services (food, worship facilities, etc.) to attract this type of tourists. However, the diversity of interpretations has prevented the existence of one single certification. The lack of knowledge on this market is the main obstacle to overcome.

This paper contributes to clarifying the conceptualization of halal tourism. It takes a theoretical review and experts’ view as a preliminary step to study this topic in more depth.

The purpose of this paper is to address the confusing use of terminology associated with tourism undertaken by Muslims and to identify key concerns associated with this type of tourism.

This is an exploratory study and adopts a critical review of literature following the evolutionary concept analysis method. Content analysis of popular UK media, UK-based tour operators’ websites and tourism strategies of destinations popular with Muslim tourists were conducted to examine the use of terminology.

There is no clear difference between the various terms (halal, Muslim friendly, Islamic, etc.) used. Overall, academia uses the term Islamic tourism, while the industry and media use various terms. Among destinations, however, there is no clear and consistent use of terminology. A key concern of Islamic tourism is the role of certification in assuring travellers and the lack of standardisation of halal certification.

The paper is based on literature review and secondary data analysis. It lacks primary research.

This study highlights the need for consistent use of terminology across industry. Another implication is the issue surrounding halal certification of food and the importance of trust in the seller/service provide. Another trend that industry providers need to consider is the growth of the Muslim millennial traveller and the needs of this market segment.

The paper highlights the importance of studying the Muslim tourist market and provides a starting point for further research. It highlights several issues such as the need to develop a typology of Muslim tourists. Of particular interest is the concern whether halal values in danger of being commodified in the absence of a universal agreed criterion for halal certification.

The purpose of this paper is to formulate ways in which Maldives could pioneer Islamic tourism on a befitting framework and financing structure as a leverage to develop its tourism industry.

The research uses qualitative approach whereby primary and empirical data on tourism practices as well as relevant laws and guidelines, issued in Maldives and in other Muslim jurisdictions of the Muslim, are analyzed. Doctrinal approach is used in analyzing secondary data on the subject.

The research reveals the potential of Islamic tourism in Maldives as well as the challenges that have constrained its development in the country. Certainty is needed in halal products, services and conducts. Codifying extant Maldives Halal Tourism Standards will establish legal framework for a standard Shariah-compliant tourism industry. Islamic financing structure enables mobilizing required funds and address financing constraints.

This research presents an insight into establishing and developing Islamic tourism industry in the Maldives. Harmonizing tourism regulations with Shariah shall bring about the required consciousness on Shariah compliance in target tourists and their desires. Private individuals can contribute in mobilizing the much needed Shariah-compliant resources to finance Islamic model resorts befitting an Islamic tourism industry.

The research puts forward proposal that identifies and recognizes a more viable Islamic financing alternative as well as Shariah-compliant regulations to pioneer the development of Islamic tourism in Maldives. The research recommends how to overcome related challenges helps government understand the proposed strategies for establishing Islamic tourism industry.

The demand for Muslim friendly tourism industry has been gaining momentum from the increasing number of Muslim travellers globally. This paper aims to examine the role of religiosity in Muslim travellers Halal food consumption attitude and behaviour while travelling to the non-Muslim destination.

A total of 384 respondents participated in this study through an online survey. This study used the partial least square structural equation modelling to assess the survey measurements and hypotheses testing.

This study asserts that the Muslim travellers’ Halal consumption attitude relies heavily on their level of religiosity, subjective norms and perceived control behaviour. Besides, the results provide evidence that consumption attitude mediates the relationship between religiosity, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and intention in consuming Halal food products while travelling abroad.

This study highlighted the critical aspects of an emerging Muslim market that travel for leisure with the urge to comply with their Islamic teachings and religiosity. It is vital for non-Muslim tourism destination marketers to tailor their marketing strategies and consider promoting Islamic dietary rules when planning their travel packages.

This study is one of the few that focus on Muslim-friendly tourism and the role of religiosity in Muslim traveller’s Halal food consumption behaviour. This study confirms that the theory of planned behaviour model can be used to explain Muslim travellers Halal food consumption attitude while travelling to a non-Muslim destination.

The purpose of this paper is to build a better understanding of the concept of Halal tourism as expressed by Muslim Jordanian tourists who want to comply with the Islamic law. The study also examines Jordan as a Halal tourism destination as perceived by those tourists. Implications of marketing Jordan as a Halal tourism destination are among the research questions.

The paper is empirical and quantitative in nature with a survey type. The sample of the study is Muslim Jordanians in the cities of Amman and Irbid. Respondents were chosen randomly in shopping malls, gardens and public places. A self-completion questionnaire was administered to collect the data for the research and 920 questionnaires were returned. The data were analysed using descriptive and reliability and explanatory factor analysis in addition to certain tests such as one sample t test and two samples chi-square tests.

Halal tourism in Jordan is established but needs more enhancements and promotion. Jordan was evaluated positively in 14 Halal services and was unsuccessful in ten others. The motives for Jordanian Muslim tourists who want to comply with the Islamic law, to travel to Halal destinations were destinations that offer Halal-friendly services; to know Islamic religious sites; and to learn about Islamic history. Jordanian tourists were knowledgeable of local and international Halal destinations (78.2 and 67%, respectively). More than half of the sample experienced Halal destinations in Jordan and only 26.4% abroad. From a marketing point of view, the results of this study reveal good awareness of potential Jordanian tourists towards Halal tourism and Halal services. The study revealed that Jordanian Muslim tourists who want to comply with the Islamic law showed significant positive motives to travel Halal tourism destinations. In addition, the study showed statistically significant knowledge and experiences in local Halal destinations, but not in foreign Halal destinations.

The lack of research on Halal tourism in Jordan gives limited in-depth discussion. In addition, the study sample was chosen from two major cities in Jordan; therefore, further research is needed to include a representative sample of the whole country.

The paper includes marketing implications on Halal tourism in Jordan. The authors suggest marketing strategies should be launched to emphasise the importance of Halal tourism and marketing Jordan as Halal tourism destination. The recommendations of this study provide positive and negative results on Jordan as a Halal tourism destination. The negative evaluation of Jordan in terms of Halal services should be redressed by the Jordanian Government and the Jordanian private tourism and hospitality sectors to build a positive image of Jordan as a potential competitive Halal destination for Muslim tourists who want to comply with the Islamic law.

The paper is among the first of its kind, which empirically examined the motives of Jordanian Muslims who want to comply with the Islamic law to travel to Halal tourism destinations as well as evaluating Jordan as a Halal tourism destination. This study fills the gap in literature about Halal tourism in Jordan and presents Halal tourism as one of the alternative forms of tourism of high potential for Jordan to compete in this market segment.

Attributes of a destination do not only have a positive impact on a person’s selection of the travel destination but also influence the level of tourist satisfaction. In spite of this, the destination attributes related to Muslim tourism are yet to be explored. Moreover, each attribute impacts the satisfaction of tourists in different ways. This study aims to investigate the importance and performance of Islamic attributes in selection of travel destinations by Muslim tourists and to examine the overall tourist satisfaction (SAT) based on the Islamic attributes.

Thailand has been considered as the base for this study. A quantitative research method and convenience sampling technique was used for data collection. Factor analysis was used to determine the importance and performance of Islamic attributes on the choice of travel destinations. Composite delineated factors were applied as indicators in the regression analysis to evaluate the SAT.

The findings reveal five important Islamic attributes: Halal-friendly environment, Halal hotel (IMP2), Halal food (IMP3), Halal food preparation and washroom facilities. However, Muslim tourists were only satisfied with the performance of three Islamic attributes: hotel entertainment and facilities, Halal food and preparation and Halal-oriented recreation and quality services (PER3). This study also reveals that PER3 as well as IMP2 and IMP3 are significant factors for evaluating the tourists’ overall satisfaction.

The Halal tourism market has been growing rapidly. However, research on the satisfaction of Muslim tourists based on the importance and performance of Islamic attributes in non-Muslim countries is limited. Thus, the researcher draws upon the views of Muslim tourists to propose recommendations on the important Islamic attributes and those whose performances are effective. The findings suggest that the SAT is influenced by particular attributes. Additionally, this study fills the research gap on Halal tourism in Thailand and provides useful information regarding the satisfaction of tourists based on Islamic attributes for non-Muslim countries, to help them formulate effective strategies for developing Islamic tourism in their travel destinations.