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After the September 11 event in the United States, some Muslim destinations faced a severe decline in tourist arrivals because of the so-called neighborhood effect. Concurrently, other destinations performed extremely well. This chapter addresses the question of how the emergence of inconsistent tourism patterns within the same region can be explained. The analysis demonstrates that whereas arrivals from the Western countries decreased, intraregional tourism boomed and Muslim tourists avoided traveling to the Western destinations. This regionalization of travel behavior is explained by the rise of confrontational geopolitical world pictures in the Western and the Muslim worlds. This has created a new two-sided neighborhood effect, which has stabilized destinations in the Muslim world with a strong intraregional orientation.

For sustainable progress of heritage tourism in Muslim regions, exaggerated and distorted notions of Islam have to be dispelled. To accomplish such an arduous task, the first step is to examine media content employed by key tourism organizations/agencies in Muslim countries. This chapter examines the heritage environments and contemporary macro environment factors in Muslim countries that are either secular or Islamic in nature. Using cultural indicators, it further analyzes the content of website marketing employed by the leading tourism authorities in the selected regions to understand if considerations and efforts are made to market Muslim heritage. The findings indicate mixed results.

This chapter discusses the importance and the strength of the interaction between tourism and the Muslim world, as well as the importance of tourism to overcome misunderstanding between the peoples in Islamic and non-Islamic countries. The objectives of this chapter are to look at the connections between tourism and Islam and to try to determine how these connections may develop. Tourism has brought many changes in Islamic countries. Traditionally conservative religions are particularly sensitive to such changes. This includes the Muslim world, deeply rooted in certain countries and parts of the world. As a precondition for future tourism developments, the tolerance among peoples and religions is of great importance. Better understanding will bring benefit to all.

This chapter examines a popular online trend—photo-sharing—in an understudied region, the League of Arab States. In contrast to online information from official bodies, anyone with Internet access can view and create destination photos. This study first searched for destination photos on Flickr.com, a popular photo-sharing website, from 22 Arab countries, and then content analyzed 589 Muslim and travel photos. The key results included Egypt with the most destination photos and Saudi Arabia with the most Muslim images. Common Muslim images were mosques and women with headscarves. This chapter shows that Flickr photos represent Arab images and are possible destination recommendations.

This chapter discusses aspects of the relationship between Islam and tourism in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. Islam is shown to exercise considerable influence over social and political systems in the first three countries, in addition to affecting the tourism industry. It also gives rise to a series of particular demands from adherents, reflected in a movement termed Islamic tourism that encompasses product development and marketing efforts designed for and directed at Muslims. The activities of the four countries in the field are reviewed, revealing an appreciation of the volume and value of Muslim markets. However, there are challenges to overcome if the prospects for future growth are to be fully realized.

This chapter critically focuses on Islamophobic practices that are embedded in travel and tourism environments. Muslims, especially those journeying to other Western nations, are finding that their freedom of movement is restricted within environments perceived to be hostile, particularly in the context of post-September 11. The premise of this chapter is to illustrate the role of travel and tourism in continuing to reinforce Islamophobic attitudes of the West to Muslims worldwide. Importantly, the discussion critically highlights ways in which religious abhorrence, orientalist perspectives, ethnic detestation, and xenophobic intolerance significantly affect tourism experiences. These factors marginalize communities from appreciating the global attributes of tourism, especially elements that express the importance of cosmopolitan forms of citizenship.

Islam began in western Arabia with the preaching of Prophet Muhammad (ca. 570–632 CE) and has since spread through expansion, economic trade, missionaries, and migration. CE is an abbreviation of Common Era and is the system used in this book. In this system for recording dates, 2009 CE represents 1430 after Hegira (abbreviated as AH). During his life, Mohammad was able to unite virtually the whole of the Arabian Peninsula under Islam. After his death, Islam expanded north into Syria (636 CE), east into Persia and beyond (636 CE), and west into Egypt (640 CE), and then into Spain (711 CE). Dissention about the procedure for choice of the Muslim leader (caliph) led to the proclamation of a rival caliph in Damascus in 661 and the establishment of the Shia faith (Donner 2004). Islam arrived in the area known today as Pakistan in 711 when the Umayyad dynasty sent a Muslim Arab army that conquered the northwestern part of Indus Valley from Kashmir to the Arabian Sea (Esposito and Donner 1999). Today, the majority of Muslims worldwide are Sunni but Shia Muslims constitute the majority of the population in Iran as well as are significant minorities in Pakistan, India, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

China is primarily a nonreligious country with less than 10% of people following Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism, or other religions. Two major communication paths, the land and sea Silk Roads, directly affected the distribution and development of Muslim tourism and attractions. The combination of Islam with local custom and culture is a unique feature in China, and contributes to its development as a form of ethnic rather than religious tourism. As a result, research in China focuses on ethnic product development, minority sports and anthropological tourism, themed events, and intangible cultural heritage.

This chapter discusses about tourism in Iran, an old civilization and a theocratic country where Islam is a dominant force. The majority of the people in Iran are Shia Muslims. References are made to conditions in Iran, its tourism industry, and the role of Islam in tourism and society. It is followed by discussion of Shia pilgrimage features. The findings show that while tourism has great potential in Iran, which is renowned for its diversity of attractions, tourism development is, however, constrained by several factors that limit the industry's contribution to economic growth.

Purpose – This research aimed to identify the ideal concept of tourism development in Aceh Singkil, Indonesia, and to explain how the application of religious tourism is based on the society as a community. The community included three parties, namely, government, community, and private.

Methodology – For this research, both a qualitative approach and a phenomenological method were used to get the accurate results. Although the recent method used was a qualitative research approach, the data were discovered through three instruments: observation, interview, and documentation. Observation involved observing a variety of tourism activities in the field study as well as informants. While the interview was conducted by participant method, the data found were familiar without being engineered by the informant.

Finding – Aceh Singkil is one of the areas in Aceh Province that has good tourism potential including natural beauty resources, geographical location close to any district, and a diverse of community culture. However, the local government does not have ideal concepts to develop these resources. The pattern of development is still done in traditional ways without the involvement of private parties and the community. The local community is only used as an object of tourism activity and its existence is not so obviously involved. As a result, tourism in Aceh Singkil has no direction of development. Based on this research, it was found that the relevant tourism concepts to be developed in Aceh Singkil are based on religious tourism (Halal Tour), as Halal Tourism is a reflection of the culture of the Aceh Singkil community.

Research Limitations – This research has limitations on non-specific religious tourism and limited quantitative data as well as a vast range of research areas.

Originality/Value – Religious tourism research is the mainstay of research concepts in Islamic countries as well as in Indonesia especially in Aceh provincy, so it is necessary to find the ideal concept for its application and become an example for other regions in the future.