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This study focusses on the underlying needs of Muslims to adhere to the tenets of their religion and to guide their behaviours accordingly. These requirements, for the purpose of travelling, constitute halal tourism. As Muslim-minority nations, such as Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, began to market their own brands of halal tourism, there are concerns of whether their current practices are able to meet the requirements of Muslim travellers. Thus, this study aims to understand the main needs and concerns of Muslim travellers when they visit Muslim-minority countries.

Interviews were conducted on selected Muslim travellers who recently visited one of the following destinations, Japan, South Korea or Taiwan. Applying the process theory of travel, service marketing perspective and Muslim religious needs, the study’s conceptual framework served as the basis for crafting interview questions, selecting the participants and explaining the findings.

Muslim travellers are mostly concerned with the need to perform daily prayers and to find halal food at the point of need, and willing to conduct extensive research on the destination prior to their visit. Muslim travellers’ experiences in these Muslim-minority countries are generally met with their expectations, although further socialisation with the locals is needed to induce greater overall satisfaction with the destinations.

Understanding the current practices of halal tourism is critical so that improvements can be implemented in the industry.

Key preparations, expectations, actual experiences in the destinations and reflections of Muslim travellers provide in-depth insights into their needs and concerns when travelling in Muslim-minority countries. The emergent religion-based dimensions in service experience, such as availability of social agents and halal food at the point of need, extend the conceptualisation of perishability and heterogeneity in service marketing literature.

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.

This study aims to explore the perception among the tourism stakeholders about Halal tourism competitiveness, challenges and opportunities in Aceh, a Sharia-law tourism destination.

This study adopted the qualitative research method and used in-depth interviews with purposively selected 13 Halal tourism stakeholders in Aceh.

This study found that the Indonesian Government has aggressively promoted Aceh as one of its main Halal tourist destinations. Despite its popularity in the growing and lucrative Muslim market, the understanding of Halal tourism in Aceh among its stakeholders is still at its infancy level. Besides, although Aceh is a Muslim-majority region, its Halal facilities and services, especially the Halal certification for their foodservice industry, are still lacking compared to their neighbouring competitors.

This study confirms the scarcity of stakeholder understanding and support challenged and undermined Aceh’s Halal tourism competitiveness. As such, this study sheds light on the original insight that stakeholders’ limited comprehension and backing can hinder Aceh’s Halal tourism competitiveness.

This study aims to investigate the opinion of a group of informants in Seoul – South Korea’s foremost destination – on the possibility of developing a halal tourism policy that is closer to the wishes of Muslim customers, which is also in line with Islamic principles.

This research investigated the perceptions of 17 key informants. The data was conducted through interview about the possibility of developing an industry that is more in line with the lifestyle of Muslim tourists and more in line with halal criteria.

This study shows that the idea is quite attractive, especially among Seoul tourism industry players and even the South Korean Government itself. Although the potential for halal tourism is recognized, its development is currently divided into three groups, namely, groups that support the development of the policy, groups that reject and groups who do not care about it.

The research in this paper shows further developments from the studies that have been conducted in Djerba, Tunisia, that halal tourism carried out in Seoul, South Korea, has become a priority for the government through agencies/institutions/communities related to the halal industry.

Muslim tourists participating in halal tourism activities represent a valuable niche market for global tourism industry. The purpose of this study is to clarify the concepts of halal tourism and Islamic tourism and to draw attention to some conceptual and practical challenges in the halal tourism industry.

The paper is based on a critical assessment of the literature in this field. To differentiate the concepts and to discuss practical and conceptual challenges, the authors found some references by reviewing the existing definitions in related literature and the primary source of the concepts which is Holy Book of Islam, Quran.

The terms “intention” and “Islamic motivation” can be used to differentiate Islamic tourism and halal tourism. The authors suggest calling hotels that provide good and services in halal tourism industry as “halal hotels” and tourists as “Muslim tourists”. One of the leading practical challenges in halal tourism is having lack of halal standards, especially for hotels. As the way Muslims understand and adapt their lives to Islam is quite different, which means this market is not homogenous, the authors suggest that halal hotels should be scaled through different qualifications in different countries.

This study is based on literature review, and it lacks primary research.

Current paper stresses the need for consistent use of Islamic-related tourism terms in industry. Hotel companies should have halal certifications that will provide assurance to customers. It is highly important for hotel companies to inform their target guests about the location of hotel before arriving at hotel. This is because halal hotels and other hotels are usually located in resort destination, especially in Turkey.

This paper is one of the leading papers that differentiates Islamic tourism and halal tourism concepts. It also provides several conceptual and practical issues in halal tourism industry.

This paper aims to explore the effect of three destination competitiveness attributes: core resources and attractors, supporting factors and destination management on the tourist perceived behavioral control, perceived value, trust and tourists’ intention to visit halal tourism destination in Indonesia.

Quantitative data is collected by conducting an online survey. Using data from 244 Muslim respondents in Indonesia, this study applies a partial least square-structural equation modeling to test and estimate relationships among variables.

The results show that perceived behavioral control, perceived value and trust directly influences the intention to visit halal tourism. Subsequently, supporting factors also directly affect the intention to visit halal tourism, whereas the other attributes of destination competitiveness that is core resources and attractors and destination management have an indirect relationship or act as mediating variable to the intention. Destination management performs as a driving force of intention to visit halal tourism through the three variables, namely, perceived behavioral control, perceived value and trust. Meanwhile, core resources and attractors only have an indirect relationship through trust.

There are limitations of the data collection, the respondent of the survey in this study is Muslim tourist, for wider range of region the study should also be conduct not only for Muslim respondent but also non-Muslim respondent to get comprehensive data of halal tourism market in Indonesia.

This study provides insights to the government and stakeholders about domestic tourist intentions toward halal tourism destinations. This study also makes some recommendations for elements that can be used to increase tourist acknowledgement of halal tourism, acquire the domestic tourist market and increase state revenue through halal tourism.

This study has substantial implications; halal tourism in Indonesia has a promising economic future. The tourism industry is not only intended to increase government revenue but has also contributed to environmental sustainability. The study reveals the significance of destination management in halal tourism. Hence, to make Indonesia a leading country in halal tourism, Indonesia needs to fulfill the tourism destination competitiveness among others to implement sustainable tourism and enhance the infrastructure, promotion, services and environmental aspects.

This study offers a framework model related to halal tourism focus on destination competitiveness as part of the knowledge contributions. Besides, the findings of the study can be the references for the stakeholders to take any strategic decision with regards to attract tourists’ intention to visit halal tourism destinations.

Islamic attributes and activities need to be developed in compliance with the halal concept to attract potential Muslim tourists and ensure the success of halal tourism. Although the literature shows that many factors can influence the success of halal tourism, a complete picture of the success factors of halal tourism in a city is still very limited. As such, this explorative study aims to examine stakeholders’ perspectives regarding the antecedents of halal tourism success and the benefits of halal tourism for the city.

Qualitative system dynamics modeling was used for this study, and Makassar (a successful halal tourism city) was considered as the basis for the study. A causal loop diagram (CLD) of halal tourism was developed using the group model building technique to elicit stakeholders’ knowledge and assumptions. Network analysis and feedback loop analysis were used to identify the driving factors of successful halal tourism.

Two factors need to be taken into account by halal tourism stakeholders in the city: support from the central and local government and improving and maintaining potential tourists’ perceptions of the city. There are four benefits of halal tourism success for the city: an increase in the number of micro-, small- and medium-sized halal businesses in the city, increased support from the central and local government to further develop halal tourism infrastructure in the city, increased word-of-mouth promotion of Makassar as a tourism destination and a decrease in the price of halal tourism components (e.g. food and accommodation).

The resulting CLD shows the interlinkage between political, societal and economical factors that could influence the success of halal tourism development. In particular, the findings show how governments and tourism stakeholders need to promote halal tourism socialization in the community and improve the public perception of this type of tourism. Therefore, the findings can help destination stakeholders and tourism developers in other cities develop halal tourism potential.

Halal and Islamic tourism is gaining attention in the tourism literature in recent years. This study uses bibliometric analytical techniques to explore all the publications indexed in the Scopus database in the broad subject of Halal and Islamic tourism from 2004 to 2021.

The authors found 238 publications that fit the function, subject and set criteria. The papers were analysed in terms of publication by knowledge area, number of studies published every year, contribution by countries, number of authors and most influential journals. VOS viewer was used to perform a visual analysis on co-occurrence of keywords and document citations.

According to the findings, the Scopus database includes 151 (34.40%) documents on business, management and accounting, and 89 (20.27%) documents on social science. It was reported that 29 documents were published in 2018, followed by 54 documents in 2019 and 56 documents in 2021. Malaysia has contributed 86 documents on Islamic tourism, whereas Indonesia has contributed 64 documents. The paper also discusses other interesting findings.

The bibliometric analysis carried out was confined to Scopus data. Other national and international databases were not taken into account for this research.

Between 2004 and 2021, this study examined relevant studies on Halal and Islamic tourism. The study presents a concise review of the literature accessible to researchers working in this area and provides recommendations for future research.

The aim of this conceptual paper is to define Halal tourism based on the current practices and to explore the available innovative business opportunities in Halal travel industry that could be exploited by Halal entrepreneurs.

Critical assessment in Halal tourism literature is used to define Halal tourism and to link between Halal entrepreneurship and Halal tourism to explore innovative marketing opportunities for entrepreneurs.

New Halal tourism definition is suggested based on the current practices in this field. The paper also provided new prospects for Halal Entrepreneurs that could enable them to start new ventures in Halal tourism industry.

This study provides new theoretical and practical contribution in Halal tourism and Halal entrepreneurship. The findings could help tourism operators, Halal entrepreneurs to introduce Halal tourism products and services for catering Muslim traveler needs.

The growing numbers of Muslims visiting halal destinations motivated this study to explore halal destination attributes and revisit intention. This study aims to investigate how halal destination attributes affect destination attractiveness. Hence, it identifies the influence of halal destination attributes on perceived value, including functional and emotional value. It also verifies the effect of destination attractiveness on both functional value and emotional value. Finally, this framework verifies the effect of functional value and emotional value on revisit intention.

This study collects data from visitors who have visited a halal destination located in three cities of Central Java Province in the past two years (2019–2020) using purposive sampling methods. A total of 314 respondents participated in this study and the data are analyzed by using structural equation modeling.

The result showed that halal destination attributes positively and significantly impact destination attractiveness. Moreover, halal destination attributes positively and significantly affect both functional and emotional value. Destination attractiveness positively and significantly affects functional value, as well as emotional value. Concerning the effect of functional value and emotional value on revisit intention, only emotional value positively and significantly affects revisit intention while functional value does not.

This study contributes to city tourism by elucidating halal destination attributes based on the means-ends theory. The results of this study reported the importance of halal destination attributes and the role of halal destination attractiveness and emotional value in enhancing Muslim travelers’ revisit intention to halal destination.