A new niche in the Islamic tourism: Muslim friendly tourism

Abstract

Objectives In today's multi-ethnic and multi-religious society, tourism experience has an emblematic role because it can represent a place-occasion of meeting between different experiences and cultures, between different religions, as a tool of recognizing identities and as a producer of communities of affection, shared places and common memories. Analyzing tourism in the Muslim society, we can find a new niche called Muslim friendly tourism that seems useful to deepen. Material and methods This paper focuses, in a first phase, the relationship between Islam and tourism through the considerations of doctrine and the Koran and then goes on to verify how relevant is, from a social and economic point of view, Muslim Friendly Tourism. The work will be conducted by analyzing the scientific insights and data relating to MFT in many Muslim and non- Muslim countries, in order to understand the peculiarities of this phenomenon, with some explicit references to Japan, Singapore and Italy (as examples of different attitudes towards MFT). Results As a recent phenomenon, Muslim friendly tourism is an ever-evolving field and the subject of many studies in relation to the size of this market, the needs of Muslim travelers, the critical success factors in tourism favorable to Muslims and its economic repercussions. A certain fact is its constant economic growth; in fact, Muslim friendly tourism is becoming a relevant business, with a turnover that records a constant growth rate, even if recently hit by severe limitations imposed by Covid 19 on the movement of people. Conclusions In this panorama the Muslim friendly tourism is placed as an emerging and all-evolving sector. For these reasons it is and will be the subject of numerous future searches and projects, that will continue to focus and will delve into this market.

Keywords

• religion
• covid19
• muslim friendly tourism
• economic strength
• islamic tourism