Analysing the travel behaviour of the halal tourist market in South Africa
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Date
2022-11-30
Authors
Basson, R. L.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Vaal University of Technology
Abstract
Halal tourism is a form of tourism in compliance with Sharia Law. Travel within the Muslim community is compulsory, according to Sharia, as a mandate for Hajj and Umrah. More Muslims are also travelling for leisure purposes, in addition, to travel for religious purposes. This has resulted in an increasing number of Muslim travellers exploring non-Muslim countries for leisure purposes. The presence of Muslim travellers becomes more evident in South Africa.
This resulted in a growing need for the South African tourism industry to comply with the travel needs of the Muslim traveller. The latter instilled a greater interest in researchers, policy makers, the industry, tourism bodies and government on the readiness of South Africa to become a destination of choice for the Muslim traveller, referred to in this study aTourism is one of the leading sectors to drive the South African economy and that of many other countries. The recent global health pandemic, COVID-19, instigated global tourism decision-makers to seize all opportunities to recover from the economic catastrophe. This resulted in a readiness to serve every tourism market. Knowledge of Halal tourism is pertinent for South Africa to reap the benefits of the fast-growing tourism niche market. Halal tourism can contribute significantly to the recovery and growth of the South African and global economies. This study explores the linkage between religion and tourism (for this study, the Islamic religion) and presents a theoretical framework for the concept of Halal tourism.s the Halal tourism market.
Religion is a broad definition that shares an interrelation with tourism. This is profound in the Muslim religion, where Hajj is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, which makes clear reference to travel like no other religion. The major destination leading the religious holiday destination is Mecca. The majority of representation of gender was males, the leading role of males in the Muslim community could contribute this. The travel behaviour reflects that the majority of respondents come from families and are married, this might be the high value put on family and marriage within the Muslim community. Reasons for not travelling might be influenced by the higher costs of holidays due to petrol increases and high accommodation rates. The leading Muslim concentrations in South Africa are in Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London, Kimberley, Pretoria and Johannesburg.
There is a need to increase awareness of the compliance for Halal Tourism and Halal Tourist products in South Africa. Tourism product owners should be sensitised and alerted on the topic of Halal Tourism. It is recommended to conduct future research on the topic of Halal Tourism as a contributor towards the recovery and revitalisation of the global economy to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further study on Halal tourism will re-affirm, re-calibrate and renew tourism as a leading, growing sector from a South African and global perspective, post-COVID-19.
Description
M. Tech. (Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management: Tourism Management, Faculty of Human Sciences), Vaal University of Technology.
Keywords
Tourism, Tourist, Tourist behaviour, Halal Muslim Religion, Religious tourism, Travel behaviour, Travel motivation, Marketing