Elsevier

Tourism Management

Volume 68, October 2018, Pages 423-443
Tourism Management

Halal culinary and tourism marketing strategies on government websites: A preliminary analysis

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.04.006Get rights and content

Highlights

  • This study develops a framework of website dimensions most essential for the promotion of Halal culinary and tourism.

  • Japan, South Korea and Thailand apply similar Halal culinary and tourism marketing strategies to attract Muslim tourists.

  • China focuses more on its ethnic culinary heritage.

  • Japan and South Korea came up with unique marketing strategies to effectively utilize their limited Halal tourism resources.

  • Although China possess reasonable tourism resources to attract Muslim tourists, but it did not effectively utilize them.

Abstract

In the present study, the use of the internet to promote Halal cuisines and culinary tourism is compared and contrasted through content analysis method of investigation of the national tourism bureaus of China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand on their official websites. It was found that Japan, South Korea and Thailand attempted to strategize their country's potential as a preferred Halal tourism destination for Muslim tourists by introducing and promoting Halal cuisines, Halal food culture, Halal food restaurants and general Halal services of interest for Muslims. However, the same was not observed in the case of China, which dealt with the issue of religion as an ethnic issue in its culinary tourism strategies. The findings furnished by the present study accommodate both the perspectives of the industry and the research by providing a framework for essential website dimensions for the promotion of Halal culinary tourism and additional Halal services.

Introduction

Food is considered to be one of the significant aspects that influence visitors' satisfaction with a destination, as it allows for a more fulfilling sensory experience by utilizing all of a tourist's senses (Hall, 2003). Expenditure on food is a major item in the tourist budget accounting for one-third of tourism expenditures and a primary source of earning tourism revenue (Meler & Cerovic, 2003). Local cuisines provide tourists with genuine cultural experiences of the host destination and serve as a core manifestation of its intangible heritage (Okumus, Okumus, & McKercher, 2007), thus providing marketable images of the destination (Henderson, 2009; Quan & Wang, 2004). Historically, services and facilities frequented by Muslim tourists are different from those of conventional tourists with the availability of Halal cuisine being the most pertinent and sought-after choice for them (Dinar standard, 2012). This has led to an increased interest in Halal tourism, an emerging trend in the tourism and hospitality domain, which primarily focuses on the development and provision of different tourism products and services to fulfill the distinctive requirements of Muslim tourists in conformance with their religious teachings (Battour & Ismail, 2016; El-Gohary, 2016).

The global Muslim population is overall large and growing. It was estimated to be 1.8 billion in 2015, making up approximately 24.1% of the world's population, a proportion that is projected to increase to 31.1% with 3 billion inhabitants in the year 2060 (Pew Research Center, 2017). The Muslim travel market is emerging as the fastest growing segment in the global travel industry and generates impressive statistics. In the year 2015, international Muslim travelers were estimated to be 117 million, a figure that is projected to ascend to 168 million by the year 2020, with tourism receipts in excess of USD 200 billion (Global Muslim Travel Index, 2016). To put this into perspective, in the year 2013, the largest source destinations for outbound tourism in the world, i.e., China and the USA, generated tourism receipts of USD 131.3 million and USD 121.3 million, respectively, while the revenues spawned by Muslim travelers amounted to USD 140 million alone, representing 11.6% of global market share (Mayock, 2015). The Muslim travel market is relatively young, and it is becoming increasingly affluent (Reuters & Standard, 2013). The commercial aspects of the Muslim travel market, coupled with Muslim tourists' adherence to the complete code of conduct levied by their religion, demand appreciation of the distinctive characteristics and preferences of Muslim tourists by tourism bureaus and destination marketing organizations (Henderson, 2010).

Overall, there is notably limited research on Muslim tourism (Kim, Im, & King, 2015). The existing research on Muslim tourists is predominantly atheoretical and descriptive in nature (Oktadiana, Pierce & Chon, 2016), articulating the knowledge related to Islamic perspectives on tourism (El-Gohary, 2016) and deliberating the features of Muslim tourist behavior that comply with the Islamic teachings (Ryan, 2016). There is a lacuna of research on strategizing the underlying marketing frameworks for Halal culinary and tourism promotion. Therefore, the current research aims to analyze the marketing strategies related to Halal culinary demands in particular and other Halal tourism and hospitality aspects in general, as described by the four popular non-Muslim Asian destinations for Muslim tourists, i.e., China, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, on their official tourism bureaus websites by applying content analysis method of investigation determined by Neumann (2003) and Finn, Elliot-White, and Walton (2000). One of the largest source regions of inbound tourism to these countries is South East Asia, which is home to a Muslim population of approximately 240 million, including Muslim majority countries such as Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia and other countries that have sizable Muslim contingencies such as Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines (Yusof, 2015).

The limited research on Halal tourism is largely confined to the development of Halal tourism in the Muslim majority countries, e.g., Malaysia (Henderson, 2016a; Zailani, Omar, & Kopong, 2011), Indonesia (Mohsin, Ramli, & Alkhulayfi, 2016) Turkey (Duman, 2012) Iran and Saudi Arabia (Zamani-Farahani & Henderson, 2010). The research in non-Muslim destinations is still in the preliminary phase. Moreover, we chose government-backed tourism bureau websites, as they are the most extensively used mediums to search for tourist-related information (Beldona & Cai, 2006; Heung, 2003). The content of the government-sponsored tourism websites is most likely to be consulted by the potential tourists to seek out relevant information regarding the destination of interest and activities, facilities and services provided (Boyne & Hall, 2004). A destination's tourism bureau website is the starting point of information dissemination. Such sites are designed to direct online visitors' attention to tourist attractions and value-added resources, such as restaurants and hotels (Beldona & Cai, 2006). Therefore, the manner in which information regarding Halal cuisine and related Halal services is presented and promoted on such sites can prove to be pivotal in addressing the concerns of Muslim tourists before choosing a destination of their interest.

The rest of this paper is organized in the following manner. First, the literature review section entails the relevant scholarship on food tourism, Halal tourism and culinary marketing strategies. Next, the methodology section introduces the overall state of culinary and Halal tourism in the destinations of interest in this study, i.e., China, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand, and the content analysis portion conceptualizes the evaluation framework of Halal culinary and tourism marketing strategies. The findings section appraises the use of different marketing strategies by the tourism bureau websites to promote Halal cuisines and additional Halal facilities to attract Muslim tourists. The findings are supported by representative texts, graphics, and images from the concerned websites. This is followed by a discussion of the results with implications for destination marketers, policymakers, and scholars. Lastly, the study's limitations are stated with potential directions for future researchers.

Section snippets

Food tourism

Local cuisines are regarded as an important source for creating competitive differentiation for a destination, as they provide a necessary cultural expression when other aspects of a destination are essentially generic in nature such as climate, buildings and shopping malls (Hjalanger & Richards, 2002; du Rand & Heath, 2006). Studies on food tourism marketing predominantly focus on the destination's food image as a unique culinary asset and a building block in the promotion of tourism of those

Context of the study

Mainland China, Japan, Thailand, and South Korea were selected and compared in this study as these destinations share several features, the most important of which is that they continue to experience increased inbound arrivals from the South East Asian Muslim majority countries (United Nations World Tourism Organization, 2017). China is among the leading travel destinations for inbound Muslim tourists globally (Salam Standard, 2016). In 2015, China attracted approximately 1.98 million tourists

Findings

This section reports the findings of the study, summarized in Table 2, along with a brief account of the 8 factors that inform the theoretical background of this research.

Discussion and conclusion

In the non-Muslim countries, some adjustments in tourism offerings should be integrated with promotional efforts to address the distinctive requirements of Muslims regarding food, daily prayers and travel preferences in general. It was found that the emerging Halal trend was integrated in the destination marketing and was given due consideration by the tourism bureaus of Thailand, Japan and Korea. These three tourism bureau websites published specially designed restaurant guidebooks for Muslim

Limitations and future research

The research findings furnished by this study are qualified by certain limitations in the research design. First, the current study predominantly relies on qualitative methods to appraise the evaluation framework of Halal culinary and tourism marketing strategies. Future studies could analyze the marketing capacity of the tourism websites and extend, confirm and/or modify the findings of this study by employing other methods such as focus groups, tourist surveys, interviews and Delphi

Acknowledgement

This research is funded by National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (grant number 71750110538) and China Post Doctoral Science Association Foundation (grant number 181077) issued to the corresponding author of this manuscript.

Salman Yousaf is a post-doctoral research fellow at School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai. He received his PhD degree in Marketing from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China and has been serving as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. His research focuses on the co-subjectivity of the Marketing discipline, particularly the application of social concepts in the nation branding and destination marketing domain, and

References (114)

  • S.S. Jang et al.

    Perceived attributes of Asian foods: From the perspective of the American customers

    International Journal of Hospitality Management

    (2009)
  • Y.G. Kim et al.

    Construction and validation of a scale to measure tourist motivation to consume local food

    Tourism Management

    (2012)
  • L. Lin et al.

    Food for memories and culture–A content analysis study of food specialties and souvenirs

    Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management

    (2015)
  • A. Mohsin

    Tourist attitudes and destination marketing — the case of Australia's Northern Territory and Malaysia

    Tourism Management

    (2005)
  • A. Mohsin et al.

    Halal tourism: Emerging opportunities

    Tourism Management Perspectives

    (2016)
  • H. Oktadiana et al.

    Muslim travelers' needs: What don't we know?

    Tourism Management Perspectives

    (2016)
  • B. Okumus et al.

    Incorporating local and international cuisines in the marketing of tourism destinations: The cases of Hong Kong and Turkey

    Tourism Management

    (2007)
  • B. Pan et al.

    Online information search: Vacation planning process

    Annals of Tourism Research

    (2006)
  • S. Quan et al.

    Towards a structural model of the tourist experience: An illustration from food experiences in tourism

    Tourism Management

    (2004)
  • C. Ryan

    Halal tourism

    Tourism Management Perspectives

    (2016)
  • D.J. Snepenger et al.

    Tourists and residents use of a shopping space

    Annals of Tourism Research

    (2003)
  • C. Spence et al.

    Eating with our eyes: From visual hunger to digital satiation

    Brain and Cognition

    (2016)
  • K.K. Swanson et al.

    Travel motivations as souvenir purchase indicators

    Tourism Management

    (2006)
  • A.Y. Aziz et al.

    The role of halal awareness, halal certification, and marketing components in determining halal purchase intention among non-muslims in Malaysia: A structural equation modeling approach

    Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing

    (2013)
  • M. Baker et al.

    Dining in the city: Server behaviors, time preferences, and the effect of urbanization in restaurants

    Journal of Foodservice Business Research

    (2013)
  • M. Battour et al.

    The impact of destination attributes on Muslim tourist's choice

    International Journal of Tourism Research

    (2011)
  • M. Battour et al.

    Islamic tourism: An empirical examination of travel motivation and satisfaction in Malaysia

    Current Issues in Tourism

    (2017)
  • S. Beldona et al.

    An exploratory evaluation of rural tourism websites

    Journal of Convention & Event Tourism

    (2006)
  • V. Bogicevic et al.

    Airport service quality drivers of passenger satisfaction

    Tourism Review

    (2013)
  • M. Bon et al.

    Halal

  • S. Boyne et al.

    Place promotion through food and tourism: Rural branding and the role of websites

    Place Branding

    (2004)
  • S. Boyne et al.

    Policy, support and promotion for food-related tourism initiatives: A marketing approach to regional development

    Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing

    (2003)
  • T. Burgmann

    Halal flexes its marketing muscle

    (2007)
  • C.G.Q. Chi et al.

    Investigating the structural relationships between food image, food satisfaction, culinary quality, and behavioral intentions: The case of Malaysia

    International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration

    (2013)
  • CNTA

    China national tourism administration China eyes muslim tourists from abroad

    (2015)
  • CNTA

    January to december 2015 number of inbound tourist arrivals in China (as per inbound method)

    (2016)
  • E. Cohen et al.

    A Middle eastern muslim tourist enclave in Bangkok

    Tourism Geographies

    (2012)
  • Crescent ratings

    Muslim visitor arrivals to Japan to reach 1 million by 2020

    (2014)
  • E. Croce et al.

    Food and wine Tourism: Integrating food, travel and territory

    (2010)
  • D. Davis et al.

    Business research for decision making

    (1993)
  • Dinar Standard

    American muslim market: Business landscape and consumer needs study

    (2011)
  • Dinar standard

    Global muslim lifestyle tourism market 2012: Landscape & consumer needs study

    (2012)
  • T. Duman

    The value of Islamic tourism: Perspectives from the Turkish experience

    Islam and Civilisational Renewal (ICR)

    (2012)
  • M. Finn et al.

    Tourism & leisure research methods

    (2000)
  • J. Fischer

    The halal frontier. In the Halal Frontier

    (2011)
  • Global Muslim Travel Index

    MasterCard-crescent rating global muslim travel index 2016

    (2016)
  • Global Muslim Travel Index

    MasterCard-crescent rating global muslim travel index 2017

    (2017)
  • Gulf news report

    Halal market to top $3.7 trillion by 2019

    (2016)
  • C.M. Hall

    Wine, food and tourism marketing

    (2003)
  • H. Handszuh

    Local food in tourism policies

  • Cited by (108)

    View all citing articles on Scopus

    Salman Yousaf is a post-doctoral research fellow at School of Management, Fudan University, Shanghai. He received his PhD degree in Marketing from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, Dalian, China and has been serving as an Assistant Professor of Marketing at Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. His research focuses on the co-subjectivity of the Marketing discipline, particularly the application of social concepts in the nation branding and destination marketing domain, and the contemporariness of religious beliefs and their practicability and relevance in the development of theoretical models of marketing and ethnic tourism. His research work has appeared in leading international journals.

    Xiucheng Fan is a professor and the director of The Center for Service Marketing and Management at School of Management, Fudan University, China. His research interests include service marketing, relationship marketing, and brand management. His work has appeared in Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Service Management, Journal of Consumer Marketing, etc.

    View full text