Muslim Friendly Services in Muslim and Non-Muslim Destinations: Benchmarking

The number of traveling Muslims has increased substantially, and demands for Islamic facilities and services that adhere to their religious practices are growing exponentially. This creates business opportunities for service providers in Muslim and non-Muslim countries alike. Propelled by the growth of this new market segment, service providers such as airlines and hotels have customized aspects of their businesses to accommodate these niche demands. However, some industry players willfully ignore this market, either for fear of losing non-Muslim customers or lacking the know-how to tap into this lucrative new market. This research benchmarked some service providers (hotels) worldwide and conducted a content analysis of their websites to identify the services they provided for Muslims. The evidence shows that some hotels worldwide provide limited services to satisfy Muslim needs. Most of these hotels did not provide information about their Islamic facilities on their website, including some hotels in Islamic countries. This can be related to the social pressure (non-Muslim tourist markets), which prevents service providers from advertising their services. Lack of knowledge and research on the factors that prevent service providers from serving Muslim tourists and little information about their challenges make this area unexplored. Future research should test the research model proposed by this study and identify the factors influencing the service provider’s intention to serve the Muslim market and the barriers. This paper can serve as a guideline for industry players to partake in this growing and lucrative market.