Possibilities of Halal tourism in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Tourism is ‘the activities of a person travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure business and other purpose’ (Goeldner & Ritchie, 2006 UNWTO). The term Halal tourism has gained a lot of attractiveness in recent years among Muslim tourists. Even though Sri Lanka one of the best tourist’s destinations of the world has occupied a less interest among Muslim tourists compared to others. This paper intends to describe the Halal friendly requirements that affect decisions of Muslim tourists in choosing the destinations. Prime objective of this paper is to identify the possibilities of Halal tourism in Sri Lanka. In addition to that this study also aim to determine the impact of Halal Tourism in Tourism industry of Sri Lanka and to promote Halal tourism sector. Further it explains Halal Tourism concept its theoretical view and some practical examples from few other non-Muslim destinations initiated Halal tourism sector by understanding its positive impacts on their tourism industry. The data were collected from secondary sources such as Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA), Books, magazines, journals, research articles, newspapers and websites for this research, have been analysed and explained using descriptive analysis with help of the Microsoft Excel. The findings show the positive potentials Sri Lanka possesses to take successful measures to promote Halal Tourism sector. Moreover, this paper provides few recommendations to develop this sector in order to attract Muslim tourists to Sri Lanka.