HALAL-FRIENDLY TOURISM BUSINESS PROCESS: TOURISM OPERATORS IN INDONESIA

The aim of the research is to recognize the tourism industry in halal
tourism concept, business process, and dilemma. Authors determine the strategies to
resolve the dilemmas based on the situation of the tourism business operators. The
study engaged with the situations of halal business operators. The data were collected
through in-depth interview with four tourism operators in Indonesia who won the
best halal category award by The World Halal Travel Award in Dubai. The results of
this study found that all participants choose to be Muslim-friendly business instead
of pure sharia business. This business process transformation helps to expand their
market segment to Muslim tourists at tolerable cost. The existing dilemmas by
tourism industry are no formal standard of halal criteria, high-cost business
transactions, lack of sharia-competent human resources, and lack of tourism
promotions. Niche market-based premium price could be a solution to compensate
the additional high cost and potential lost that may occur in case of transforming
conventional business into halal business platform.
Key words: Halal Tourism, Best Practices, Constraints, Strategy