KRABI, 15 May 2015 – Krabi province is pushing forward the Halal tourism strategy to attract Muslim tourists from all around the world, says the province’s vice governor.
The vice governor of Krabi Narong Woonchew has revealed that Krabi province has come up with the Halal tourism promotion strategy as market potential from Muslim tourists are now high. Up to 40 percent of Krabi’s population, including many tourism entrepreneurs, are Muslim. The province’s profound understanding of Islamic culture is a major advantage to this strategy.
The vice governor said that by integrating Halal foods in the tourism promotion strategy, the province will be positively recognized from the target group. Therefore, all sectors should prepare the service infrastructure to serve Muslim tourists and to promote tourism by learning from the Chinese and Japanese entrepreneurs’ example of penetrating the Muslim market.
Entrepreneurs and staff in the service sector should serve Muslim tourists to make them feel at home, incorporate more Halal food and products, and provide adequate amount of tour guides who are able to communicate in foreign languages.
The Krabi vice governor has further said that the government should cooperate with hotels, restaurants, and tourism agencies to encourage tourism packages with Muslim tourists as the target group, saying that this will help increase the number of Muslim tourists to Thailand and Krabi province.
The worldwide Muslim population is currently at 1.57 billion, estimated at 23 percent of the global population. Twenty percent of the Muslim population are in Asia, with Indonesia as the largest Muslim nation in the world.
