The WIAS “Islam and Tourism” research group presented a seminar by Joan Henderson on March 5th (Sat) at Waseda University. A report follows below.
“Muslim Tourists: Opportunities and Challenges for the Tourism Industry”, 5 March 2016
Our research group ‘Islam and Tourism’ invited Associate Professor Joan C. Henderson from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, to give a presentation on the background and recent developments in halal-related tourism industries in Asia and beyond. Coming from the industry herself and currently being based in a business school, she delivered a paper that was both coloured by real-life experiences and clear in analysis. She started her paper by defining ‘Islamic tourism’ as a comprehensive term encompassing travels undertaken by Muslims for both Islamic and non-Islamic purposes, including for leisure. Basic concepts such as halal and issues related to certification were laid out, before she compared the developments in Singapore, Malaysia, the UK and Japan. As the Japanese private and public sectors are keenly preparing for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, a year when some expect as many as 30 million in-bound tourists to visit the country, the importance of accommodating the needs of Muslim tourists is increasingly felt. Henderson’s presentation was timely in this context and some of the questions from the floor focused on how the Japanese hospitality industry will be able to manage the transformation. She emphasised the importance of understanding the diversity of Muslims and being careful not to overgeneralize what is sometimes a personal matter left to individual choice. Despite some technical difficulties, she offered a clear conclusion that Islamic tourism is ‘a striking phenomenon yielding valuable opportunities for the tourism industry worldwide and not least in Japan’.
Report by Shohei Sato
