Halal food tourism satisfying growing taste for local cuisines among Muslim travelers

Photo: ASWAN, EGYPT, FEBRUARY 7, 2016: Local man and tourist having traditional Egyptian/Nubian lunch / Paul Prescott / Shutterstock.com

Food is becoming an important part of the travel experience in the mainstream travel industry, in particular among tourists from the top two source markets, China and the U.S. Muslims are also a key customer segment increasingly seeking unique, halal culinary experiences.  With the emergence of several players, including Frying Pan Adventures and Nur & Duha Travels, what opportunities are there for new service providers to address the Muslim demand for culinary travel?

GROWING TREND

Food accounts for over a third of international tourism spend, reaching around $467 billion in 2015. While food is a key component of travel, there is evidence of it becoming the primary factor for choosing a destination, helping travelers better appreciate a country’s history and culture. Although no global figures exist for food tourism, there is increasing evidence of food-centric tourism in top outbound markets.

The U.S., the second largest source market in 2015 after China according to UNWTO statistics, is estimated to have 39 million tourists choosing a destination based on culinary attributes, according to a report by the University of Florida on Culinary Tourism.

In a survey conducted by Brand USA and contained in a report on Food Tourism by travel industry intelligence platform Skift, 55 percent of Chinese tourists who had visited the U.S. indicated food as the most important travel experience, followed by 42 percent of Japanese and Brazilian tourists visiting the U.S.

GROWTH IN THE MUSLIM TRAVEL AND HALAL FOOD MARKETS

With Muslims spending $142 billion on travel in 2014, accounting for 11 percent of global expenditure, travel services providers are seeking to address the broad suite of their needs. One of those needs is for halal food, but going beyond that, there is a desire to enjoy local cuisines without sacrificing Islamic lifestyle needs.

To address the need for food tourism addressing Muslims, a number of players have emerged, most notably Fying Pan Adventures, Nur & Duha Travels, and Serendipity Tailormade.

UAE-based Frying Pan Adventures offers food tours of Old Dubai that focus on authentic food and cultural experiences, offering multi-restaurant walking or bus trails, tasting sessions with food artisans, market visits, and cooking experiences.

Nur & Duha Travels is a halal-certified travel company based in Spain that offers Islamic heritage tours of Andalusia. The company incorporates gastronomic experiences within their tours. “These experiences are outlined in our programs as highlights of the itinerary, in the same way that the visits to the Alhambra or the Mosque of Cordoba are highlighted,” says Flora S?ez, Nur & Duha’s Director of Development..

UK-based Serendipity Tailormade offers adventure trips for Muslim travellers. Its food-centric tourism packages began with a Sri Lanka Halal Foodie Experience Tour and now incorporate culinary experiences within each of their tours. For example, in a trip to Morocco travelers spent a day at l'Atelier Madada, a Moroccan Patisserie workshop where the ladies in the group scoured the market for ingredients, make a traditional lunch and then tried their hand at complex patisseries with local experts.

While the industry is in its infancy, the future holds great potential for halal food tourism.

According to Nabeel Shariff, Director at Serendipity Tailormade, “Once the halal travel leisure market matures, the opportunities to tap into specialist travel areas will always be there. Food, along with history and culture are all part of what makes a Muslim’s travel in the first place. For 2016, the Serendipity Tailormade site will feature dedicated specialist tours, with culinary being one of those.”

Photo: COLOMBO, SRI LANKA, FEBRUARY 22, 2014: Local man buying fruit juice from one of many street vendors in the city / Paul Prescott / Shutterstock.com. Serendipity Tailormade offers a 'Halal Culinary Tour of Sri Lanka'

KEY CONSIDERATIONS FOR SUCCESS

Succeeding in halal food tourism is complex as it involves assessing demand while juggling guests’ wider expectations and requirements.

There are five key ingredients for Muslim-friendly food tours to succeed.

Offer food tours as part of a wider itinerary

Halal food tourism is still in its infancy, with a few players experimenting here and there but with very few trips that are exclusively culinary themed.

Speaking about their inaugural food trip to Sri Lanka a few years ago, Serendipity Tailormade’s Shariff says, “At the time, the demand was pretty small. A niche within a niche market was a challenge and maybe ambitious on our behalf, however food is the soul of Muslim enjoyment and we feel it’s a segment Serendipity Tailormade will continue to market to in the future.”

Given that the market is still not ready for exclusive gastronomic trips, culinary tours should be part of a wider themed trip, such as heritage tours, and constitute part of the itinerary rather than be the sole theme of the trip.

Photo: For Ramadan, Frying Pan Adventures offers a Cultural Walk through Old Dubai

Intertwine storytelling and provide an immersive local experience

Experiencing a different cuisine at a random restaurant is not the same as having a fully integrated authentic experience. In the Foodie Tour of Sri Lanka, Serendipity Tailormade included a visit to the spice market where travellers were able to interact with vendors and learn about the origins of spices and their use in traditional cooking methods.

Nur & Duha offers individual travellers immersive experiences in which guests stay with a local Muslim Spanish family at which they experience local cuisine first hand. The company also arranges for some of its meals to be held at unique culturally relevant or historical places such as an old Andalusian house from the seventh century.

To enhance the experience, storytelling is key in communicating historical and cultural information to travellers in an enjoyable way.

Similarly, storytelling can be an integral part of food tours. For example, the Spanish dish paella, which includes a combination of rice, vegetables and meats, symbolizes an integration of two cultures: the Romans, from which the special pan originated, and the Arabs, who brought rice to Spain.

Sharing similar interesting stories will enhance travelers’ experience, as often food, culture and history are closely intertwined.

The Spanish dish paella. Halal-certified Nur & Duha Travels incorporates gastronomic experiences of Spain as part of their tours

© SalaamGateway.com 2016