The halal tourism opportunity in China

Photo: YINCHUAN, CHINA-JULY 19, 2012. Hui Muslims on July 19, 2012 in Yinchuan. Hui is one of the 56 ethnic groups in China / TonyV3112 / Shutterstock.com

Muslim-friendly or halal tourism has yet to take off in China but the foundations are there. China has a long Islamic heritage and a multi-billion dollar halal food sector. As the country seeks to engage the Islamic Economy and attract more Muslim tourists, how can service providers in the country best address the opportunity?

HIGH GROWTH MARKET

China has become one of the world's top tourism destinations. It is ranked 17th on the World Economic Forum's Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index 2015, the third highest in Asia after Singapore in 11th and Hong Kong in 13th. 

In total, China attracted 57 million overnight visitors in 2015, of which around 7 million were business visitors, according to Tourism Economics.

Of these figures it is not known how many are Muslim tourists visiting the country. But going by visitor rankings, the top 10 inbound tourists come from Asia, the United States, and Russia. Malaysia is in the top 10, while Indonesia is lower down in the rankings.

“It's a long way down the list before larger Islamic markets are included. Pakistan is a larger one, then the Gulf countries; Iran is ranked 31, and Saudi Arabia 46, so [Islamic countries are] relatively small tourism markets for China,” David Goodger, Director of Tourism Economics, a division of Oxford Economics in London, told Salaam Gateway.

Photo: XIAN, CHINA - JUNE 20, 2012: Hui Muslim man prepares street food on at famous Muslim Street in Xian. Hui people are a Muslim ethnic minority in Xian and run a lively market at Muslim Street / Rolf_52 / Shutterstock.com

Yet while the Chinese are slated to become the top tourists globally in the next few years, especially in spending, China has not pushed its own country as an international tourist destination.

“A challenge is to tailor China to specific source markets, which is something it definitely has to focus on. The focus has been on the other way, with a lot of companies catering to Chinese travelers, but whether the reverse is there is not totally clear, being more geared towards business travelers than leisure groups,” said Goodger.

This also applies to Chinese Muslim tourists. “The number of Chinese Muslims traveling for haj, to Malaysia, to the United Arab Emirates and Turkey has grown very fast over the past several years, and there are travel agencies for this. But for Muslims to travel to China, to discover Islamic heritage, it is still at a very early stage,” Abdullah Guangyu, a senior partner at Al-Sadiq Consulting in Beijing, told Salaam Gateway.

Photo: NINGXIA PROVINCE, CHINA - JUL 11, 2011: Yinchuan Nanguan Mosque is one of the largest mosques in North China with a history of hundreds of years. It has a high status among the Hui people / Katoosha / Shutterstock.com

CATERING TO MUSLIM TOURISTS

That said, there are Chinese companies offering Muslim-focused tourism trips to the country, and moves are being made at the provincial level to attract Muslim tourists.

For instance, the province of Ningxia Hui Automomous Region, 600 miles west of the capital Beijing and governed by ethnic Chinese Hui Muslims, announced in May 2016 that it will invest $3.5 billion on a theme park called World Muslim City. The province will also expand its airport, with direct flights planned from Kuala Lumpur and Amman.

Such initiatives and airport developments are considered key to bolstering inbound tourism, especially as Hong Kong dominates as an aviation gateway to China, followed by Shenzhen and Guangzhou in the south, and Shanghai and Beijing in the north.

“We are starting to see openness in both directions as Chinese travel more and linkages increase, with Chinese airlines looking beyond the region and adding more routes,” added Goodger.

While both the capital and Shanghai have sizable Muslim populations, the majority of Islamic heritage sites and Muslim populations are in Ningxia, Gansu just to the south of the province, Hunan in the south, and the Xinjiang Uygher Automomous Region in the far west, where 50 percent are Muslim.

“There are some 40,000 masjids in China that have been around for over 1,000 years, more than any other religious sites, including Buddhist and Christian sites. This kind of architectural heritage makes China an attractive destination, especially for tourists from Southeast Asia. But such places are not fully developed for visitors as halal tourism is still a very new concept,” said Guangyu.

Photo: XIAN, CHINA - JUNE 20, 2012: Young Hui woman sells shoes at famous Muslim Street on June 20, 2012 in Xian / Rolf_52 / Shutterstock.com

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

China is home to 21.6 million Muslims - 1.6 percent of the country’s population, and 1.4 percent of the world's Muslims, according to an official census, while other estimates put the number as high as 100 million. As such, there is significant potential for domestic Chinese Muslim tourism, in line with the country's development of the local tourism sector.

“The focus is domestic, and it is growing fast as so many Chinese are entering the middle class, so it has been tailored to that,” said Goodger.

However, foreign tourism growth is slated at just 3 percent growth over the next 10 years, said Goodger, “which is not stellar”.

A potential tourism strategy for China to emulate is the USA's. The country recently moved from being focused on domestic tourism and individual state and city tourism promotion boards, to a national level, Brand USA, which had positive results.

“There will be an upside if China starts targeting specific markets, and growing source markets,” said Goodger.

To target Muslim tourists, China will need to work on concerns about halal food following recent food contamination scandals and the mislabeling of halal food products.

A government proposal to draft a nationwide halal food law was recently vetoed by Beijing. China is however making major inroads in halal food and drinks production, estimated at $17 billion in 2015 by Euromonitor, while Guangyu estimates there are some 40,000 halal restaurants in the country.

At a national level, China will also have to address air pollution in its major cities. “Pollution is definitely putting off some tourists visiting. It does affect people's decisions when choosing between different destinations, such as Hong Kong or Beijing, as some would swing towards Hong Kong instead,” said Goodger.

© SalaamGateway.com 2016