Indonesia Holds World’s First Sharia Tourism Conference
First Sharia Tourism Conference
Indonesian sharia tourism potential is not only for foreign markets. Also the potential of local tourists is large and continues to increase.
Indonesia this year was chosen as the host of the international sharia tourism conference to be held in Jakarta,, June 2-3, 2014. The conference entitled “The 1st OIC International Forum on Islamic Tourism (OIFIT 2014) will be attended by tourism ministers from countries member of the Islamic Organization (OIC / OIC).
In this meeting, Islamic countries will discuss and explore the potential of sharia tourism which is predicted to reach US $ 2.47 trillion in 2018. World Muslim tourists continue to increase every year, so that tourism needs that are friendly for Muslim travelers are getting bigger.
Deputy Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia, Sapta Nirwandar, in an official statement received by Dream.co.id presented a Thomson Reuters report in the State of the Global Islamic Economy (2013) which cited the world’s total Muslim expenditure for halal food and lifestyle (lifestyle ) reached US $ 1.62 trillion in 2012. This figure is predicted to reach US $ 2.47 trillion in 2018.
In line with this, the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion and Public Life revealed that the world’s Muslim population is expected to continue to grow from 1.6 billion or around 23.4 percent of the world’s population of 6.9 billion in 2010 to around 2.2 billion or around 26.4 percent of the world’s total population of 8.3 billion in 2030. The annual average population growth of Muslims is 1.5 percent.
The international sharia tourism conference agreed to be named “the 1st OIC International Forum on Islamic Tourism” was the first to be held in the world. This was a follow-up to the meeting of the Ministers of Tourism of OIC member countries in Banjul, Gambia on December 6, 2013.
In the meeting initiated a forum that would discuss the development of Sharia Tourism among OIC member countries.
“The proposal to discuss the importance of Sharia Tourism in supporting global tourism has received approval from the majority of members of the congregation who at the same time agreed to the place of implementation carried out in Indonesia in 2014,” said Sapta. For Indonesia, the potential of sharia tourism is not only for foreign markets, but also the potential of large and increasing local tourists. According to data from the Ministry of Tourism & Creative Economy, in 2011 there were around 239 million local tourist movements with expenditures of around Rp. 138 trillion. Whereas in 2012 there were around 245 million tourist movements, if 88.1 percent of those traveling were Muslim residents, there would be around 215 million movements with an estimated expenditure of US $ 129.37 billion or around Rp. 142.3 trillion.