Developments within the Halal industry for the past 12 months were particularly significant with countries and large multinationals showing great interest and adjusting their businesses to the Muslim lifestyle.
This was the gist of a market overview update by Mr Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of Crescentrating whom recently chaired the 2nd Halal Conference and Exhibition in Sri Lanka and opened the eyes of delegates of the developments and future prospects of the global Halal industry, paying special attention to the Islamic-friendly travel and tourism segment.
The following is a post-event report by Quintus Perera of Asian Tribune.
Halal – the centerpiece of Muslim lifestyle
The 2nd Halal Conference and Exhibition, Halal Expo 2011 was held at Galdari Hotel and the Chief Guest at the events was A H M Fowzie, Sri Lanka’s Senior Minister for Urban Affairs. This is the only event of its kind to be held in Sri Lanka, encompassing the entire Halal industry.
Sri Lanka has potential to be a hub to South Asia in Islamic-friendly travel, says Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of Crescentrating.
The event thus witnessed companies and individuals from sectors like food and beverages, Islamic Banking and Finance, Travel and tourism, education and lifestyle. The conference was chaired by Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of Singapore based Crescentrating Ltd – a global market leader in the niche market of Halal-friendly travel.
Mr Bahardeen spoke about the vast strides that the Halal industry has made across the global spectrum. He said that special focus has been made on areas of Halal Tourism, a multi-billion dollar industry, stating that the contribution by Muslim travelers to tourism expenditure has increased almost five-fold over the past 15 years.
As for outbound travel, the Middle East displayed the highest growth among all the market segments. He discussed the initiatives taken by countries such as Thailand, Hong Kong and Australia in order to ensure Arab tourists, who now comprise a significant business segment that could no longer be ignored. He said Sri Lanka could take cue from such countries, especially at a time when peace has finally dawned and when the country has genuine prospects of being a leading tourist destination.
Speaking of Halal food, he said that what they are trying to do is to encourage companies not just to push Halal food but to go beyond and to educate the consumers what is good food for health and what is bad. He said that in fact some big companies are considering to make their products to be more health conscious, but it is a major challenge as the people tend to eat more than required.
Mr Bahardeen said that developments for the Halal Industry within the last 12 months were particularly important and said that Halal-friendly tourism has now become a multi-billion dollar industry and the Middle-East displayed the highest growth among all the market segments. He said that affluent travelers spend US$ 1,000 per day, the Middle-Eastern travelers would spend US$ 1,500 or more.
He said that countries and large companies around the globe have shown great interest in focusing their attention to the Islamic market, in adjusting their businesses and services to align with the Muslim lifestyle in all areas, food, banking, education, travel etc.
He said that media has started to speak about Halal Industry increasingly and this is changing the dynamics of the industry in the coming years. He said that major research houses are getting interested in the industry and Google has created a search for Halal and it would be expanded in the coming years. He said that companies are searching for how best their products are to be targeted for the Islamic market.
He said today Halal is going beyond food and banking and it is actually the Muslim lifestyle and said that Islamic market is being looked at seriously. Today this industry represents 23% of the world population who identify themselves as Muslims. There are 1.59 billion Muslims in the world and their growth would be doubled in the next 20 to 30 years and would grow to be 26.4% of the world population.
The requirements of this population should have to be looked into and now any product can be Halal, which was never a consideration earlier. Industries such as medical facilities, IT, logistics, financial market and the value it represents to that community must be recognized, with integrated solutions must be found.
Halal food market is US$ 650 billion out of a world figure of US$ 1.2 trillion in 2010 and consumption by Muslims would be 1/5th of the world food market and thus businesses have to change their strategies accordingly. He said that the travel industry and its contribution of the Muslim community is around 40% of the world population.
He said that Sri Lanka also has potential to be a hub to South Asia in this field and said that countries like Thailand, Hong Kong and Australia are enticing Arab tourists who now comprise a significant business segment that could no longer be ignored. Sri Lanka could take cue from such countries he said.
By Quintus Perera, Asian Tribune
March 29th, 2011 → 10:53 pm @ HalalMedia Admin
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