Indonesia Targets First Ranking of World Halal Tourism Destinations

Jakarta, MINA – Indonesia sets the target of first ranking of world halal tourism and being the most friendly to Muslim tourism in the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) version in 2019.

Minister of Tourism Arief Yahya hopes that Indonesia can be the best after last year with the United Arab Emirates was in the runner up of the world’s best halal tourism destination version of GMTI, while Malaysia is still in the first position.

“This is supported by our halal tourism growth this year reaching the highest rate of around 42 percent,” explained Yahya in a written statement received by MINA, Friday.

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Therefore, the target of visiting world’s halal tourism to Indonesia this year was boosted to as much as 5 million.

To achieve this, the Ministry of Tourism used the Indonesia Muslim Travel Index (IMTI) as the working standard for halal tourism in Indonesia towards the first ranking of the GMTI 2019 which will be announced in April 2019.

“We have IMTI 2019 which adopts the GMTI standard to win the best halal destinations,” Yahya said.

IMTI 2019 sets 10 leading Indonesian halal tourist destinations, namely Aceh, Riau and Riau Islands, West Sumatra, DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java (Malang Raya), Lombok, and South Sulawesi (Makassar and surrounding areas)

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Meanwhile, CEO of Crescentrating.com & HalalTrip.com Fazal Bahardeen stressed that Indonesia had a very large opportunity to attract world Muslim tourists by 2020 which is projected to reach 158 million with a growth of around 6 percent. (TR/Sj/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)