Volume 1

This article suggests that Islamic tourism be theorised not as a type of tourism but as a subject area that conceptualises tourism as an institutional field in which different actors at micro, meso, and macro levels discursively and performatively co-constitute multiple realities for Muslim populations. This conceptualisation can: 1) enable researchers to shift away from constraining definitions to one that allows them to examine how tourism both shapes and is shaped by social, economic, cultural, political, ideological, emotional, psychological, and environmental realities of Muslims; 2) help situate tourism in a broad spatial-temporal institutional setting where Islamicness is not a pre-determined entity but is a fluid concept in constant processes of ‘becoming’ (i.e., being shaped by other entities) and ‘making’ (i.e., shaping other entities); and 3) help foster reflexivity and critical thinking by drawing attention to the institutional and historical structures within which Islamic/halal tourism research has emerged and evolved.

Travel is a means through which Muslim believers peacefully disseminate the precepts of their faith and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of God’s (Allah’s) creation. Islamic tourism is a research domain that is gaining momentum in both academic and practitioner circles. Despite the growing interest in the Islamic tourism and hospitality literature, prior attempts at investigating the notion of tourism in the original Islamic sources, e.g. the Holy Qur’an, had been scant. The aim of this paper is to enhance understanding of the different facets of tourism as highlighted in the Holy Qur’an. Based on the content analysis, eight themes are identified relating Islam and tourism. These themes are beyond the traditional confinement of “Islamic tourism” understanding of pilgrimage. Each theme represents a novel area for further investigation. The paper calls for future research to empirically study the cultural representations of these themes within and outside Muslim-majority countries.

Over the last decade there has been an increased terrorist attacks on sacred sites and on individuals travelling to perform pilgrimage. Religious terrorism is a type of political violence motivated by an absolute belief that religious faith has authorised and commanded terrorist violence. Religious terrorists often use mass destruction as an agenda to make a politically motivated statement. Religious sacred sites suffer the most from risk of mass destruction. Terrorist organisations commit violent actions including assassination, murder, and destruction of religious sites in order to achieve their goals. ISIS and other groups often loot artefacts from sacred sites to sell them in black market in order to raise funding for their terrorist organisations. The destruction and looting of heritage sites, which are recognised as war crimes. The effects of such destruction are beyond their financial value, when these sites are destroyed, the history, the religious sentiments and the culture of a society is also destroyed. This paper evaluates and analyses different expressions of terrorism destruction of sacred sites with particular reference to the atrocities carried out over the last decade and analyses the motivations and terror philosophy of the perpetrators behind the terrorist attacks.

COVID-19 pandemic has affected everyone’s life around the globe in many different ways. The pandemic seems to have changed the way individuals and businesses work due to the restrictions imposed on travel by different countries. Accordingly, Halal tourism (like many other business sectors) suffered great losses because of the epidemic. Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis, two viewpoints seem to have emerged concerning the crisis among individuals and travelers around the world. Most individuals perceived COVID-19 as a worldwide pandemic and dealt with it according to this view. However, some others considered COVID-19 an international conspiracy led by major powers to control the globe economically and politically. The paper aims to offer a theoretical exploration of these two viewpoints with a view to provide some insights into Halal travellers’ behaviour during COVID-19 in Muslim-majority countries. The paper offers an attempt to address different impacts of COVID-19 on Muslim travellers and also on Halal tourism activities. Scholars are encouraged to investigate this phenomenon with empirical data to gain insights into how to minimize the negative impact of COVID19 on the Hala industry.

The recent development of Islamic tourism, which can be roughly defined as tourism activities based on Islamic principles, has strongly influenced discussions on Islamic economics, finance, and the tourism industry in the OIC and non-OIC countries. Although some pioneering examples show that there is huge potential in the field, there is a dearth of academic research that connects Islamic tourism with Islamic finance. Therefore, this study considers the significance of Islamic finance in Islamic tourism by describing the conceptual framework of market design and social impacts in the Islamic tourism market provided by Islamic finance. As a result, various studies in Islamic tourism emphasise the significance of the active commitment of Islamic finance to enhance Islamic legitimacy in the market, and they began to recognise that the commitment of Islamic finance promoted maqasid al-shariah through the construction of capital flow based on Islamic legitimacy or the maqasid al-shariah concept as a market philosophy. The emerging social impact of Islamic finance in the Islamic tourism market is described as the development of specific capital flow for Islamic tourism, which has encouraged the development of the stability and sustainability of the market through the maqasid al-shariah framework. In this sense, the significance of Islamic finance in Islamic tourism can be conceptualised. Islamic finance has been strongly encouraged to embed the maqasid al-shariah framework as market philosophy and enhanced a specific capital flow for Islamic tourism market.

Sustainability is a global topic that touches every element of human life, including economics, the environment, and social issues. Likewise, tourism is now one of the major sectors of markets where sustainability is becoming highly significant. Halal tourism is a relatively new concept in the tourism sector that presents new and unique potential for sustainability. It has an impact on biodiversity from an economic, environmental, and socio-cultural perspectives. This conceptual paper advances the scope of research into additional aspects of the Halal industry and sustainability. The paper provides suggestions to tourism operators and service providers to effectively adopt sustainable Halal tourism.