Iran’s place in future of evolving halal tourism

The group of Developing Eight (D8) Islamic countries will meet in Pakistan’s mountain resort city of Murree next week to discuss strengthening tourism cooperation among the member states.

The two-day meeting on August 4-5 seeks to identify potential pathways to enhance intra-D8 tourism in line with the objectives and goals of the group.

It will bring together tourism experts of member states to strengthen their capacities and develop effective strategies for the post COVID-19 tourism era.

Participants hope it will provide a platform for member states to exchange knowledge and best practices to facilitate cooperation opportunities and to explore possibilities to promote bilateral tourism.

The D8 group is an economic organization for developing cooperation among member states, namely Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and Nigeria.

Established in 1997, it represents about 1 billion people, or 14 percent of the world’s population.

Muslim countries are scattered in Asia and Africa and have their own characteristics, with significant natural wealth and historical sites and pristine nature which can be a source of significant income for them.

If the political environment is reshaped in such a way that Muslims establish "Islamic tourism", the tourism industry in the world will take a different form and major transitions will take place.

Today, the tourism industry has become the third most profitable industry after the oil and auto industries.

The importance of this industry is that it does not require heavy initial investment, but it creates employment right away, reduces unemployment and increases income.

In fact, the job creation rate of the tourism industry is many times more than that in other industries, which is often cited as a primary reason to adopt as a pro-poor strategy.

Nevertheless, about 80% of the world's tourism flow occurs in industrialized countries and only 20% of the activities take place in non-industrialized countries, according to international statistics.

The tourism industry is such that every tourist or any group of tourists who enter the country requires a collection of jobs, including hotel management, transportation, industry and trading.

Hence, it can be a huge source of earnings for Islamic countries, provided that new sciences and techniques are used and a principled and precise planning is done for the industry.

MG