Muslim Tourists' Traveling Needs And Behavior: An Understanding For Chinese Tourism And Hospitality Industry

One of the new impetuses for world tourism industry is Muslim tourism market. Like other tourists, Muslim tourists also need enjoyment, relax, holiday spending, and leisure activities. The increased growth of Muslim populations in the world and their wanderlusts for traveling has compelled the world tourism industry to think Muslim/Islamic tourism as a new phenomenon. This research study aims to discover the traveling needs and behavior of Muslim tourists by investigating the influence of Islamic teachings on Muslim traveling behavior and identifying alternatives choices of consuming Halal products and services. It also finds out the potentiality of this market, challenges of catering this market, and the ways to successfully cater this market segment by non-Muslim destination, China.The study used partial mixed method(quantitative and qualitative) where 17 interviews' as well as 219 questionnaires' data were analyzed. The qualitative analysis was done manually following formal structure, while quantitative analysis was done by mean, factor analysis, ANOVA, and independent sample t-test in SPSS 20.The study identified six important Muslim traveling needs- Halal food & respectful behavior, Islamic hotel environment, Islamic morality, entertainment and worship, wash room facilities, and destination choice. Halal food and respectful behavior and wash room facilities are the most important needs to Muslim tourists while Islamic hotel environment, Islamic morality & entertainment, and worship are the second most important needs. Choosing destination is the least important factor for Muslim's traveling.The study also identified two alternative choices of consuming Halal products and services- sea food and like sea food as well as undoubted alternative food, where undoubted alternative food(vegetables, fish, and fruits) is the most preferable alterative. It also found that Islamic teachings have influence on Muslim traveling behavior where education, occupation, religiousness, and gender groups are significantly differed by some Islamic teachings but age and marital status groups did not differ with Islamic teachings.Qualitative analysis identified that Muslim tourism market is a big market and potential for flourishing Chinese Halal restaurants, tour operating, and hotel businesses. It also identified eight challenges- lack of enough facilities, limited suppliers of Halal materials, lack of knowledgeable staff, high cost, lack of Muslim chef, dealing with non-Muslim customers, achieving trust, and language barrier for catering this market niche as well as nine ways- ensuring availability of Halal food, establishing Muslim friendly hotel, government's separate tourism department for Muslim tourists, making tourism agreement, providing training facilities for tourism staffs, advertisement, empowering Muslim leader's role for tourism, establishing souvenir shops for Muslim tourists, and smart phone applications in English, Chinese, and Arabic language for successfully attracting and exploiting this market opportunity. Finally, implications for practice along with limitations and future research directions are furnished.