Halal certification for tourism marketing: the attributes and attitudes of food operators in Indonesia

Abstract

Purpose Halal tourism is a subset of tourism activities geared towards Muslim which are aligned with the Islamic principles. As a response to this, many food operators have realised the importance of having a halal certification to establish a better market position. In the context of Indonesia, it is yet to be known what attitudes the food operators have towards halal certification and what attributes characterised those who have obtained the certification. Therefore, this study aims to examine the attributes of food operators and their attitudes towards halal certification in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach A survey and structured interview were conducted on 298 food operators in Bandung, a city in Indonesia, between August and December 2018. Seven hypotheses were proposed and tested to evaluate the association between halal certification and food operators’ attributes and their attitudes towards it. Findings The results of the study suggested that food operators who had halal certification can be characterised by the number of branches the businesses have, the knowledge of halal tourism and knowledge on the market segment. However, the age of their business was found not related to halal certification. In terms of attitudes, the study found that performance beliefs, intention to apply and target market segment had associated with halal certification. Practical implications The outcomes of the study could provide information to entities and agencies involved in the tourism industry that consider targeting Muslim travellers as their market segment. Halal certification could be an approach to facilitate tourism marketing and consequently increase the performance of food-related business sectors. Originality/value This study provides evidence that could lead to a better understanding of the attributes of food operators and their attitudes towards halal certification in the context of Indonesia’s tourism industry.

Halal Industry’s Organizational Performance Factors: A Systematic Literature Review

“…As for the geographical area covered (Figure 2 Supian et al, 2019;Zailani et al, 2019), three studies were conducted in Indonesia (Hendayani & Febrianta, 2020;Katuk et al, 2020;Ratnasari et al, 2020), one study was conducted in Iran (Fard & Amiri, 2018), one study was conducted in India (Khan et al, 2019), one study was conducted in the Philippines (Salindal, 2018). In addition, one study focused on Middle East countries (Liat et al, 2020).…”

“…Seven articles were published in 2017 (Ab Talib et al, 2017;Butt et al, 2017;Elias et al, 2017;Othman et al, 2017;Rahman et al, 2017;K. H. Tan et al, 2017; C. N. L. Tan et al, 2017), six were published in 2018 (Abdullah & Oseni, 2017;Ab Talib & Ai Chin, 2018;Baharuddin & Ismail, 2018;Fard & Amiri, 2018;Khan et al, 2019;Salindal, 2018), three published in 2019 (Karia, 2019;Supian et al, 2019;Zailani et al, 2019), and four articles were published in 2020 (Hendayani & Febrianta, 2020;Katuk et al, 2020;Liat et al, 2020;Ratnasari et al, 2020).…”

Digital zakāh campaign in time of Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia: a netnographic study

“…The existing studies in Islamic marketing have enormously discussed ḥalāl- related topics, for example, Al-Kwifi et al (2020), Awan et al (2020), Elseidi, (2018), Katuk et al (2020), Kawata et al (2018); Selim et al (2019), Vanany et al (2020); Wilson and Liu (2011). Meanwhile, such topics in Islamic social finance have been insignificant.…”

Halal strategies on official government tourism websites: An extension and validation study

“…Although halal tourism is a profitable business opportunity for non-Islamic destinations, its application is not without challenges (Katuk et al., 2020). One significant challenge is to satisfy the diversity of customers' structure (Vargas-Sánchez and Perano, 2018).…”

“…On the other hand, the challenge may also be related to Muslim travelers. For instance, the inability to identify appropriate halal food at restaurants and hotels in non-Islamic destinations is an issue that makes Muslim travelers give up revisiting the destination (Katuk et al., 2020).…”