Note: If you are a student and looking for credible material for assignment, this writing is merely an opinion of my own, not a proper academic write-up, so be careful.
Today I came across with this word: 'mosque tourism'. For me, it is something new, and I would say that I have never heard this before, - but I am certain that 'halal tourism' is (although it is also relatively new within halal sphere) more popular and widely used in many occasions compared to 'mosque tourism'. At first glance, I would say both are the same, or a subset of one another (that would be mosque tourism is subset of larger halal tourism). However, I cannot made that conclusion so quickly without looking into the facts. Now let us chunk down these two terminologies into these theories: -
Theory 1: Mosque tourism as part of Halal tourism
Halal tourism, by itself an emerging niche within halal sphere or halal ecosystem that predominantly and traditionally focused on food or other consumer products. To date, there is no halal tourism standard per se (at least in Malaysia), but there is a standard for Muslim-friendly hospitality-MS2610. The standard do not use the word 'halal' but instead using 'Muslim-friendly'. Does this differs too? Well, according to Wong Hua Siong (2021), he posits that both halal tourism and muslim-friendly are the same and as one sector in tourism industry. Going back to the theory, author Wong Hua Siong (2021) also noted that mosque tourism is considered as an emerging trend under halal tourism.
Theory 2: Mosque tourism as stand-alone concept
This second theory holds that mosque tourism concept is distant than halal certification circle, but refers to the concept of mosque as the attraction of tourists (rather than the needs for other halal aspect to be emphasized).
to be continued...
