Research on Halal Tourism in Indonesian Context: What Has Literature Told Us?

Abstract

As an emerging field of research, halal tourism has been increasingly grabbing researchers’ attention in
the academic realm. Nonetheless, due to its novel nature, scientific inquiry on this topic in Indonesian
context seems to hither to be more theoretical rather than empirical. By exploring insights from scientific
publications on journals and proceedings dated from the last decade, we came up with a suggestion of
calling for epitomes of more empirical evidence to develop body of knowledge on the topic. Current state
of the art of research on halal tourism in Indonesia still mostly circulates around the concept of halal
tourism which is not clear cut though some researchers attempted to investigate people’s perceptions on
the concept and practices through surveys and group discussions. This paper suggests more research
devoted to empirical findings which seek for evidence on the elements of halal tourisms that entail the
people involved (guests and hosts), the destinations, and the travel management. All these elements are
also linked to the need of investigating local and national policies pertinent to the topic.