Halal Tourism and Sustainability: Exploring the Intersection of Religious Values and Responsible Travel Practices in Muslim-Majority Destinations
Keywords:
halal tourism, sustainable tourism, Islamic values, maqasid al-shariah, Muslim-majority destinations, responsible travel, IndonesiaAbstract
Halal tourism and sustainable tourism have emerged as two of the most rapidly growing fields in twenty-first-century tourism scholarship and practice, yet they have largely developed in parallel literatures with limited explicit conceptual integration. This separation is intellectually unsatisfying and operationally consequential: Islamic religious values include substantive ethical commitments — mizan (balance), khalifah (stewardship), amanah (trust), and prohibitions on israf(wasteful excess) — that align directly with sustainability concerns, yet halal tourism marketing and certification typically engages dietary, prayer-facility, and modesty dimensions while leaving environmental, social, and economic sustainability dimensions underdeveloped. This study examines the intersection of halal tourism and sustainability across three Indonesian Muslim-majority destinations at distinct stages of explicit halal-sustainability integration — Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara, mature halal-tourism destination), Aceh (early integration with strong religious-governance context), and West Sumatra (emerging integration with Minangkabau cultural-religious framing). The research adopts a concurrent mixed-methods comparative case-study design combining 38 stakeholder interviews, 12 focus group discussions, observation at 15 sites and operations, 247 visitor surveys, and analysis of 58 documents. Fieldwork was conducted between January and February 2026. Findings reveal that the integration of halal-tourism and sustainability is presently weaker than the conceptual alignment between Islamic values and sustainability would suggest is possible, that the integration gap is structurally explicable rather than reflecting failures of any single actor, and that destinations exhibit distinct integration archetypes shaped by religious-governance context, customary culture, and operational maturity. The study introduces the Halal-Sustainability Integration Framework (HSIF) and offers practical guidance for destinations seeking to bridge halal-tourism practice and sustainability commitments meaningfully.
Keywords: halal tourism; sustainable tourism; Islamic values; maqasid al-shariah; Muslim-majority destinations; responsible travel; Indonesia
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