Prioritizing Iran's Competitiveness Factors in Halal Tourism

In recent years, the increasing number of wealthy Muslims has propelled halal industry (halal: permissible according to Islamic law) to provide a way of life including halal travel and halal hospitality services. Although Iran is an Islamic country and has all of conditions for halal tourism but its share is only 160 million dollars, equivalent to 3% of the world's halal tourism industry and in the ranking of top destinations of tourism halal in 2018 is in the 17th position. The rapid growth of the Halal Tourism Market and the competition of destinations to obtain a part of this market due to its potential economic, cultural, religious and political potential show the need to pay attention to Halal tourism and the competitive presence in this market. Since the starting point for genesis of strategies for improving the competitive position of a destination can be considered similar to the factors affecting competitiveness, this study aims to prioritize Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism based on a model from competition model of Dwyer and Kim. Data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire which completed to Internet way by 192 people from the supply side in the tourism industry, including experts and activists in the field of tourism in Tehran. These people selected by using judgment sampling. To analyze the data, T-test and Friedman used. The results of the analysis confirmed the seven hypotheses proposed of the study as Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism. Also, the priority of these factors respectively is "Situational factors of Iran in halal tourism", "Destination management in halal tourism", "Iranian-Islamic cultural/historical heritage", "demand condition for Iran's halal tourism", "supporting factors in halal tourism", "Muslim arbitrary natural heritage" and "created resources based on halal tourism". Halal tourism as a type of tourism for Muslim tourists in which people travel for pleasure and having fun through adherence to religious law, significantly increased in the past decade. Due to the potential economic, cultural, religious and political advantages of halal tourism and the availability of the necessary capacities for this type of tourism, it is expected that Iran will be pioneer in terms of attracting halal tourists rather than other countries. But according to the report of the Crescentrating Institute in 2018, Iran has ranked 15th among the 48 countries surveyed of the member of Organization of the Islamic Conference. It seems that the halal feature of tourism activities in Iran has not created any competitive factor. New destinations, especially in Asia, have realized the need to focus on this market and are competing to become Muslim friendly destinations. It's expected that halal tourism will attract non-Muslim tourists who are looking different cultural experiences as well as. Consequently, considering the appropriate conditions for halal tourism development in Iran and the goal of attracting 20 million tourists to Iran by 2025, the development of halal tourism in Iran can be a practical way for inviting the world people to visit the merciful Iran, as well as the solution of cultural growth, social development, compensation solutions of Shortage of the oil economy and the means of realizing a resilient economy. Consequently, due to the lack of research on Iran's competitive status in halal tourism, present study attempts to identify and prioritize Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism in order to increase Iran's competitive power as a halal tourism destination and Iran can benefit from potential capacities of halal tourism. The present study is an applied, quantitative and descriptive research with a survey strategy. Data analysis was performed through using SPSS statistical software in two sections, descriptive and inferential statistics. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, t-test and Friedman test were used for inferential statistics.
  The data analysis results confirmed the seven proposed hypothesis of the research. Friedman's analysis of variance test showed that there is priority among the accepted factors. Based on the results, In order of priority, Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism are "Situational factors of Iran in halal tourism", "Destination management in halal tourism", "Iranian-Islamic cultural /historical heritage", "demand condition for Iran's halal tourism", "supporting factors in halal tourism", "Muslim arbitrary natural heritage" and "created resources based on halal tourism". The purpose of this study was to identify and prioritize Iran's competitiveness factors in halal tourism, derived from Dwyer and Kim Destination Competitiveness Model. The results showed that situational factors and destination management in halal tourism are more important than other factors and taking planned decisions will also provide context for the realization of other factors. In this regard, it is necessary to support the private sector and remove the rules and red tape in the light to create appropriate security and infrastructure by the government. Iranian cultural-historical resources ranked in high priority, third rank. In this regard, branding of halal food and the holding of halal food tours and festivals, as well as the emphasis on the features of Islamic and Iranian architecture and the existence of the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), have the potential to be used to increase the competitiveness of Iran in halal tourism. Putting the demand condition for halal tourism in the fourth priority indicates the necessity of matching the halal properties, the characteristics of the destination and the quality of services to increase the domestic demand for halal tourism and the satisfaction of foreign tourists. Supporting resources in halal tourism ranked fifth priority. Thus, it's imperative that officials consider improving the political and economic relations of Iran with countries of origin halal tourism, including improving the conditions for granting visas. Also, due to unfriendly encounters with Muslim tourists in recent years, it is imperative that hospitality be introduced as an intangible element of tourism product and a prominent feature of the Iranian people to the world and shape a proper image of Islamic Iran in the minds of people around the world. Putting the natural heritage and created resources in the last priority showed ignoring the more important factors will not allow the full use of the competitive ability of these two factors.