BY MENGISTEAB TESHOME
According to research documents, halal tourism has been emerging as lucrative tourism niche in destinations of both Muslim and non-Muslim Countries.
For a long time, tourism industry had been exclusive against Muslims for it was fenced by the so called “Haram” activities. However, nowadays, this problem is being solved through Halal tourism so that more Muslims are engaging in tourism without sacrificing their religion.
Countries such as Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia and Singapore have already entered into Halal tourism and are gaining substantial benefits from the sector.
In fact, there is still some misconception amongst stakeholders including scholars in the field that halal tourism is only for Muslim communities. However, it is incorrect as it is open for both Muslim and non-Muslim customers.
According to these same research documents, Ethiopia can be among the top beneficiaries of Halal tourism developments. Its history as a land of the first Hijra and her geopolitical position for Islamic world enable her to capture the halal tourists’ demand of the Islamic world.
To garner these opportunities and introduce the practice in Ethiopia, the country has staged the first Halal Food and Tourism Exhibition and Forum last Monday in Addis Ababa.
On the occasion, stakeholders stressed the need for Ethiopia to exploit the potentials of halal food and tourism industry as the country has geographical proximity and potential advantage to the growing demands of the industry in the Arab world.
Opening the exhibition, Agriculture Minister Oumer Hussien said that the expo is of paramount importance in showcasing Ethiopia’s immense potential in the halal industry.
The overall halal spending is currently said to reach beyond four trillion USD, the Minister noted, stressing that the geographical proximity of Ethiopia to the Middle East and the Arab world will enable the nation to be a leading participant in the industry. Ethiopia is known for a huge availability of livestock resource in the world and it has a very great potential to penetrate the Middle East market in meat and other agricultural export products, the Minister further pointed out.
Minister of Tourism Ambassador Nasise Challi on her part said that the potential Ethiopia has in terms of benefiting from halal tourism is astonishingly immense.
Halal industry is crucial to Ethiopia to promote the tourism industry of the nation to the Arab World since there are enormous Islamic historical tourism sites in the country, she added.
The private sector need to play a crucial role to promote the engagement of Ethiopia in the market of halal industry, she noted, affirming that her Ministry will closely work with pertinent stakeholders and private sectors to exploit the country’s potential in halal industry.
Foreign Affairs State Minister Birtukan Ayano on her part reiterated that Ethiopia has unique place in Islamic religion. As to her, promoting halal industry in Ethiopia will help to promote Islamic tourism attraction sites of the country to the Middle East thereby to exploit its immense potential from the sector.
According to Dr. Mohamed Indiris, Deputy Director of the Ethiopian Diaspora Service and Coordinator of the Secretariat of the National Committee of the Eid-to-Eid program, Ethiopians from all over the world who have welcomed their country’s call will actually enable the bolstering of economic ties and the image-building process in diverse fields.
Furthermore, Ethiopia can benefit from trillions of dollars of the global halal market especially from export market and halal tourism, she noted.
At the three day long Halal Food and Tourism Exhibition and Forum, organized as part of the Eid-to-Eid program and held from August 8-10, 2022, various food products, beverages, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, tourism, hospitality and similar others products were displayed to show the potentials of Ethiopia in the industry.
The opening ceremony of Halal Food and Tourism Exhibition and Forum was attended by different sectors’ ministers, senior officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, members of the diplomatic community, representatives of international organizations, among others.
As documents indicate, ‘halal’ means permissible in accordance with Islamic teaching. Alcohol, pork, nudity and gambling are off limits.
The fundamentals of halal food and tourism is based on protecting consumers from any harm that violates religious principles.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD FRIDAY 12 AUGUST 2022
