Indonesia makes Lombok its primary halaltourist destination

Empty beach in Senggigi, North Lombok, westNusa Tenggara, Thursday, August 9, 2018. (JP/Seto Wardhana.)

A Muslim travel index for Indonesia was launchedon Dec. 7 at the Tourism Ministry in Jakarta.

Attended by Tourism Minister Arief Yahya,the Mastercard-CrescentRating Indonesia Muslim Travel Index (IMTI) 2018 is partof a series of Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI)reports. It assesses provinces’ readiness in welcoming Muslim tourists based onfour criteria ? access, communication, environment and services ? and tracksthe growth of travel in Indonesia.

The 10 provinces included in this year'sindex are Aceh, Riau Islands, West Sumatra, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java,Yogyakarta, East Java, South Sulawesi and West Nusa Tenggara (Lombok).

Lombok was picked as the main new halaltourist destination, followed by Aceh and Jakarta.

Home to more than 1,000 mosques, Lombok hasbecome a leader in the development of halal tourism. The local government hasshown a strong commitment to educating stakeholders and promoting Lombok as aMuslim-friendly destination.

Read also: 'Sound of Humanity' seeks to putLombok tourism back on track

Arief said the IMTI was an importantmilestone to achieve halal tourism-related targets in 2019. The targets includebeing the number one halal destination and attracting 5 million Muslimtourists.

In 2016, the Tourism Ministry formed theHalal Tourism Development Acceleration Team to encourage the development andpromotion of halal tourism in Indonesia. Indonesia has consistently increasedits GMTI rank, from 6th in 2015 to 2nd in 2018.

“As the world’s largest Muslim-majoritycountry, Indonesia has the core infrastructure and environment that can meetthe needs of Muslim tourists,” CrescentRating & HalalTrip CEO FazalBahardeen said in a statement. (iru/kes)

The full list of provinces with their IMTI2018 scores is as below:

?Lombok (West Nusa Tenggara) - 58

?Aceh -57

?Jakarta - 56

?West Sumatra - 55

?Yogyakarta - 51

?West Java - 51

?Riau Islands -50

?East Java - 48

?Central Java - 47

?South Sulawesi - 30