Despite surge, halal hotels small part of Indonesia’s largest online travel booking site

JAKARTA - There was a surge of ‘halal hotels’ signing up with Indonesia’s largest online travel booking site in the last two years but they still account for a small proportion of Traveloka's inventory, the online travel agent's (OTA) country market manager John Safenson told Salaam Gateway.

Traveloka currently holds a hotel inventory of around 14,000 since it started its online hotel booking service around the middle of 2014. The 730 halal hotels currently resgistered with the site account for only five percent of its entire stock.

According to Safenson, 260 halal hotels in Indonesia signed on with the OTA in 2016 and 470 the following year.

“Halal hotels’ room nights grew 390 percent and 126 percent, in 2016 and 2017, respectively, and their revenue grew 411 percent and 118 percent in that period,” Safenson told Salaam Gateway.

Growth in room nights and revenues were significantly higher in 2016 as that was the first year halal hotels were added to Traveloka’s inventory.

Most of the halal hotels currently on Traveloka are located in the main cities Surabaya, Semarang, Bandung, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Banjarmasin and Padang, said Safenson.

Indonesia defines its halal hotels as those that serve only halal or halal-certified food and beverages, have ablution-friendly washrooms, dedicated prayer rooms, and extended facilities that include tours offering attractions or activities aligned with the halal and Islamic lifestyle.

The country currently has 15,837 hotels serving halal food and beverages, according to Indonesia's Team for Accelerated Development of Halal Tourism, a body under the ministry of tourism.

However, only two—Sofyan Hotel and Syariah Hotel Sol—are officially certified under the Indonesia Ulama Council (MUI) Fatwa No. 108/ DSN-MUI/X/2016 for halal hospitality services.

Twenty properties operate under the Sofyan Hotel brand and their occupancy last year reached 70 percent, owner Riyanto Sofyan told Salaam Gateway. The pioneering halal hotel is aiming for 80 percent occupancy this year.

Last year, only 30 percent of Sofyan Hotel’s bookings came from digital channels. The company has launched a campaign to push digital bookings up to 70 percent this year.

Indonesia is aiming for 3.8 million Muslim visitor arrivals this year, forty percent higher than 2017. Its Team for Accelerated Development of Halal Tourism told Salaam Gateway last month it will be launching the Indonesia Muslim Travel Index (IMTI) in September to track and benchmark the nation's progress in the development of its halal tourism industry. 

(Reporting by Yosi Winosa; Editing by Emmy Abdul Alim [email protected])

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