Halal tourism beyond 2020: concepts, opportunities and future research directions

Abstract

Purpose The current research work investigates the concept of halal tourism through research articles published during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of what halal tourism means, while traveling following the Islamic law. This study also contributes to the discussion on its definition and the shared understanding, as it is extremely important toward the sustainable development of this niche tourism section. Design/methodology/approach A systematic literature review of total 47 number of existing literature, extracted from two major databases, namely, Scopus and Web of Science, was conducted. For data collection, the time frame from January 2020 to January 2023 was chosen, which represents the pandemic times during which those articles were published. Findings Although being a growing segment, halal tourism is still at a nascent stage in business research. It is potentially an attractive and niche segment of tourism. Current research work highlights the major contents related to halal tourism, dominant theories used in literature, publishing authors, journals and research gaps for further research. In this line, future research directions are also proposed toward the end of this paper. Originality/value This study highlights the conceptual development and discusses the opportunities and implementation of halal tourism in post-pandemic world. Current research work presents interesting contextual data and presents insightful knowledge in a new context. This paper offers a systematic analysis and provides both an academic as well as the managerial implications.