Muslims’ travel decision-making to non-Islamic destinations: perspectives from information-seeking models and theory of planned behavior

Abstract

Purpose The present research extends the existing literature of halal tourism and Muslims’ travel decision-making by applying information-seeking models and the planned behavior theory to identify the process of decision-making to travel to non-Islamic destinations. This study aims to identify the views of Muslim travelers who traveled before to non-Islamic destinations to evaluate their information search experience and how their travel decision is formed. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews are conducted with a sample of Muslim travelers who visited a non-Islamic destination during the past five years. Data saturation resulted in 17 interviewees from different Islamic destinations, namely, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Pakistan. Findings Muslim interviewees indicate the relative importance of reference groups compared to the government websites as a source of information. This study concludes some remarkable results regarding the importance of some halal marketing strategies such as halal searchability and availability, halal certification and appraisal, halal at airports and halal hotels. It presents an emergent framework that shows the factors affecting visiting a non-Islamic destination regarding halal issues for Muslim travelers. Practical implications It provides destinations’ official tourism managers with various strategies to brand their destinations as Muslim-friendly destinations. Originality/value Investigating the process of decision-making of traveling to non-Islamic destinations from Muslim travelers’ perspective is limited. Examining the role of information-seeking behavior in Muslim travelers’ decision-making is scarce.