Title: Islamic hospitality in the UK: build it and they will come

Authors: Omar Ahmad Al Serhan; Nhar Ahmad Alobaitha

Addresses: Embassy of the State of Kuwait, Cultural Office Hyde Park House, 60A Knightsbridge London SW1X 7JX, UK ' International Islamic Marketing Association, 25 John Aird Court, London W2 1UY, UK

Abstract: Islamic hospitality is a recent trend in the hospitality and tourism industry that has emerged as the need to cater for the specific religious requirements of Muslims has grown. This research has focused on a specific business niche in the UK hospitality sector that has not been investigated in previous studies. It also examines the hotel preference of UK Muslims and of Muslims visiting the UK from abroad. The article shows very clear similarities in Muslims' attitudes toward Shariah-compliant hotels (SCHs) when choosing a place to stay. Across all groups, SCHs received a very favourable response from a large percentage of participants. The findings reconfirm that religious affiliation influences travellers' behaviour, which is in turn motivated by internal factors, such as level of religiosity and whether travelling with the family or on business, and by external factors, such as SCHs' attributes, design and compliance with Shariah standards.

Keywords: Shariah-compliant hotels; SCHs; Islamic hospitality; Muslims; UK; United Kingdom; hotel marketing mix; consumer behaviour; Muslim travellers; Shariah Law; Islam; hospitality and tourism industry; religious requirements; hotel preferences.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTCS.2013.058804

International Journal of Teaching and Case Studies, 2013 Vol.4 No.2, pp.171 - 186

Received: 08 Feb 2013
Accepted: 02 Jun 2013

Published online: 28 Jun 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article