The Department of Tourism (DOT) has encouraged hotels and restaurants in Eastern Visayas to seek Muslim-friendly status to fit the Muslim lifestyle travel segment.

In a gathering here on Tuesday, DOT Undersecretary Myra Paz Valderrosa-Abubakar said some foreign Muslim tourists are reluctant to visit destinations outside Mindanao because of a lack of services and amenities designed to cater to Muslim travelers.

Last year, the country welcomed at least 6,500 foreign Muslim tourists, and the number is growing annually, she said.

“We always encounter issues where can they or where can they stay. Most of them go to Mindanao, but we’re looking at opportunities to have more Muslim-friendly establishments in Manila and other parts of the country,” Abubakar told reporters during an orientation at the Oriental Hotel here.

The Muslim-friendly tourism orientation for Eastern Visayas is the sixth since last year as the DOT steps up information dissemination with tourism enterprises of their values, beliefs and practices of Muslim travelers.

With the help of experts, the DOT has been conducting a comprehensive inventory of Halal-certified dining options and the pursuit of increased Halal accreditations for tourism enterprises across the country.

Halal is a dietary law derived from Islamic teachings, meaning “lawful or permitted.”

A major requirement for a hotel to be certified as Muslim-friendly is the allocation of at least 5 percent of rooms to Muslim guests.

The hotel rooms must have a directional sticker, a clean prayer mat, the Qu’ran, Islamic TV channels, a list of nearby Halal products, and a list of mosques near the hotel.

Currently, Eastern Visayas has no certified Muslim-friendly or Halal-certified dining places.

As of middle of 2023, the DOT has identified 289 Muslim-friendly accommodation establishments nationwide.

The tourism department said the Muslim travel market will significantly propel the tourism industry’s growth, with projections that Muslim traveler arrivals will reach 140 million in 2023 and, in succeeding years, could reach 230 million with estimated expenditures of USD225 billion by 2028. (PNA)