Halal In Travel

Fazal Bahardeen

Fazal Bahardeen is an Entrepreneur in the Muslim Lifestyle & Travel Space. He founded CrescentRating in 2008, along with the world’s first rating system to rate travel & tourism services for their Muslim friendliness. Currently, he overlooks three leading brands in the Halal travel segment; CrescentRating, HalalTrip and Muslim Travel,Warehouse. Prior to this, he held senior management roles at Alcatel-Lucent, based in Europe & Asia.

Atikah Amalina

Passionate about giving voice and agency to women, and living a mindful and purposeful life,Atikah seeks to inspire others to live focusing on purpose, authenticity, and giving back tosociety. Through her blog www.thetudungtraveller.com and Instagram account, she writes the story of the human spirit, her solo travels, and social advocacy, particularly from her lensas a Malay/Muslim woman. As the Vice-President of The Codette Project, she supports young minority

Zulkifly Md Said

Zulkifly Md Said is the Director General of Islamic Tourism Centre under the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Malaysia. He leads the Centre’s role as an advisory body in matters pertaining to Islamic tourism, as well as complementing and supplementing the functions of the Ministry. He has served at the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board’s Northern Region office in Penang, Malaysia and at the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board’s overseas offices in Hong Kong, Bangkok

Raudha Zaini

Raudha Zaini is the Marketing Manager of HalalTrip – a leading global community platform for Muslim travelers. She leads and manages projects with partners and International Tourism Boards in destination marketing and campaigns. Her aim is to translate her passion for travel as a millennial into innovative products that offer useful and unique experiences to all Muslim travelers.

Mamoun Hmedan

Mamoun Hmedan joined Wego in 2013 as Manager, Media Sales for MENA, playing a pivotal role in establishing Wego’s media business, while launching Wego’s Private Advertising Marketplace.Promoted to General Manager in April 2014, Hmedan continued to scale the media business while developing key commercial partnerships. In 2015, he assumed the position of Managing Director, Wego MENA and India, helming a growing commercial team from Wego’s Dubai HQ.

Shinya Yokoyama

Halal Media Japan is Japan’s Halal leading portal site. Yoko-san has been helping SMEs to develop overseas business since 1992. He holds MBA degree from Kenichi Ohmae Graduate School of Business and awarded encouragement award for his work titled “Management Strategy for Japanese SMEs in Halal Industry”. He was also awarded Entrepreneur Honouree 2016 from Singapore Malay Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Ms. Barkathunnisha

Nisha is the founder and principal consultant of Elevated Consultancy and Training. She is a management consultant, tourism/hospitality practitioner, corporate trainer and academic with more than 25 years extensive experience. Nisha provides strategic management/ marketing consultation and involved in human capacity building in emerging destinations. Nisha has been a keynote speaker, panellist, presenter and guest lecturer at conferences, exhibitions and in academic.

Aliza Kim

Aliza Kim is a Thai-American whose warm and bubbly personality has gained her attention as a well-accepted Public Figure, and TV & Social Media Personality.Aliza holds a Double Bachelors Degree from Boston College, USA, in Economics and Sociology, and a Masters in Business Administration from Denver University, USA, in International Business Marketing. In addition to this she holds a Diploma in Islamic Studies from AREES University and is a Certified TEFL

Aisha Islam

Aisha Islam is Vice President, Consumer Products, South East Asia, Mastercard. She manages Consumer Products for Malaysia and Indonesia.In this role, her focus is to create a sustainable competitive advantage for Mastercard consumer products, overseeing product strategy, management of consumer products in line with regional trends, product delivery, portfolio management and identifying business-building opportunities.

Nabil El-Shafeay

Nabil is an E-Commerce and business development expert with more than 11 years experience in managing sales teams, with his deep updated knowledge of the travel and tech industry he has gained international experience in dealing with B2B and B2C business models working across different companies mainly in the E-commerce & travel industry.After working for big European & international companies like Orizonia Corporation, Barcelo Group, and Expedia

Eunice Tan

Dr. Eunice Tan is Lecturer in Tourism at Murdoch University, based in the Singapore Office. Eunice has been teaching in tourism and hospitality programs since 2004, and is a firm believer in lifelong learning and equitable education. Eunice has three decades of diverse industry experience in the tourism, hospitality, education and service sectors. Her research interests include sustainable tourism, mobile-driven tourism experiences, culinary and heritage tourism.

Q Akashah (Ms)

In her role as executive director of OgilvyNoor, Q works closely with companies; advising and working with International brands to effectively engage with Muslim consumers, as well as supporting efforts by halal businesses to make syariah-compliant products and services accessible and attractive to non-Muslim consumers. Her diverse client portfolio covers multiple industries including economics, banking and finance, and personal care, amongst others.

Raymond LIM

Raymond Lim is the Area Director of Singapore Tourism Board’s Regional Office in Indonesia, based in Jakarta. He oversees the Board’s destination promotion and marketing efforts to ensure that Singapore remains the top of mind leisure and business destination among Indonesians. He has been with the Board for 20 years and pioneered the establishment of STB offices in Indonesia in 2003.Prior to his 2nd and current posting stint in Indonesia,

Razy Shah

Razy Shah is a Director at 2Stallions – a digital marketing agency with offices in Singapore and Indonesia. The agency works with start ups and globally recognized brands for their digital marketing needs. He has over 10 years experience as a digital marketer and strongly believes in walking the talk. He also runs LittleIndiaDirectory.com - a lifestyle portal for the Indian expat community with editions in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Rushdi Siddiqui

Rushdi Siddiqui was a Co-Founder & CEO of Zilzar, USA and Malaysia-based.zilzar.com, a B2B e-commerce platform, and zilzarlife.com Muslim Lifestyle website. Rushdi is among the Top 50 of Islamica 500, The 500 who make the Islamic Economy. He is a mentor for McKinsey Youth Leadership Academy(YLA) 2015 Malaysia, YLA is a leadership development program for local university students. He is also a co-founder of Shekra, World’s first Islamic Crowd Funding.

Riyanto Sofyan

Riyanto Sofyan has over 35 years of experience in the Hospitality and Property Business. In 2012, he was appointed as Strategic Partner to The Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia to develop and enhance Halal Tourism in Indonesia. In 2016, The Ministry appointed him to head the Team for Accelerated Development of Halal Tourism. He also holds several organisational positions including Chairman of Indonesia Sharia Hotel & Restaurant Association (ISHRA).

Imtiaz Muqbil

Imtiaz Muqbil is one of Asia Pacific's longest serving travel trade journalists. He is the Executive Editor of Islamic Travel Newswire and Travel Impact Newswire. He is the recipient of PATA Award for Outstanding Reporting on Asia-Pacific travel and tourism industry, 1997 and Travel Journalism Award in 2005.He has just completed an editorial consultancy project on Islamic tourism in the Asia-Pacific for the UNWT, due to be published in November.

Cédomir Nestorovic

Professor Cédomir Nestorovic is Professor of International Marketing and Geopolitics at ESSEC Business School. He has taught at ESSEC for more than 20 years and is also the Academic Co-Director of the MBA program at the Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain, as well as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Islamic Marketing edited by Emerald. He was awarded the title of “Professor of the Week” by The Financial Times in 2012

Yoshiaki Nakamura

Yoshiaki Nakamura graduated from Sophia University and joined Don Quijote Group in 2000. He soon progressed as the head of public relations, IR, marketing and business development. In 2008, he was appointed as the General Manager of executive office and inbound project leader. In 2013, he was appointed as CEO of Japan Inbound Solutions and engaged in inbound businesses in areas of consulting, education, training and promotions such as Muslim tourism promotions.

Shiraz Imamudeen

Shiraz Imamudeen has been in the corporate sector for 15 years working for leading Multinational Conglomerates. Shiraz currently functions as the COO of Muslim Travel Warehouse, a Global B2B Halal Friendly Travel Solutions company. Shiraz also functions as a Group Director of Akquasun Group a leading Global B2B Destination Management company based in India.

Ven Chin

Ven Chin has more than 8 years of experience in finance, consulting and F&B industries. He co-founded the GD group which launched Halal restaurant chains such as Gurney Drive, Penang Culture, Penang Street Buffet and Mamak Culture. Prior to this, he worked as an Actuary in NMG Financial Services Consulting, Restaurant Manager in Fish & Co and Business Development Manager in Polar Puffs & Cakes.

Akira Mitsumasu

Akira Mitsumasu joined Japan Airlines in 1989, and has previously been responsible in the company for passenger services, network planning, international affairs, business development in China and internal auditing, before taking on the role from June 2014 as VP for marketing and strategy research of JAL's Asian and Oceania region. Akira holds a DBA from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, where his research was on parent and subsidiary relationship of Japanese groups.

Fahad Moti Khan

Fahad Moti Khan is the CTO of HalalTrip. At HalalTrip, Fahad is leading the vision to create the most powerful travel community platform for the Muslim travellers worldwide. Starting his career at eighteen, Fahad is a serial entrepreneur with almost two decades of industry experience playing key roles in startups across the globe. Fahad also runs Technology 9 Labs (T9L), a startup studio and seed fund based in Delhi that has helped launch over a dozen startups.

Umar Munshi

Umar Munshi is the co-founder of EthisCrowd.com - the World’s 1st Islamic Real Estate Crowdfunding Platform. He also co-founded KapitalBoost.com focusing on SME Crowdfunding and is a partner at Ikhram.com / Ihram.asia, a pioneer Umrah-travel marketplace. He is also the Chairman of the Islamic Fintech Alliance, a board member of the Singapore Malay Chambers of Commerce and Industry and is the local President of TDA Singapore.

Shaiful Bahri

Shaiful Bahri is the CEO of ZUU Southeast Asia - which runs Zuu Online, an online media portal that aims to enhance financial literacy. Prior to this, he was the General Manager at DuitPintar.com, where he grew a team of over 20 professionals and helped it to become the top financial comparison site in Indonesia. He is also a Mentor at Quest Ventures, a VC firm with bases in Beijing and Singapore.

Shaji Abu Salih

Heads the Sales & Marketing of Shaza Hotels, the first luxury, halal environmental brand in the world that celebrates the cultures of the Silk Route. Based in Dubai, Shaji overlooks the revenues, sales, partnerships, marketing and communication of all Shaza Hotels & Mysk by Shaza, the new upscale brand from Shaza. After 8 years of serving Kempinski Hotels, Shaji has been with the Shaza Hotels, since its inception in 2010. Since 15 years in the luxury hospitality, Shaji

Carel Stadler

Carel Stadler has extensive professional and management experience in destination marketing and management as well as the event industry. He is currently employed by Cape Town Tourism as Trade & Partnership Manager where he is responsible for the business strategic objectives through the operational management of the various strategic partners, trade platforms and programmes.

Chris Nader

Chris Nader is Shaza Hotels’ Vice President, in charge of the group’s development globally. He has seen the birth of the company and was involved in setting up the brand’s identity and positioning, establishing its values and philosophy, as well as creating signature products ranging from dining concepts to Spas and Kids’ Clubs. With such in depth understanding of the brand, he naturally developed into a key player of the company’s growth strategy, boosting its development activities across the globe. He was also instrumental in the creation of Shaza’s new upscale brand “Mysk by Shaza”. Based in Dubai, Chris’ role is to double the group’s portfolio in the next few years. He also holds the position of Vice President – Development Middle East and Africa for Kempinski, the renowned European luxury hotel operator and shareholder of Shaza Hotels.

Datuk Mohd Ilyas Zainol Abidin

Datuk Mohd Ilyas Zainol Abidin, Managing Director of Biztel Sdn Bhd – a hotel management company, has over him 40 years of experience in the hotel industry which he served 20 years in Hilton.He has made a breakthrough and caught the industry by surprise when he mooted the idea of transforming conventional hotels into what is known today as Syariah Compliant Hotel.He successfully reengineered conventional hotels by leveraging potential growth in the tourism industry in the Islamic world globally.

Dr Ghazala Khan

Dr. Ghazala has 25 years in tertiary education in Malaysia. A passionate academic,she has won numerous teaching awards - Best Lecturer Award for School of Business under the Monash University Student Association in 2005,a feat repeated the following year when she was awarded the same accolade from the Monash University Student Association.She is also a quadruple recipient for the PVC's Award for Excellence Teaching 2008-2011.

Yakup Kocaman

Yakup serves as DinarStandard’s Turkey and Central Asia market Research Associate. His recent DinarStandard projects have included contributing to market studies relating to the Turkish tourism, food, electronic, energy sectors as well as the Hajj and Umrah markets. Prior to joining DinarStandard, Yakup worked at Turkapital Holding (Islamic Private Equity) as well as at Bim Birlesik Magazalar A.S (the largest discount retailer in Turkey). Before starting his entrepreneurship career, Yakup was a business editor at Yeni Safak daily newspaper in Turkey. Yakup received his education in Journalism from Istanbul University and holds an MBA from Marmara University.

Abdul Rahman Mohideen

Joined the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board in 1981 and has covered various portfolios – events management marketing, destination marketing (West Asia, Jakarta), licensing (travel agents, hotel, tourist guides), industry development (tourist guides)Currently heading the STB Middle East Africa office in Dubai implementing leisure and MICE marketing initiatives and programmes via partnerships with in-market stakeholders and enhancing brand and destination awareness via the social media.

Erkan Aslantas

Erkan Aslantas is the Assistant Manager of Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) Istanbul and is in charge of promoting Korea as a travel destination, with the consequent goal of increasing visitor numbers to Korea. The primary area of focus for the Istanbul office is interaction with media, tour operators, travel agents, meeting planners, the Korean community and general travel consumers that live and or work in the “Turkey, Israel, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia Herzegovina, Romania, Slovakia, Macedonia, Croatia, Albania, Slovenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Malta,Armenia.

Emin Cakmakcı

Emin Cakmakcı is the Turkey Country Manager of CrescentRating - the world’s leading authority on Halal-friendly travel. He manages the operations and represents CrescentRating in Turkey and Europe. His goal is to elevate and further develop CrescentRating in Europe and champion for a Halal-friendly travel environment in Turkey.

Dr Hüseyİn Pamukçu

Dr Hüseyİn Pamukçu is an Assistant Professor at Tourism and Hotel Management Department of Tourism Faculty in Kastamonu University. He first began his career as a Research Assistant in 2013 while completing his Masters from Afyon Kocatepe University. He received his Doctorate in 2017 from Sakarya University and later was promoted to faculty member at Kastamonu University in 2018. Pamukçu has contributed numerous international and national research papers (articles, papers, book chapters, chapters in newspapers and magazines etc.) to the tourism literature and have been invited to speak by various international events.

Sacide Tuba Barkçin

Sacide Tuba Barkçin is the Founder of Halal Travel Style - a global entertainment platform for Muslim travelers & modest fashion lovers. She writes authentic travel articles, travel tips, news of upcoming events and interviews with fellow travelers on her page. In addition, she manages content across all platforms & projects with partners. Her goal is to inspire Muslims to travel across the globe and help disseminate information to professionals about halal events around the world.

Dr. Omer A. TEKIN

Dr. Ömer A. Tekin is the Director of Suleyman Demirel University Halal Tourism Application and Research Center (HETURAM). He is also a member of consultancy committee of International Halal Tourism Organisation (IHATO). He has been preparing scientific research projects and industrial reports on Halal Tourism since 2014. His aim is to prepare and publish global Halal tourism reports that involve strategic knowledge for global Halal tourism markkeybet via network of HETURAM.

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About Halal In Travel Conferences

Upcoming Halal in Travel Conferences

Halal in Travel, Istanbul

Halal in Travel, Malaga 2019

Halal in Travel, MIHAS 2019

Halal in Travel, ITB Asia Summit 2019

Past Conferences

Halal in Travel Asia Summit 2018 Singapore

Halal in Travel at MIHAS 2018 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Halal in Travel ITB Berlin 2018 Berlin, Germany

Halal in Travel Asia Summit 2017 Singapore

Halal in Travel Asia Summit 2016 Singapore

Reports Launched at Past Halal in Travel Events

Muslim Business Traveler Insights 2016

Muslim Millennial Travel Report

Halal in Travel Past Speakers