CrescentRating's Halal In Travel was first launched in 2016 at ITB Asia in Singapore. Industry professionals and relevant stakeholders have gained invaluable insights on how they can strengthen their position in a sector that is currently worth billions of dollars.
According to findings from Mastercard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index 2018, the global Muslim travel market was worth USD167 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow to USD220 billion by 2020. The Halal in Travel Conference allows delegates to leverage this fast growing halal travel market through discussions with experts from diverse backgrounds.
Halal in Travel Uzakrota 2020 is back once more since its debut in 2018. In partnership with Uzakrota Travel summit.
he latest release of the annual report, GMTI 2018 features an updated index criteria as we... read more
Learn and discover the latest trends and challenges to emerge in the Muslim travel market. Through a combination of keynote speeches, interactive panel discussions, and specialist presentations, our speakers are professionals and experts from National Tourism Organisations (NTO), travel industry stake holders and online travel industry players who shared insights and ideas on how to leverage this growth market to attract more travelers.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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.
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 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 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 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
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.
An award-winning brand and communications practitioner, 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. In addition to her Islamic marketing portfolio, Q also specialises in public relations.
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 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 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 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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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 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 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, 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 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 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.
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 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 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 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 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. 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.
Rafat is the CEO/founder of Skift, the largest industry intelligence and marketing platform in travel, providing news, information, data and services to all sectors of the world’s largest industry.Previously, he was the founder/CEO of paidContent and ContentNext, which he sold to UK's Guardian News and Media in 2008, and left in 2010. Prior to that, he was managing editor of Silicon Alley Reporter
Ali Akbar Sahiwala is the Creative Director and Founder at Rehla Design, a strategic design consultancy that creates meaningful brands and experiences. Ali's work spans across sectors, with a special focus on branding for the Islamic Economy. Ali received his M.P.S. degree in Design Management at Pratt Institute in New York, in 2015. He also holds an Honours B.A. in Architecture and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Toronto.
Nur Hazirah Jamaludin is the Content Manager of HalalTrip – a leading global community platform for Muslim travelers. She manages content across all platforms and is enthusiastic about making travel accessible for everyone. Her goal is to manage a platform that appeals and remains ever-relevant to Muslim millennials who desire to travel across the globe.
Shinjan Sarangi heads overall growth and business for CrescentRating and HalalTrip. Key areas include, focus market strategies, growth through online and offline channels as global partnerships. Shinjan brings in launch experience across industries such as, Consumer Packages Goods, Travel and Consulting. He has previously worked with Unilever and Nivea, based in India.
I was architect by training, a filmmaker and photographer by passion. My interest in visual arts and adventure has opened up many opportunities beyond what I initially envisioned. Besides my passion in travelling with high level of curiosity, I have encountered several assignments that have sent me exploring to various parts of the world. Despite cinematography and photography, I have involved in producing, directing, script-writing, cameraworks, editing, colour-grading, 3D montage and visualisation for TV programmes, commercial video productions and short films. My architectural background has helped me visualizes arts, graphics, photos and videos into cinematic experiences on screen.
Adnan comes from a background in Criminal Justice / International Relations while Samia has a background in Government & Special Education, together they founded Halal Tourism USA which started helping American Muslims looking to travel the halal way and now has grown into fan following from Muslims/Non-Muslims around the world reaching over 100k+ people!
Emmy Abdul Alim is editor for Salaam Gateway, the global Islamic economy portal. She has been covering the Islamic economy since 2010 when she started reporting on Islamic finance. Her work with Salaam Gateway since the portal’s launch in 2015 also covers the halal and Islamic lifestyle sectors. Emmy is based in Singapore.
Kat Aziz is a modest fashion designer and founder of Women of Haya - a movement to encourage Muslim women to maintain their modesty while expressing their God-given Beauty. Her vision is to champion modesty onstage and backstage while raising standards and collaborations in the modest fashion industry. In her role as Creative Director of Women of Haya, she has helped to support and promote harmonious collaboration between modest fashion brands, tap on one another's expertise, resources and network to showcase their collections and increase their brand awareness locally and internationally. She also organises events (eg. COSMOD), creates retail presence (WOH @ Brunei) and develop platforms (eg. Art Direction, Workshops, Exposure In International Modest Fashion Week) for modest fashion creatives to come together, connect with the movers and shakers of the modest fashion industry and take their businesses to the next level while championing modesty and ultimately grow into sustainable fashion business models.
Hasna B is a French Moroccan social media influencer and a mother of 3 children. After her Master’s in Education and Health, she moved to Jordan. She started to share her passion for fashion and beauty on her Youtube channel. After becoming a mum and moving to Singapore in 2015, she decided to focus more on lifestyle and travel content. With her posts and videos, she tries to inspire women and break stereotypes.
Said Komil Holhojayev is a Halal tourism specialist at the State Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan for Tourism Development. As the Head of Islamic Tourism Division since 2018, he actively works on the development of Muslim-friendly services in Uzbekistan. From 2017 to 2018, he was Chief Specialist at the Center of Islamic Civilization in Uzbekistan, where he was involved in the development of the concept of the promotion of Uzbekistan as a new Islamic tourism destination. Born in 1983, he obtained a BA in International Relations from Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies. He has twelve years of experience in the tourism industry such as hospitality and events management.
Murni is currently an Assistant Producer and works on film projects in the filmmaking industry. She has produced for Chasing Paper (2018) and Adam (2019). A graduate from Nanyang Technological University School of Art, Design and Media, she is enthusiastic about anything visual. Under her own brand (Munn Iskandar), she freelances as a photographer specializing in couple portraits and wedding shoots.
Nurul Ain leads business development at CrescentRating. She overlooks the company’s flagship Rating services and spearheads CrescentRating Academy - the world’s first global training platform for quality training and accreditation in the Muslim travel market. She was a part of the initial team that developed the Halal Tourism Executive Program targeted at top executives in the travel industry. As a Business and Marketing graduate from Nanyang Technological University, she strongly believes that travel is the best form of education and aspires to achieve this through the suite of programs she looks after.
Muhammad Azlan is a self-taught urban photographer based in Singapore. He spent 4 years in The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan pursuing his studies in Degree of Islamic Law & Jurisprudence and at the same time sharpens his photography skills. He shot in a number of different countries including Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Austria and Saudi Arabia. In 2016, he placed 3rd in the Canon Middle East Photography Competition in Jordan organized by The Royal Automobile Museum of Jordan. He was also a top 50 finalist of the RedBull Photography competition in Jordan in 2017.
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