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Fazal Bahardeen

Founder & CEO, CrescentRating

After 20 years in the corporate world as a telecom executive, Fazal took the plunge to become an entrepreneur in 2007. Having experienced the difficulty of finding basic faith based needs as a Muslim traveler, he setup CrescentRating in 2008 with a vision to help the industry understand the needs and better cater to the travelers. A year later, he launched the world’s first rating system to rate travel & tourism services for their Muslim friendliness.

The growth of the sector and demand from the market led to the acquisition and re-launch of HalalTrip as an online platform with a vision to become the trusted trip advisor for Muslim travelers. In January 2015, HalalTrip launched the mobile application for iPad/iPhone and Android devices with many innovative features. In May 2015, he launched “Muslim Travel Warehouse”, the world’s first global B2B platform for Muslim Friendly tour packages, excursions and activities.

Prior to this, he held senior management roles at Alcatel based in Europe & Asia and served as a board member of Alcatel-Fujitsu JV for 3G technology.

03 Jan 2024

Revolutionizing Halal Tourism: Unveiling the RIDA Framework

Introduction Introduction and the Significance of the RIDA Framework The launch of the RIDA Framework marks a significant milestone in CrescentRating's journey in accelerating the development of Halal tourism globally. This strategic model...

21 Sep 2023

What is Halal Tourism? | A Comprehensive Guide

In the dynamic landscape of global tourism, the emergence of Halal Tourism as a distinct market segment has captured significant attention. Despite its growing relevance, a comprehensive understanding of Halal Tourism still needs to be improved....

12 Oct 2020

Impact of the lockdowns on the economy | Interview with Professor Cedomir Nestorovic from ESSEC

Professor Cedomir Nestorovic teaches international marketing and geopolitics at the ESSEC business school in Singapore. He shares his thoughts on the impact of the lockdowns on the economy and, more specifically, on the ASEAN region's tourism se...

29 May 2017

How Big Data is Validating the Ramadan Phenomenon

When you run a website/app, you watch your traffic like an investor keeping track of a stock portfolio. On the first day of this year’s Ramadan, we were doing exactly that. That is when we realised something unusual was happening on HalalTrip....

19 Jun 2016

Six Key Drivers of Muslim Travel in Ramadan

The vast majority of Muslims around the world prefer not to travel during the month of Ramadan. Instead, they would spend the month with family and friends at home in a familiar environment to maximize the observance of faith-related practices...

18 Jun 2016

Understanding Ramadan from a travel and hospitality perspective

Perhaps no other month in the year punctuates the lifestyles of Muslims around the world more than the holy month of Ramadan. In this month, Muslims observe fasting, one of the five pillars of Islam, by abstaining from eating, drinking, smoking ...

08 May 2016

Interview: Focus on the Muslim Travellers at Taiwan Tourism Bureau

In our series of interviews, Eric Lin, the Director of International Affairs Division, Taiwan Tourism Bureau, talks to Crescentrating about attracting the Muslim visitors to Taiwan. CrescentRating: You have spent 27 years with the Taiwa...

10 Apr 2016

6 Ways Airlines Can Enhance the Ramadan Experience

The month of fasting, Ramadan, is one of the most important months of the year for Muslims. This year (2016), it is set to start around the 7th of June. Although Muslims are allowed not to fast while travelling, these days, most of them do ob...

02 Apr 2016

11 things Hotels need to know on catering to Muslim guests during Ramadan

The month of fasting, Ramadan, is one of the most important months of the year for Muslims. Due to the specific needs of the Muslims during this month, they will require some specific services and facilities at Hotels to make their stay a co...

26 Mar 2016

6 faith based needs of Muslim travelers

The profile of the Muslim traveler has often been over-simplified in the past. A few years ago, outbound Muslim travel was primarily focused on a few specific destinations while other destinations did not possess an adequate understanding of t...

13 Oct 2013

10 reasons why travel is a key vertical in the Halal market space - Part 4

Faith based values and needs are increasingly influential in the purchasing decisions of Muslim consumers. This is already reflected in the choices they make regarding food or conducting financial transactions. The same Halal consciousness is...

07 Oct 2013

10 reasons why travel is a key vertical in the Halal market space - Part 3

Thanks for all the comments and feedback on my earlier two posts (Part 1 and Part 2). In Part 3 I am going to cover the area that matters most for destinations and travel service providers: numbers. Halal Travel Market growth – the num...

01 Oct 2013

10 reasons why travel is a key vertical in the Halal market space - Part 2

Following on from my first post on why travel will be a key sector in the Halal market (Part 1), here is how the unique characteristics of this segment provides a sustainable growth segment for the travel industry. The travel “genome” in th...

23 Sep 2013

10 reasons why travel is a key vertical in the Halal market space - Part 1

The Global Islamic Economic Summit (GIES) 2013 is just around the corner. The much anticipated event will take place on the 25th-26th November 2013 at the Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, UAE under the patronage of Vice President & Prime Minister of t...

21 Nov 2011

American Muslim market beginning to get noticed by businesses

With American Muslim Consumers spending approaching USD 125 billion, for businesses not to take a serious look at this segment will not be in the best interest of their shareholders. This was evident at the 3rd edition of the American Muslim Con...

06 Jul 2011

Enabling Muslims to Explore the World with Peace of Mind

Muslims have a unique attribute when it comes to travel: from the time they understand the five basic pillars of Islam, they develop the lifelong desire to travel and perform Hajj. This has not only inspired many Muslims to become some of the mo...

14 Aug 2010

Halal (Friendly) Travel | Good for the economy and brings people together

The recent article "Halal Holidays in the Sun" on BBC and comments on different websites prompted me to write these few lines since there seems to be some misunderstanding about this Halal segment. Although consuming products and services tha...