After the introductions by Elizabeth Chin, the Executive Director of SACEOS, Mr. Edward Liu President of SACEOS in his opening address highlighted the growing trends in the Halal food, Islamic banking and other industries. Talking about the travel industry, he highlighted that the halal conscious market is becoming more and more significant in terms of purchasing power. The leisure market alone is valued at more than US$50 billion. Already representing around 6 % to 7% of the global tourism spend.

Mr. Manoj Menon from Frost & Sullivan shared with the participants, the Global trends of the Halal Industry and in particular what the major travel destinations are doing in order to attract this market segment.

In recent years, Singapore has seen an increase in visitors from countries like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar etc. Mr Lou from Singapore Tourism Board talked about what Singapore is doing to continue to attract these travellers and the importance of making Singapore a Halal friendly destination.

Mr. Fazal Bahardeen from Crescentrating went into the details of what are Halal friendly facilities and services, how to implement them in the Hotel's, resorts, attractions etc. He also talked about products and services that Crescentrating is developing in this area to benefit both the consumers and the service providers.

Crescentrating is planning to hold a series of such briefings in other locations as well.