Since 2016, Indonesian Tourism Affair Minister has established halal tourism through halaltourism.id. According to the data provided by Tourism Minister, Arief Yahya, Indonesia has been visited by 2.5 million Moslem tourist all around the world. A Global Muslim Travelling Index (GMTI) study in 2018 predicted that halal tourism trend will increase up to $220 billion by 2020 with the number of tourist approximately 158 million (1). Currently, Indonesia’s halal tourism is ranked 3rd globally and the government has the ambition to dominate world’s halal tourism (2).
Former GMTI Study benchmarked the aspects of halal tourism in 3 categories: Authentic, Affordable, and Accessible. Within those categories, Indonesia has already established 4 provinces spread around the archipelago to optimise halal tourism. The main destinations of Indonesia’s halal tourism are Lombok, Aceh, Padang, and Banyuwangi. In these provinces, halal tourism can be found in the local wisdom experience, Islamic historical building, Islamic historical culture, culinary, and the easy accessibility of Moslem prayer.
Considering the growth of halal tourism and the majority of Moslem in Indonesia, to achieve the top position as the best halal tourism country is highly likely. In 2016, Indonesia had achieved numerous awards from World Halal Tourism Awards (3). According to the review of GMTI in 2019, Indonesia has scored 72.8 out of 100 and approximately 90% service components has been fulfilled (4). However, the government is only focused on the small part of country and didn’t overlook to another potential halal tourism cities in Indonesia.
To optimise the vision to achieve the best halal tourism predicate, the government is suggested to utilise Google Maps and the Local Guide. Some cities in Indonesia hold the potential of Islamic history if they are well-managed, for example: Demak as the pioneering. City of Islamic studies during 15thcentury (5) or Surabaya which is well-known for its Sunan Ampel. East Java can be considered potential for halal tourism since it has long Islamic history with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) as its strong Islamic organisation.
Imagine if Government overlooked in the Local Guide contribution to review and introduce significant places in Demak or East Java. Without too much advertisement cost, the foreign tourist will be interested in visiting Masjid Demak or Masjid Ampel. The government is actually starts to consider Wali Songo’s visitation as the potential tourism in the future, however the target is limited to domestic tourist only (6). If the plan is going to work well, domestic tourist can share their experience of the visitation through Google Maps voluntarily.
The implication of optimising Local Guide and Google Maps is easier access to certain place since Google Maps will provide the best route for tourist. The contributions of Local Guide in Google Maps will be useful for foreign tourism in deciding which place to stay or to visit as well. Local Guide’s contribution will help the visitor to filter choices easier.
With almost 33 million Local Guide and 240 communities around the world, Google Local Guide Program is believed to have impact on the growth of local business. Customers trust reviews and Google Local Guide has greater impact than Yelp (7). This happened since Google Local Guide contribution will affect SEO ranking and stars rating will increase the click-through-rate (CTR) by 20%. Therefore, the simple way that Indonesia’s government needs to optimise halal tourism is by utilising Google Maps and Local Guide community in certain area.
As a local guide, I have been contributed to Google Maps and help the halal tourism growth by reviewing some halal restaurants. In the future, I would like to contribute more in halal tourism by visiting Islamic history site and Islamic local wisdom experience. Started from the closest city to my hometown, Surabaya.
