Abstract:

Halal tourism is a part of tourism industry which is based on Islamic Principles and addressed to the Muslim tourist. The potency of Halal tourism is very broad to be developed, because the growth of Muslim populations is rapidly increased. Indonesia is one of the biggest country with majority of its population is Muslim, therefore human resources and natural resources has very good potential to be part of the Halal tourism industry. But the fact is Indonesia has not been optimized the potential of human resources and natural resources as well as neighboring countries carried out. This paper will discuss the reasons of the importance of developing Halal tourism, and the factors influencing the success of developing Halal tourism in Indonesia, and also the optimization strategies which can be adopted by the government so that the Halal tourism industry in Indonesia has a sustainable competitive advantage. This is a literature study which most of the data on practice of Halal tourism in Indonesia are come from studies done by the Indonesia Ministry of Tourism. The outcome of this research is expected to assist and support the Indonesia government, tourism agents and other stakeholders to optimize the potential of Indonesia’s abilities and capacities to develop Halal tourism industry in Indonesia in order to compete with other countries.