Welcome to Halal In Travel - Istanbul 2018

Halal in Travel, Istanbul will be held at the Uzakrota travel summit where there will be B2B and travel fair zones hosting 2500+ local and international tourism professionals.

Halal in Travel Istanbul is the next stop in 2018 as we aim to host Halal in Travel in 5 cities across the globe this year. Head over here to find out more about how you can be a part of our event.

From the successful Halal in Travel Asia Summit at ITB Asia in 2017 & ITB Berlin in 2018, CrescentRating brings their intelligence and experience on Halal tourism once again to the main stage. Gain valuable insights on Halal travel from a panel of experts and professionals in the industry.

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Join us at Halal in Travel Istanbul 2018

The Halal in Travel Istanbul conference will be jointly held with the Uzakrota Summit on 12th December 2018 at Hilton Istanbul Convention center. This upcoming conference will a fusion of keynote speeches, interactive panel discussions, and specialist presentations that explore the latest trends and challenges to emerge in the Muslim travel market.

Watch the launch of GMTI 2017 here

Gain Insights on Halal Tourism

Fazal Bahardeen

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.

Wisnu Rahtomo

Wisnu Rahtomo is incharge of Halal Tourism Destination Development in the Team for Accelerated Development of Halal Tourism Indonesia, Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia. He possesses 30 over years of academic experience as a tourism lecturer and also presently serves as Head of Halal Tourism Centre and Tourism Destination Studies at STP Bandung Tourism Higher Education Institution

Shaji Abu Salih

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

Yakup Kocaman

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.

Abdul Rahman Mohideen

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

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

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

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

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. Omer A. TEKIN

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.

Panel Sessions and Workshop for Professionals in the Tourism Industry

Istanbul, Turkey

Hilton Istanbul Convention center

12th December 2018 10:30 am - 03:00 pm

Network After Event

12th December 2018

10:30 - 10:50

The Muslim Travel Market: Shaping the Future of Travel
10:50 - 11:05

Latest insights into the newly-launched Digital Muslim Travel Report by Mastercard and CrescentRating.
11:05 - 11:20

Targeting Muslim Millennial Travelers
11:20 - 11:50

Panel Session:
Going Digital: How Online has shaped Muslim Travel behavior

Moderator : Fazal Bahardeen - CEO of CrescentRating.
11:50 - 12:30

Panel Session:
What’s Next? Developing the Halal travel market in the service and destination sectors

Moderator : Fazal Bahardeen - CEO of CrescentRating
12:30 - 01:30
Lunch Break
01:30 - 2:30

Panel Session:
A scholastic take on Halal Tourism

Moderator : Emin Cakmakcı - Turkey Country Manager of CrescentRating
02:30 - 02:45

Managing a Halal Travel Blog:
Sacide Tuba Barkçin, Travel blogger and Founder of Halal Travel Style
02:45 - 03:00
Closing Remarks