Welcome to Halal In Travel - Asia Summit 2016

ITB Asia, the 'Leading Trade Show for the Asian Travel Market' has established a partnership with CrescentRating, the world's leading authority on halal travel. As part of the partnership, CrescentRating will host the "Halal In Travel - Asia Summit 2016" conference and workshops, sharing invaluable insights on how delegates can strengthen their position in a sector that is currently worth billions of dollars.

According to findings from MasterCard-CrescentRating Global Muslim Travel Index 2016, the global Muslim travel market was worth USD150 billion in 2015 and is projected to grow to USD220 billion by 2020. This latest partnership will allow delegates to leverage this fast growing halal travel market.

Gain Expert Insights on Halal-Tourism

The "Halal in Travel" conference will take place as a part of ITB Asia tradeshow. This inaugural event will bring together experts from National Tourism Organisations (NTO), travel industry stake holders and online travel industry players to share insights and ideas on how to leverage this growth market to attract more travelers. Panel discussions will focus on National strategies on developing halal tourism, readiness of the travel services and discuss the use of technology in targeting the Muslim consumer. The dedicated workshop will share hands-on experience on developing Muslim-friendly travel packages.

Rushdi Siddiqui

Rushdi Siddiqui is a Co-Founder and CEO of Zilzar, USA and Malaysia-based www.zilzar.com, a B2B e-commerce platform, and www.zilzarlife.com Muslim Lifestyle website. Rushdi is among the Top 50 of Islamica 500, The 500 who make the Islamic Economy. He is a mentor for McKinsey Youth Leadership Academy(YLA) 2015 Malaysia, YLA is a leadership development program for local university students. He is also a co-founder of Shekra, World’s first Islamic Crowd Funding.

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.

Riyanto Sofyan

Riyanto Sofyan has over 35 years of experience in the Hospitality and Property Business. In 2012, he was appointed as Strategic Partner to The Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia to develop and enhance Halal Tourism in Indonesia. In 2016, The Ministry appointed him to head the Team for Accelerated Development of Halal Tourism. He also holds several organisational positions including Chairman of Indonesia Sharia Hotel & Restaurant Association (ISHRA).

Imtiaz Muqbil

Imtiaz Muqbil is one of Asia Pacific's longest serving travel trade journalists. He is the Executive Editor of Islamic Travel Newswire and Travel Impact Newswire. He is the recipient of PATA Award for Outstanding Reporting on Asia-Pacific travel and tourism industry, 1997 and Travel Journalism Award in 2005.He has just completed an editorial consultancy project on Islamic tourism in the Asia-Pacific for the UNWT, due to be published in November.

Cédomir Nestorovic

Professor Cédomir Nestorovic is Professor of International Marketing and Geopolitics at ESSEC Business School. He has taught at ESSEC for more than 20 years and is also the Academic Co-Director of the MBA program at the Arabian Gulf University, Manama, Bahrain, as well as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Islamic Marketing edited by Emerald. He was awarded the title of “Professor of the Week” by The Financial Times in 2012, and he recently published a book on Islamic Marketing.

Yoshiaki Nakamura

Yoshiaki Nakamura graduated from Sophia University and joined Don Quijote Group in 2000. He soon progressed as the head of public relations, IR, marketing and business development. In 2008, he was appointed as the General Manager of executive office and inbound project leader. In 2013, he was appointed as CEO of Japan Inbound Solutions and engaged in inbound businesses in areas of consulting, education, training and promotions such as Muslim tourism promotions and affiliations in Japan.

Shiraz Imamudeen

Shiraz Imamudeen has been in the corporate sector for 15 years working for leading Multinational Conglomerates. Shiraz currently functions as the COO of Muslim Travel Warehouse, a Global B2B Halal Friendly Travel Solutions company. Shiraz also functions as a Group Director of Akquasun Group a leading Global B2B Destination Management company based in India.

Ven Chin

Ven Chin has more than 8 years of experience in finance, consulting and F&B industries. He co-founded the GD group which launched Halal restaurant chains such as Gurney Drive, Penang Culture, Penang Street Buffet and Mamak Culture. Prior to this, he worked as an Actuary in NMG Financial Services Consulting, Restaurant Manager in Fish & Co and Business Development Manager in Polar Puffs & Cakes.

Akira Mitsumasu

Akira Mitsumasu joined Japan Airlines in 1989, and has previously been responsible in the company for passenger services, network planning, international affairs, business development in China and internal auditing, before taking on the role from June 2014 as VP for marketing and strategy research of JAL's Asian and Oceania region. Akira holds a DBA from Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, where his research was on parent and subsidiary relationship of Japanese corporate groups.

Aisha Islam

Aisha Islam is Vice President, Consumer Products, South East Asia, Mastercard. She manages Consumer Products for Malaysia and Indonesia. In this role, her focus is to create a sustainable competitive advantage for Mastercard consumer products, overseeing product strategy, management of consumer products in line with regional trends, product delivery, portfolio management and identifying business-building opportunities.

Raudha Zaini

Raudha Zaini is the Marketing Manager of HalalTrip – a leading global community platform for Muslim travelers. She leads and manages projects with partners and International Tourism Boards in destination marketing and campaigns. Her aim is to translate her passion for travel as a millennial into innovative products that offer useful and unique experiences to all Muslim travelers.

Fahad Moti Khan

Fahad Moti Khan is the CTO of HalalTrip. At HalalTrip, Fahad is leading the vision to create the most powerful travel community platform for the Muslim travellers worldwide. Starting his career at eighteen, Fahad is a serial entrepreneur with almost two decades of industry experience playing key roles in startups across the globe. Fahad also runs Technology 9 Labs (T9L), a startup studio and seed fund based in Delhi that has helped launch over a dozen startups.

Umar Munshi

Umar Munshi is the co-founder of EthisCrowd.com - the World’s 1st Islamic Real Estate Crowdfunding Platform. He also co-founded KapitalBoost.com focusing on SME Crowdfunding and is a partner at Ikhram.com / Ihram.asia, a pioneer Umrah-travel marketplace. He is also the Chairman of the Islamic Fintech Alliance, a board member of the Singapore Malay Chambers of Commerce and Industry and is the local President of TDA Singapore.

Shaiful Bahri

Shaiful Bahri is the CEO of ZUU Southeast Asia - which runs Zuu Online, an online media portal that aims to enhance financial literacy. Prior to this, he was the General Manager at DuitPintar.com, where he grew a team of over 20 professionals and helped it to become the top financial comparison site in Indonesia. He is also a Mentor at Quest Ventures, a VC firm with bases in Beijing and Singapore.

Panel Sessions and Workshop for Professionals in the Tourism Industry

Level 3 Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

19 October 2016 1.30pm to 6.30pm

100 Seats Available for Booking

Network After Event

19th October 2016

13:30 - 13:35
Opening Remarks
13:35 - 13:45

Muslim Consumer Market – Can it be Ignored?

Rushdi Siddqui, CEO of Zilzar, will present insights on the rising Muslim consumer market and how it will impact the travel segment
13:45 - 14:00

Setting the stage

Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating will set the stage for the panel discussion by addressing the challenges and opportunities of the Halal Travel market.
14:00 - 14:40

Session 1: National Strategies on Developing Halal tourism

Moderator : Fazal Bahardeen, CEO of CrescentRating
Critical macro strategies for Destinations.
14:40 - 15:20

Session 2: Travel Industry Readiness in Attracting the Muslim traveller

Moderator: Rushdi Siddiqui, CEO of Zilzar
Expert opinions from key service segments in the industry.
15:20 - 15:45

Launch of Exclusive Report

Mastercard-CrescentRating Muslim Business Traveler Insights 2016.
15:45 - 16:05
Networking Break
16:05 - 16:15

Muslim Millennials - What does travel mean to us?
16:15 - 16:55

Session 3: Technology Landscape in Targeting the Muslim consumer

Key perspectives from innovative technology and travel platforms on the changing landscape and integration of new-technologies.
16:55 - 17:35

Workshop: Developing Muslim-Friendly Travel Packages
(tour operators and travel agents)

Training facilitated by Shiraz Imamudin, COO of
MuslimTravelWarehouse
17:40
Close of Halal In Travel Asia Summit 2016