WEBSITE FOR MUSLIM TRAVELLERS

A website recently set up for Muslim travellers rates hotels by how far they go to meet their needs. Nine hotels in four countries have so far been assessed by Crescentrating (www.crescentrating.com), with about 40 waiting to be rated. They are rated on a seven-point scale on how far they go to provide, for example, halal eateries. The highest score so far, five out of seven – has gone to the Furama Riverfront Hotel here and the three-star Gulf Paradise Hotel in Doha, Qatar. Besides halal eating places, rooms in the most Muslim-friendly hotels are expected to have indicators on the direction in which Makkah lies and information on prayer times, among others. Mr Fazal Bahardeen, chief executive officer of Crescentrating, which casts itself as a developer of travel and tourism facilities and services, said: ‘Travel is the next big thing in the halal industry and this is an area where there is tremendous growth potential.’ Going by his estimates and data from the World Tourism Organisation, the ‘halal-conscious’ leisure market was worth US$46 billion (S$64 billion) in 2007.