Islamic Finance and Halal Tourism: An Unexplored Bridge for Smart Specialization

Juan Carlos Martín, Carmen Orden-Cruz and Slimane Zergane
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Juan Carlos Martín: Institute of Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35011 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Carmen Orden-Cruz: Business Economics Department, Faculty of Legal and Social Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Vicálvaro, 28032 Madrid, Spain
Slimane Zergane: Institute of Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 35011 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 14, 1-15

Abstract: Since the 1960s, Halal industry and Islamic Finance have grown in parallel without implementing adequate synergies. Halal tourism is a fast-growing sector of Halal industry, and the connection with Islamic Finance has hardly been researched. The aim of this paper is to analyse whether Islamic Finance can play an active role in developing Halal Tourism. This topic has not been empirically researched in the literature. The methodology is based on a fuzzy hybrid multi-criteria method that satisfactorily handles the imprecise nature associated with the information provided by Likert scales. Our results show how culture has a direct moderating effect on the degree of agreement that respondents have over the active role that IF can play, finding that English respondents agree more than Spanish and Arabs respondents. Similarly, our results also show that the knowledge of the Halal concept makes respondents agree more with the active role of Islamic finance. This study provides insights to the main stakeholders, and it can be strategically used to foster adequate synergy between Islamic Finance and the development of Halal tourist products as a way to specialize in a more sustainable tourism.

Keywords: Islamic finance; halal tourism; fuzzy numbers; TOPSIS; cultural mediating effects; halal industry; smart specialization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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