Halal Travel Session | Halal Safaris

FREE WEBINAR

Accessing New Markets Post-COVID

Thursday, Oct 15, 2020, 9AM (EAT) – Zoom

Halal Safaris Africa and CrescentRating are conducting a free online training session on halal travel, in response to the exceptional circumstances as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There is now a need to seek out new markets and find alternative ways of earning revenue. We are therefore offering training to tourism stakeholders, hotels and tour operators in Kenya to help them diversify and access the global and local Muslim travel markets.

“The Halal Travel Training” will be held on Thursday, Oct 15, 2020, 9am (EAT) on Zoom and includes an introduction to the global halal market, understanding halal travel in Kenya, and gaining insights on the Muslim travel market needs and requirements considering the sector is continuing to be one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world.

The session will feature prominent speakers in the international halal tourism industry including Fazal Bahardeen, Founder & CEO, CrescentRating and Nurul Ain Azhar, Curriculum Manager & Partner Engagement Lead at CrescentRating Academy. CrescentRating is the world’s leading authority on halal-friendly travel. Also included is Samia Omar Bwana, the founder of Halal Safaris Africa, the first and only exclusive halal travel company in East Africa and Frederick Omondi, who is the Director of Quality & Standards at the Tourism Regulatory Authority.

You can register for free until October 12, 2020, by clicking below.

All webinar participants will receive a 10% discount off CrescentRating Academy’s Halal Tourism Training Programs if they wish to have a personalised program on-site or online in future*. This discount is valid up till 31 March 2021.

Contact info@halalsafaris.africa or +254-700-041-729 for more information.

Topics

About Halal Tourism and Opportunities for Halal Travel in Kenya – Samia Omar Bwana, Founder, Halal Safaris Africa: This session will give a background on the basics of Halal Travel and help audience members understand what factors make Kenya a highly viable destination for Halal Tourism.

Halal Tourism Policy in Kenya – Frederick Omondi, Director of Quality & Standards Tourism Regulatory Authority: This session gives an update of the existing Halal policy and regulations in Kenya and future plans of the Government of Kenya on regulating the industry.

Global Halal Travel Market and Impact of COVID-19 on Halal Travel – Fazal Bahardeen, Founder and CEO, CrescentRating: This session will provide comprehensive benchmarks across a number of important criteria to track the health and the growth of this travel segment as well as review the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on this travel market. Every year CresecentRating undertakes a study to monitor the overall performance of the Muslim travel market covering 100 destinations, the Global Muslim Travel Index (GMTI) jointly developed by Mastercard and CrescentRating. The GMTI is the most comprehensive research index on the Muslim travel market and Halal Tourism ecosystem. Together with the Faith-Based Service Needs model and an enhanced set of metrics, this session will provide destinations and those responsible for tourism a deeper understanding of the needs of the Muslim travel market.

Halal Tourism Training Programs with CrescentRating Academy – Nurul Ain Azhar, Curriculum Manager & Partner Engagement Lead, CrescentRating Academy: This session will provide you with a brief overview of the full suite of Halal Tourism training and certification programs available by CrescentRating Academy (CRA). The comprehensive training programs enable the travel industry expand its workforce capabilities to fulfill the talent needs of a rapidly changing economy and the emerging Halal lifestyle market as well as maximize the opportunities presented by the Halal market. Built upon the CRA Competency Model, the programs are well suited for every member of the workforce, from the front lines to the C-suite, to continually expand and augment his or her skills. CRA is the training arm of CrescentRating and aims to be the leading education provider in Halal Travel for the global tourism industry.

Why Join the Webinar?

Since the onset and expansion of tourism in Kenya, the destination has heavily relied on travelers from the Western hemisphere but is still not a top destination for the Muslim travel market despite its many favourable conditions. The closing of borders and bars due to the COVID19 pandemic has brought into new focus the importance of diversifying markets to include local tourism, new markets, and products.

To support tourism stakeholders overcome this period, this webinar has been designed to improve knowledge on a new travel market that will help the participants both diversify their tourism products and access new markets. Some of the topics which will be covered include: an introduction to the global halal market, understanding halal travel in Kenya, gaining insights on the Muslim travel market needs and requirements.

The free webinar is designed for all professionals and companies, both Muslims/non-Muslims, who are associated with the travel industry in Kenya. Following the webinar session, participants can arrange for one-on-one visits to aid understanding and plan for a more intensive personalised training program on-site. All webinar participants will receive a 10% discount off CrescentRating Academy’s Halal Tourism Training Programs if they wish to have a personalised program on-site or online in future*. This discount is valid up till 31 March 2021.

The training session will feature prominent speakers in the international halal tourism industry including Fazal Bahardeen, Founder & CEO, CrescentRating Ltd. CrescentRating is the world’s leading authority on halal-friendly travel. The company uses insight, industry intelligence, lifestyle, behaviour, and research on the needs of the Muslim traveler to deliver authoritative guidance on all aspects of halal-friendly travel to organisations across the globe. Also as a speaker is Samia Omar Bwana, the founder of Halal Safaris Africa, the first and only exclusive halal travel company in East Africa.

Speaker Bios

Alawy Abzein – Moderator

Alawy is a tourism and cultural development professional. He is a Former Board Member of Kenya Coast Tourism Association, Public Relations & Marketing Officer at the National Museums of Kenya Director, Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is also active in many community development projects in the Coast of Kenya, including as Lamu Director, for Upeo Limited, former Secretary of the Swahili Cultural Festival and the current Community Advisor on Culture at Wasini Island.

Fazal Bahardeen – Founder & CEO, CrescentRating

After 20 years in the corporate world as a telecom executive, Fazal experienced the difficulty of finding basic faith-based needs as a Muslim traveler. To solve this, he set up CrescentRating in 2008 with a vision to help the industry understand the needs and better cater to the travelers. A year later, he launched the world’s first rating system to rate travel & tourism services for their Muslim friendliness. The growth of the sector and demand from the market led to the acquisition and re-launch of HalalTrip as an online platform with a vision to become the trusted trip advisor for Muslim travelers. In January 2015, HalalTrip launched the mobile application for iPad/iPhone and Android devices with many innovative features. Prior to this, he held senior management roles at Alcatel based in Europe & Asia and served as a board member of Alcatel-Fujitsu JV for 3G technology. CrescentRating is the world’s leading authority on Halal-friendly travel. The company uses insights, industry intelligence, lifestyle, behaviour, and research on the needs of the Muslim traveler to deliver authoritative guidance on all aspects of Halal-friendly travel to organizations across the globe. Formed in 2008, CrescentRating services are now used by every tier of the tourism industry globally, from government bodies and tourism agencies to hospitality service providers, to inform how they can meet and serve the needs of the Muslim traveler. CrescentRating’s services include rating & accreditation, research & consultancy, workshops & training, ranking & indices, event support/partnerships, and content provision. HalalTrip is a sister brand of CrescentRating.

Samia Omar Bwana – Founder, Halal Safaris Africa

Ms. Omar has 12 years of experience in hospitality and tourism, including as the first County Executive Committee Member (CECM) for Trade, Investment, Tourism, Culture, and Natural Resources for the County Government of Lamu. Kenya. She trained at the Islamic Tourism Centre in Malaysia on “Designing and Implementing Master Plan For Sustainable Islamic Tourism” and is certified by CrescentRating Academy as a Halal Travel Agent. Inspired to create sustainable livelihoods while simultaneously promoting conservation of culture in Africa, she founded Halal Safaris Africa Ltd. Halal Safaris Africa Ltd is the first travel company in East Africa offering luxury halal travel and Islamic travel consultancy services in Africa. In addition to providing travel solutions, Halal Safaris works help facilities and agencies assess and improve their products and destinations so as to cater to the growing numbers of Muslim travelers. Consultancy services include providing solutions to clients who are interested in promoting their products or destinations to Muslim markets as well as supporting international travel agencies and buyers seeking to sell halal African products and services.

Frederick Omondi, Director of Quality & Standards Tourism Regulatory Authority

Mr. Fredrick Jack Omondi, is the Director, Standards and Quality Assurance with the Tourism Regulatory Authority (TRA), the institution mandated with the responsibility of regulating the Tourism industry for improved service delivery in the destination Kenya. He has a wealth of knowledge and experience acquired over 20 years as Tourism Practitioner with a bias on Tourism Standards and Sustainability. Fredrick is presently running TRA programs related to development of several sector standards including Halal standards for the certification of hospitality facilities targeting emerging global Muslim travel market.

Nurul Ain Azhar, Curriculum Manager & Partner Engagement Lead, CrescentRating Academy

Nurul Ain Azhar is the Curriculum Manager and Partner Engagement Lead at CrescentRating. She spearheads CrescentRating Academy – the world’s first global training platform for quality training and accreditation in the Muslim travel market. She was a part of the initial team that developed the Halal Tourism Executive Program targeted at top executives in the travel industry. She also overlooks the company’s flagship Rating services and has led multiple rating drives with international tourism boards such as Cape Town Tourism and Taipei City Government.