[gallery td_select_gallery_slide="slide" ids="8829,8830"] The World Halal Travel Summit & Exhibition (WHTS15), the world's largest international gathering of organizations, government officials and professionals dedicated to developing, and investing in, global Halal tourism, concluded its deliberations on Wednesday amid a response exceeding all expectations. Experts and observers, who participated in the halal tourism summit in Abu Dhabi National Center for Exhibitions, said it witnessed the signing of many agreements between hotels and Arab, European and Asian tourism companies to attract more tourists from the Arab and Muslim countries that attach importance to the concept of halal tourism in particular and family tourism in general. Chairman of the Arab Tourism Organization Dr. Bandar Bin Fahd Al Fehaid said, "During the summit interactive working sessions were held for all the participants including ministers and senior officials in the Arab, Muslim and other countries of the world. Apart from these, there were senior businessmen and investors concerned with this industry at the regional and international levels." The aim was to familiarize them with the concept of halal tourism and its services. They were acquainted with the commercial opportunities that halal tourism can provide as a new product and how all the authorities related to the tourism sector can take advantage of halal tourism. He said they can benefit from halal tourism in order to market the Arab region and promote it by linking the sector to Arab culture and traditions. Al Fehaid said the magnitude of halal tourism is estimated at 10 percent of the total income of the global travel and tourism sector. The income of the sector reached $145 billion last year. The number of travelers from the Muslim countries reached 108 million. This segment is expected to grow further to reach 150 million by 2020 with returns expected to reach $238 billion. Meanwhile, Sayyid Mukhtar Ould Muhammad Al-Hadhrami, secretary general of the Arab Tourism Organization, said at the conclusion of the tourism summit the organization had presented a number of initiatives and recommendations. He expressed the organization's readiness to cooperate with support to all the authorities that are interested to develop the concept of halal tourism for Arab and Muslim countries. These include taking advantage of means of communications and the social media in increasing the share of halal tourism in the travel and tourism sector, laying down quality criteria and supporting tourism in the hotels, resorts and restaurants that conform with the standards of this sector. They also include drawing up strategies to attract a segment of tourists interested in halal tourism. Earlier, Halabooking.com revealed, at the start of the summit, the popularity of Muslim-friendly holidays is soaring faster than any other travel sector in the world. HalalBooking.com's London HQ, a global leader in the Halal travel industry, has seen a tremendous rise in halal-conscious holiday bookings in 2015. "Our sales tripled in the first 3 quarters of 2015 compared to the same period last year. We have had sales in the millions per hotel aiming to hit tens of millions next year. This is the result of our hard work to provide the best search and booking experience for halal-conscious travelers. "In 2016 we are aiming to build on this success and to expand our portfolio of properties extensively and to launch new destinations in Western Europe and Asia Pacific", said Ufuk Secgin, chief marketing officer at HalalBooking.com. The event attracted government officials and professionals developing, and investing in global Halal tourism. Over 6,000 participants, including travel and tourism professionals and agencies, hospitality groups and hoteliers, tour operators, developers, destinations and key industry decision makers from around the globe are scheduled to attend, in addition to over 200 international exhibitors and sponsors.
