TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Ummi Kulsum Ariefin was ecstatic. Two weeks ago, she and 20 friends from Perak, Malaysia-all retired nurses-ended a four-day sightseeing tour of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB). "We had heard that Lombok was the best halal tourist destination in the world," the 59-year-old woman said.
In Lombok, Ummi visited the village of Lingsar. Here tourists can see a Bali Hindu temple next to a mosque that practices the ketupat war (a throwing-fest of boiled rice woven coconut-leaf packages) to start the planting season. Ummi said the assortment of halal-certified restaurants in the area was one of the things that helped make the trip memorable.
But what Ummi and friends enjoyed most was their visit to the Darul Hikmah Nahdlatul Wathan Islamic Boarding School in the village of Tanak Beak, West Lombok. There Ummi had opportunity to watch 121 students of the madrasah tsanawiyah (Islamic junior high school) and the madrasah aliyah (Islamic high school) learn and interact. "They were active in their tutorials and and we watched some take their tests in memorizing the Quran," said school head Kjalilurrahman Djuami.
The school visit is part of a tour package offered by Naharina Tourism Consultant Perak and its Indonesian counterpart, Kayangan Tours & Travel.
Halal tourism is best defined as tourism that seeks to meet the specific needs of Muslim travelers by providing halal foods, worship facilities and services that uphold Islamic norms.
Lombok, with its array of world-class tourism sights like Senggigi Beach, Pink Beach, as well as its proximity to Flores' Komodo Island, was thought to be an ideal location to jumpstart Indonesian halal tourism back in 2012.
"The NTB governor and local residents are very conscious of tourism," Lokot Ahmad Enda, deputy assistant for cultural destination development at the tourism ministry, told Tempo English a month ago.
Efforts to develop halal tourism in Lombok have been accompanied by an uptick in the number of halal-certified hotels and restaurants being built. In addition, in 2013, the district government opened the Islamic Tourist Center (ITC) to act as a center for research into further developing halal tourism in Lombok.
The government has also launched a tour-guide training program for Arabic-speaking students, and aired plans to open the Mandalika Specific Economic Zone-a special area for halal-certified hotels and restaurants. (*)
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