ABSTRACT
The chapter discusses emerging and potentially future issues in research on halal hospitality and Islamic tourism. Drawing on a wide range of research literature the chapter identifies several main themes: the longstanding issue of definitions with respect to halal and Islamic tourism and hospitality; the need to see Islamic pilgrimage as being much more than the hajj and umrah to becoming a wider engagement with the sacred as well as the desire of some locations to diversify economically via tourism; the need for a better understanding of the Muslim traveller; diversifying the range of tourism products and destinations that are examined from Islamic perspectives beyond accommodation and food services; developing an Islamic understanding of the impacts of tourism and the implications of an Islamic environmental paradigm; and, lastly, the need for greater reflexivity and criticality in undertaking studies of halal and Islamic tourism and hospitality including the research journey that is travelled. The chapter concludes by noting the importance of understanding the positionality of scholarship in relation to institutional interests and how this may contribute to the commodification of religious experience and the sacred.
