Coronavirus and Halal Tourism and Hospitality Industry: Is It a Journey to the Unknown?

Abstract

Coronavirus (COVID-19) gained and will continue to gain a lot of global attention over the coming months (and maybe the coming few years). Since its outbreak in Wuhan (China), it has turned into one of the major challenges affecting the whole world. In a comparatively short time, the virus outbreak turned into a pandemic that led to massive negative impacts not only on people health and well-being, but also on the global economy, travel industry, pharmaceutical industry, tourism industry, and many other industries. This research paper aims to investigate the different effects of coronavirus on the global Halal tourism and Halal hospitality industry and whether the coronavirus pandemic is the end of Halal tourism and hospitality as we know it or not. The paper offers an in-depth theoretical examination of the different aspect of the pandemic on Halal tourism and hospitality industry and provides guidance on how to address these different aspects. The current paper is one of very few research papers addressing coronavirus on the tourism and hospitality industry.

1. Introduction

Unlike other religions, Islam encourages travel and inspires Muslims to travel to every part of earth to be educated, to seek a better life, to perform Islamic religious rituals such as Hajj or Umrah, to seek a cure from illness, tourism and enjoyment, as well as many other reasons. Moreover, Islam is constructed on five central pillars, and one of them is to perform Hajj by any Muslim who can afford this physically and financially. To meet such an essential pillar of the pillars of Islam, Muslims need to travel to Saudi Arabia at least once in their life to perform such a very important Islamic religious ritual. As such, and as illustrated by [1], travel is intensely entrenched with the Islamic Shariah as well as Islamic culture.

Additionally, many verses in the Quran (the holy book for Muslims) support and encourage Muslims to travel. Among these verses, (the verses are in the same order as the sequence of different surahs—chapters—in the Quran):

As shown in

Table 1. Verses in the Quran that support and encourage Muslims to travel.

N	Verses	Surah (Chapter)
1	“…… Was not the earth of Allah spacious enough for you to emigrate therein, ……”.	Al Nisa: 97
2	“Say ‘travel in the land and see what was the end of those who rejected truth”	Al-Anaam: 11
3	“He it is who enables you to travel through land and sea, until when you are in the ships, and they sail with them favourable wind and they are glad therein, then comes a stormy wind and the waves come to them from all sides, and they think that they are encircled therein. Then they invoke Allah, making their faith pure for him (Allah) alone, (saying): ‘if you (Allah) deliver us from this, we shall truly be grateful”	Yunus: 22
4	“Those who emigrated for the cause of Allah, after they had been wronged, we will certainly give them goodly residence in this world, but indeed the reward of the hereafter will be greater if they but knew.”	Al Nahl: 41
5	“Your lord is he who drives the ship for you through the sea, in order that you may seek of his bounty. Truly, he is ever most merciful towards you.”	Al Israa: 66
6	“Have they not travelled through the land, and have they hearts wherewith to understand and ears wherewith to hear eerily, it is not the eyes that grow blind, but it is the hearts which are in the breasts that grow blind.”	Al Haj: 46
7	“Say: ‘travel in the land and see how (Allah) originated the creation, and then Allah will bring forth the creation of the hereafter (i.e., resurrection after death). Verily, Allah is able to do all things.”	Al Ankabut: 20
8	“Say: ‘travel in the land and see what was the end of those before (you)! Most of them were Mushrikun (polytheists, idolaters, disbelievers in the oneness of Allah)”	Al Rum: 42
9	“And among his signs in this, that he sends the winds as glad tidings, giving you a taste of his mercy (i.e., rain), and that the ships may sail at his command, and that you may seek of his bounty, in order that you may be thankful.”	Al Rum: 46
10	“See you not that the ships sail through the sea by Allah’s grace that he may show you of his signs? Verily, in this are signs for every patient grateful (person)”	Luqman: 31
11	“Then when the (Jumu’ah) salat (prayer) is ended, you may disperse through the land and seek the bounty of Allah (by working, etc.), and remember Allah much: that you may be successful.”	Al Jumuah: 10

, Islam encourages travelling for many different motives and reasons. In this regard, Islam encourages travelling for the following reasons:

• Trade and commerce (e.g., Al Jumuah: 10, and Al Israa: 66),
• To immigrate (e.g., Al Nisa: 97, and Al Nahl: 41),
• To explore new prospects (e.g., Al Ankabut: 20, and Al Israa: 66),
• To study (e.g., Luqman: 31, Al Ankabut: 20, Al Haj: 46, and Al Israa: 66), and,
• To know about history and previous generations (e.g., Al Anaam: 11, Al Rum: 42, and Al Ankabut: 20).

Furthermore, Islamic Shariah supports Muslim travelers by offering them some privileges while traveling, such as (and based on the traveled distance):

• Having shorter prayers,
• The possibility of combining prayers,
• Exemption from fasting during the Holy month of Ramadan (until they return to their home countries or home cities),
• Exemption from Friday prayers (Gumaa),
• Offering them the right of having part of Zakat money (a certain amount of money that represent 2.5% of the person’s wealth, which he/she needs to give away to charity annually), and
• Exemption from prayer timings.

Such privileges reflect the importance of travelling from an Islamic Shariah perspective.

Additionally, Muslim travelers and Halal tourists represent a significant percentage of the international travel market with great potential and possibility to continue growing in size. The rise in the Muslim population will lead to more demand for Halal products. By reviewing available data regarding the world population distribution by religion, the Muslim population is around 22–23% of the total world population. Ref. [2] confirmed the same. Moreover, according to [3], a large number of countries will have a million or more Muslim residents by the end of this decade (2030). As such, Halal hospitality and Halal tourism have gained a lot of global attention over the last few years. Meanwhile, tourism and travel are still considered one of the growing areas of research, with a lot of researchers becoming more interested in conducting research related to them, e.g., [1,2,3,4,5,6,7], etc.

In the meantime, coronavirus has led to noticeable changes in consumers’ behavior in many industries worldwide. Such changes will not only affect consumers’ behavior but also it will lead to remarkable changes in marketing communications, promotion spending, as well as some major impacts on the different marketing mix elements. Meanwhile, considering the effect of coronavirus on the international economy, most companies will suffer from a massive decline in their sales volumes. As such, understanding consumers’ behavior will play a very important role in reducing the negative effect of coronavirus on company performance.

Moreover, based on the review of published work on COVID-19, no papers were published to examine the impact of coronavirus on Halal tourism, Halal travel, and Halal hospitality. This reflects a great gap in the literature and reinforces the importance and urgency of conducting research studies to inspect coronavirus’ impact on Halal tourism and hospitality in different contexts and countries. Hence, this research paper will investigate the different effects of coronavirus on the worldwide Halal tourism and Halal hospitality market to enhance current knowledge in this research area.

The paper starts by discussing travel in Islam and explaining the concept of Halal as well as the key trends of the Halal market. Based on this discussion, the paper provides an illustration of current Halal travel trends and discusses the concept of Halal Hospitality. Afterwards, the literature related to COVID-19 and its impact on tourism and hospitality is discussed in some detail. Then the paper illustrates the different impacts of coronavirus on Halal Tourism and provide an insight on the research main question (Is coronavirus the end of Halal tourism and hospitality as we know it?). Then, the research conclusion, research limitations and directions for future research are discussed and illustrated.

2. Travel in Islam

2.1. The Concept of Halal

According to [1], “The word Halal (حلال) comes originally from Arabic language meaning: allowable, acceptable, permitted, and/or permissible.” [1] (p. 126). Normally, the concept of Halal refers to anything allowable to Muslims in line with the rules and regulations of Islamic Shariah. As such, the concept of Halal covers all aspects of a Muslim person life, regardless of gender, as any product (good or service) that is consumed or used by a Muslim needs to be Halal. Accordingly, the Halal concept is very broad and covers many aspects, such as food, clothes, drinks, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, marketing, travel, tourism, hospitality, finance, etc.

For any good or service to be Halal, it needs to be compatible and well-matched with the rules and guidance of Islamic Shariah. However, there are some exceptions and rules such as

• “No harm rule—لا ضرر ولا ضرار” (which refer to the rule that any Muslim is being required not to cause harm to anyone as well as no one can cause harm to him/her),
• “Harag rule—“حرج (which refer to a Muslim conducting a specific action as a result of him/her being embarrassed to do so) and,
• “Darorah rule—الضرورة” (which refer to a Muslim conducting a certain action due to its necessity and lack of the availability of any other option).
• Such exceptions infrequently offer some flexibility to a Muslim while implementing Islamic Shariah Halal instructions, rules, and guidance [5].

Concerning travel and tourism activities, Halal travel, Halal hospitality, and Halal tourism are among the emerging notions that are related to the concept of Halal [1]. However, these concepts (Halal travel, Halal hospitality, and Halal tourism) started to appear in the literature only in the last decade.

2.1.1. Key Trends of the Halal Market

The Halal market (with all its Halal aspects) is one of the fastest growing global markets, with a very large size that is expected to grow. For example, according to [8], the Halal food market (which is a main portion of the worldwide Halal market) is predicted to develop to be worth over USD 2.5 trillion USD by 2024 [8]. The following trends represent the major current trends of the global Halal market:

• Rising mindfulness of halal food globally and among both Muslims as well as non-Muslims [8].
• Halal food is increasingly perceived as highly hygienic food among consumers. Such perception is expected to increase the demand for different Halal products (goods and services) over the coming years.
• Following the steps of Kosher food, Halal market is now increasingly perceived as not only exclusive to Muslims, as a growing number of non-Muslims have started to consume and/or use Halal products.
• Halal Food is now found in major supermarkets in non-Islamic countries (e.g., Tesco and ASDA in the UK and some other major stores in other countries in Europe).
• Increased importance of Halal Food certification. Such certification guarantees that the product is fully compatible with the rules and guidance of Islamic Shariah.
• Increased positive attitudes towards Halal Food as a high-quality food [9].
• The expansion of the Halal concept to additional submarkets such as cosmetics, as well as finance, banking, tourism, marketing, logistics, and packaging.
• Increased demand for hormone-free meat worldwide.
• Aberrance of Halal products that are traditionally not considered to be Halal, such as:
• Non-alcoholic wine.
• Non-alcoholic beer.
• The market is segmented into the following five main geographical segments:

  ○

  North America.

  ○

  Asia-Pacific, which is the leading segment size-wise.

  ○

  Middle East and Africa.

  ○

  Europe, with the UK as the largest market.

  ○

  South (Latin) America [3]. Figure 1 illustrate the different segments of the Halal market.

2.1.2. Key Challenges Facing Halal Market

By analyzing the current Halal market trends globally, some key challenges are facing the Halal market. Among these challenges include:

• The lack of identical global Halal standards.
• Nonexistence of any workable global arrangements for Halal certification and accreditation establishments.
• A fragmented industry.
• Existence of too many Halal food certification and accreditation organizations.
• Lack of trust in certification and accreditation organizations.
• The halal and Muslim consumer markets remain a niche industry in most countries.

According to [10], considering six main halal values can help any Halal provider in creating Halal competitive dynamics. These Halal values are illustrated in the following Figure 2.

2.1.3. The Lack of Identical Halal Standards, Certification and/or Accreditation

One of the biggest challenges facing the Halal market is the lack of uniform Halal standards across countries with a single well-established worldwide certification and/or accreditation organization. Unfortunately, no certification organization offers Halal certification to companies providing Halal travel or tourism products. The same can be said about other types of Halal products such as Halal finance, banking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, marketing, logistics, and packaging. Halal certification is only available for Halal food products.

Nevertheless, even with Halal food product certification, there is no uniform Halal standards across countries with a single well-established worldwide certification and/or accreditation organization to offer such Halal certification and/or accreditation. A review of the available Halal food certification and/or accreditation organizations revealed the existence of an enormous number of such Halal certification organizations. The following

Table 2. Some Halal food certification and accreditation organizations.

N	Country	Issuing Authority	Scope
1	Qatar	Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry	Global
2	UK	Halal Food Authority	The UK
3	USA	Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America	USA
4	United Arab Emirates	SGS Gulf Limited	GCC Countries
5	Belgium	Halal Food Council of Europe	Europe
6	Malaysia	Foreign Halal Certification Body	Malaysia
7	China	Halal Certification Authority Asia/Halal China	China
8	Australia	Halal Certification Authority Australia	Australia
9	Ireland	Halal Certification Authority Europe	Europe
10	Turkey	GIMDES	Europe
11	Australia	Adelaide Mosque Islamic Society of South Australia	Global
12	Australia	Al-Iman Islamic Society	Global
13	Australia	Al Sadeq Association	Global
14	Australia	Australian Halal Development and Accreditation	Global
15	Australia	Australian Federation of Islamic Councils Inc.	Global
16	Australia	Australian Halal Authority and Advisers	Global
17	Australia	Australian Halal Food Services	Global
18	Australia	Australian National Imams Council	Global
19	Australia	Global Australian Halal Certification Ltd.	Global
20	Australia	Global Halal Trade Centre Ltd.	Global
21	Australia	Halal Australia Ltd.	Global
22	Australia	Halal Certification Authority Ltd.	Global
23	Australia	Halal Certification Council	Global
24	Australia	Halal Meat Board of Western Australia	Global
25	Australia	Islamic Coordinating Council of Victoria	Global
26	Australia	Islamic Council of Western Australia	Global
27	Australia	Muslim Association of Riverina Wagga Wagga Inc.	Global
28	Australia	RACS International for Halal Certification Services	Global
29	Australia	World Halal Certification Body	Global
30	Australia	Western Australia Halal Authority	Global
31	Australia	Perth Mosque Incorporated	Global
32	USA	American Zabiha Authority	USA
33	USA	Halal Transactions of Omaha	USA
34	USA	Halal Food Standards Alliance of America	USA
35	USA	Shariah Board New York	USA
36	USA	Green Valley Halal	USA
37	USA	Muslim American Food Council	USA
38	USA	Halal N Pure Certification Agency	USA
39	USA	American Halal Foundation	USA
40	USA	Rahmat-e-Alam Foundation	USA
41	USA	Halal Food Trust of San Joaquin Valley	USA
42	USA	ISWA Halal Certification	USA
43	USA	Islamic Services of America	USA
44	USA	Zabiha Halal Slaughter Assoc for the State of LA	USA
45	USA	Islamic Society of the Washington Area	USA
46	USA	Halal Food Council USA	USA
47	USA	Authentic Halal Services	USA
48	USA	Islamic Halal Food Products	USA

Source: Prepared by the author.

provides some details on a number of these organizations.

2.2. Halal Travel (Tourism)

For every Muslim, travel (for either religious or other reasons) is something that is highly linked to Islamic Shariah. One of the main reasons for this is that each Muslim should perform Hajj, which can only be performed in the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah in Saudi Arabia. Accordingly, each Muslim (regardless of gender) needs to travel to Saudi Arabia to be able to perform one of the pillars of his/her religion. Nevertheless, Muslims are required to perform Hajj only if they can pay for all its financial cost and are physically fit to do so.

However, Muslims (as discussed earlier) do not only travel to conduct Islamic rituals, as they can travel for many other reasons. As such, the concept of Halal travel is not only centered on travel activities undertaken by Muslims, as it has a much broader scope. Halal travel is its simplest form refers to travel (or tourism) activities that are conducted in complete compliance with rules of Islamic Shariah. From that perspective, Ref. [11] describes Islamic travel (tourism) as “any activity, event and experience undertaken in a state of travel that is in accordance with Islam”.

Scholarly published work, as well as the review of Halal travel agencies and worldwide service providers, show that there is a very long list of Halal travel principles or main necessities ([1,12,13,14,15,16], etc.). However, the author believes that such principles or main necessities can be classified into two main groups, namely, main Halal travel principles, and secondary Halal travel principles. The following

Table 3. Main and secondary Halal travel principles.

Main Halal Travel Principles	Secondary Halal Travel Principles
Prohibition of all types of alcohol	Muslim members of staff
Prohibition of all non-Halal food	Hotel and travel companies’ compliance with Islamic funding values
Prohibition of all any pig products	Usage of Islamic and religious arts
Gender-segregated facilities	Serving male rooms and facilities by male members of staff
Gender-segregated rooms or floors	Any expiated art items should not represent a human shape
Availability of praying places or rooms	Suitable guest dress code
Gender-segregated praying places	Hotel and travel companies’ compliance with Zakat values
Availability of a copy of the holy Quran	Avoiding putting toilets positioned towards the holy city of Makah
Availability of praying carpets	Serving female rooms and facilities by female members of staff
Compliance of staff dressing code with Islamic Shariah	Availability of bidets in lavatories
Appropriate entertainment that meets the rules of Islamic Shariah
Availability of praying direction in each room

Source: Prepared by the author in light of scholarly published work as well as the review of Halal Travel agencies and worldwide service providers.

illustrates the details of each category.

The author argues that not all Muslims travelers perceive Halal travel principles or the main necessities similarly. The author believes that Muslims travelers will perceive some of these principles or main necessities differently as a normal result to the differences in their culture, values, level of commitment towards Islamic Shariah, level of regular and religious education, social class, income, level of culture tolerance, etc. The findings of [1], as well as many Islamic research scholars, support this. According to these scholars, Islamic Shariah rudimentary needs (e.g., Halal food, no alcohol, etc.) are necessary for any Muslim country. Additionally, not every Muslim traveler is a practicing Muslim.

2.3. Halal Travel Trends

According to [17], some current trends are driving the Halal travel market. Among these trends, the emergence of unaccompanied female Muslim travelers, the increased importance of Halal travel digital services, and the increased importance of price are some of the critical factors affecting Muslim travelers’ decision making, and the fact that Muslim travelers mainly drive halal travel demand. Ref. [18] found that almost all the top 11 Halal-friendly destinations are Islamic countries, which supports this (as illustrated in the following

Table 4. Top 11 Halal-Friendly Destinations.

N	Country/Destination	% of Muslim Population
1	UAE	76%
2	Hong Kong	N/A
3	Turkey	98%
4	Indonesia	87.2%
5	Saudi Arabia	95%
6	Morocco	99%
7	Jordan	97.2%
8	Qatar	77.5%
9	Oman	75%
10	Egypt	94.7%
11	Malaysia	60%

Source: [18].

).

3. Halal Hospitality

Halal hospitality is a major component of the Halal tourism concept. The results of the review of the literature show that there is no one main acceptable Halal hospitality definition that is commonly adopted by different scholars within the field.

Table 5. Halal hospitality definitions.

Author(s)	Definition
[13]	“A hotel that provides services in accordance to the Shariah principles”
[19]	“A hotel that provides its services in accordance with the Islamic Shariah principles but is not only limited to serving halal food and drink but to ensure that the entire operation throughout the hotel operates in accordance with the Shariah principles”
[20]	“A hotel where the services offered and financial transactions are based on Islamic Shariah principles, and it is not only limited to serving halal food and beverages, but all parameters are designed for health, safety, environment, and the economic benefits of all humankind, regardless of race, faith, or cultures.”

illustrate some Halal hospitality definitions.

As noticed from the table, Halal hospitality emphasizes hospitality offering services (regardless of its type) that are in line with the guidance and rules of the Islamic Shariah.

4. The Study Conceptual Context

The study tries to provide a deep theoretical illustration of the impact of COVID-19 on Halal tourism as well as the Halal hospitality industry. Such investigation will provide good grounds to understand the relationship between COVID-19 and the two industries, which will help in understanding how the changes in Halal tourism and Halal hospitality due to COVID-19 can affect Muslim tourists. The study context is illustrated on the following Figure 3.

5. Literature Review on COVID-19 Impact on Tourism and Hospitality

Needless to say, due to the fact that the COVID-19 outbreak started in December 2019, there are a limited number of published works that have been conducted on coronavirus in the fields of travel, tourism, and hospitality in general. All the concerned research studies were conducted and published in 2020, with the majority of them being published in the last few months. When reviewing these publications, it is noticed that:

• Almost all these publications are theoretical and conceptual in nature, which is normal and expected due to the very short time between the outbreak of COVID-19 and the dates of publication of these papers. This reflects a gap in the literature and shows the importance of conducting empirical studies to examine the COVID-19-related phenomena in a better way.
• Only one empirical study was found which employed a qualitative methodology depending on three small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) case studies to examine marketing innovation for hospitality SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Most of the published studies are published in low-quality journals that are not indexed in well-established international journal quality indices.
• A relatively high number of the published works are very brief and do not offer the required depth for the examined phenomena (e.g., some of these papers were only three pages long).
• Most of the published studies examined the effect of coronavirus on tourism, with fewer papers inspecting the effect of coronavirus on travel and hospitality.
• Based on the review, no papers were published to examine the effect of coronavirus on Halal tourism, Halal travel, and Halal hospitality.
• The total number of published studies on coronavirus’ impact on tourism and hospitality are 37 research papers.

5.1. Literature Review on COVID-19 Impact on Tourism

The results of the review of published work on the effect of coronavirus on tourism revealed 27 papers, all of which were conceptual and theoretical publications. Some of these publications (10 publications—37% of the total) were conducted on specific countries (e.g., Indonesia, China, India, Nepal, Ethiopia, Ghana, and New Zealand). Furthermore, while two publications were conducted of specific continents (Europe, North and Latin America), the remaining publications (15 publication—55.55% of the total) were conducted to investigate the global impact of coronavirus on tourism.

Although the research topics covered within these publications varied from one paper to another, most of the published work dealt with the economic effects of coronavirus on tourism and the effect of COVID-19 on tourism in general terms. However, a noticeable number of publications examined the impact of coronavirus on sustainable tourism. The following

Table 6. Studies on COVID-19 impact on tourism.

N	Author(s)	Research Area	Country	Methodology
1	[21]	Different implications of coronavirus	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
2	[22]	Pandemics and tourism industry	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
3	[23]	Economic effects of coronavirus	Global Impact	Report/Conceptual Research
4	[24]	Tourism and COVID-19	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
5	[25]	Sustainable tourism after COVID-19	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
6	[26]	Coronavirus and tourism industry	China	Secondary Research (Conceptual Research)
7	[27]	Coronavirus and tourism industry	Global Impact	Interdisciplinary Conceptual Research
8	[28]	Effect of coronavirus on tourism	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
9	[29]	Coronavirus and tourism demand	Global Impact	Editorial
10	[30]	Effect of coronavirus on people and tourism	New Zealand	Conceptual Research
11	[31]	Effect of coronavirus on Tourism	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
12	[32]	COVID-19 and its effect of travel	Europe	Conceptual Research
13	[33]	Coronavirus and unsustainable global tourism	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
14	[34]	Effect of coronavirus on Tourism	Bintan (Indonesia)	Conceptual Research
15	[35]	Effect of coronavirus on Tourism	India	Conceptual Research
16	[36]	Impact of coronavirus on sustainable tourism and SMEs	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
17	[37]	Impact of coronavirus on Tourism	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
18	[38]	Impact of coronavirus on Tourism and sustainable development	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
19	[39]	COVID-19 and tourism industry	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
20	[40]	COVID-19 and tourism industry	Ethiopia	Conceptual Research
21	[41]	Economic impacts of coronavirus on tourism	Ghana	Conceptual Research
22	[42]	COVID-19 and tourism risk	North and Latin America	Conceptual Research
23	[43]	Tourism game consumption	China	Conceptual Research
24	[44]	Coronavirus and tourism	Russia	Conceptual Research
25	[45]	Corona Virus and tourism industry	Nepal	Conceptual Research
26	[46]	The effects of novel corona virus on tourism industry	India	Conceptual Research
27	[47]	Hotel and tourism industry dynamic organization and digital innovation during coronavirus	Indonesia	Conceptual Research

and

Table 7. Studies on COVID-19 impact on tourism distributed by country.

N	Country	Studies
1	Indonesia	[34,47]
2	China	[26,43]
3	India	[35,46]
4	Nepal	[45]
5	North and Latin America	[42]
6	Ethiopia	[40]
7	Ghana	[41]
8	Europe	[32]
9	New Zealand	[30]
10	Global Impact	[21,22,23,24,25,27,28,29,31,33,36,37,38,39]

provide the details of these studies.

5.2. Literature Review on COVID-19 Impact on Hospitality

The results of the review of published work on the effect of coronavirus on hospitality reveal 11 papers, 10 of which were conceptual and theoretical publications, and only one publication was empirical, employing qualitative methodology. Some of these publications (five publications—45.5% of the total) were conducted on specific countries (e.g., Indonesia, India, Malaysia, and Sweden). The remaining publications (6 publications—54.5% of the total) were conducted to examine the global impact of coronavirus on hospitality.

Although the research topics covered within these publications varied from one paper to another, most of the published works dealt with the effect of COVID-19 on hospitality in general terms. However, a number of publications examined some hospitality organizational aspects. The following

Table 8. Studies on COVID-19 impact on hospitality.

N	Author(s)	Research Area	Country	Methodology
1	[48]	Coronavirus MCO and its effect on tourism and hospitality	Malaysia	Conceptual Research
2	[49]	COVID-19, hospitality and tourism	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
3	[50]	COVID-19 and Hospitality Industry	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
4	[51]	Impact of coronavirus on hospitality	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
5	[52]	Impact of coronavirus on global restaurant and hospitality industry	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
6	[53]	Hospitality sustainable strategic renewal after COVID-19	Global Impact	Opinion Article (Conceptual Research)
7	[54]	Post COVID-19 model of tourism and hospitality	Global Impact	Conceptual Research
8	[47]	Hotel and tourism industry dynamic organisation and digital innovation during coronavirus	Indonesia	Conceptual Research
9	[55]	Marketing innovation for hospitality SMEs during COVID-19	Norrbotten (Sweden)	Qualitative Methodology depending on 3 SME case studies
10	[56]	Impact of coronavirus on tourism and hospitality industry	India	Conceptual Research
11	[57]	Coronavirus and hospitality food safety	India	Conceptual Research

and

Table 9. Studies on COVID-19 impact on hospitality distributed by country.

N	Country	Studies
1	Indonesia	[47]
2	Global Impact	[48,50,51,52,53,54]
3	India	[56,57]
4	Malaysia	[48]
5	Sweden	[55]

provide the details of these studies.

5.3. Results of Published Research on COVID-19 and Other Related Bibliometric Data

This part of the paper provides insights on the results of published research on COVID-19 and other related bibliometric data. In this regard,

Table 10. Main results of published research on COVID-19 and its impact on tourism and hospitality.

N	Author(s)	Main Results
1	[21]	The paper provided a review and a summary of the social and economic implications of coronavirus on the worldwide economic system.
2	[22]	A comparison of the effects of COVID-19, earlier epidemics, pandemics and global crises to discover how the pandemic may change society, the economy, and tourism.
3	[23]	Service-oriented economies will be particularly affected by COVID-19.
4	[24]	COVID-19 is not only considered as a crisis, as it also offers many opportunities for tourism industry.
5	[25]	COVID-19 has changed the world and affected global travel, tourism and hospitality industries.
6	[48]	Findings indicate that tourism operations are minimized and employees from different hotels as well as resorts were asked to take unpaid leave The pandemic had a negative impact on the Malaysian tourism and hospitality industry
7	[26]	Coronavirus had significant impacts globally. This influenced the tourism industry in China.
8	[27]	The paper discussed some challenges and benefits of cross-disciplinary research to deal with COVID-19.
9	[48]	Coronavirus had significant impacts in Asia, Europe and North America, and globally.
10	[50]	Coronavirus had significant impacts on many countries both on the short and long term
11	[28]	The author presented a matrix of potential evolutionary pathways towards tourism transformation.
12	[29]	Coronavirus has become a global issue and it will have a major impact on tourism demand.
13	[30]	The COVID-19 pandemic is forecasted to have long-lasting impact on the tourism industry.
14	[31]	Regardless of the cost of the pandemic that all companies need to pay, COVID-19 offers the tourism industry a unique reconstruction opportunity.
15	[32]	The offered a forecast of COVID-19 outburst dynamics in Europe.
16	[33]	COVID-19 stopped global mobility, which affected the tourism industry harshly. However, COVID-19 is offering the tourism industry a good opportunity for creating additional sustainable tourism activities.
17	[34]	The number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia is limited. However, COVID-19 led to a decrease in the number of tourists visiting important destinations within the country.
18	[35]	Indian tourism industry is badly affected by COVID-19.
19	[51]	The pandemic affected the hospitality, tourism, and entertainment industries, shutting them down almost immediately
20	[36]	Companies, which were more adaptable to sustainable tourism activities, have better chances to recover after COVID-19.
21	[52]	COVID-19 affected international restaurant industry severely.
22	[37]	Recovering from COVID-19 by tourism firms will take a very long time.
23	[53]	Regardless of the bad consequences of COVID-19, it offers tourism companies a good opportunity to recover from the crisis through the usage of innovation sustainable tourism development strategies.
24	[38]	Although COVID-19 represents a very bad crisis for the tourism industry, it can lead to good solutions for the industry problems through sustainable development.
25	[54]	The paper offered a post COVID-19 framework for tourism and hospitality industries personnel resilience.
26	[39]	Recovering from COVID-19 is possible; however, achieving the same level of profitability as before COVID-19 is difficult. As such, governmental aid for hotels is essential in such hard times.
27	[40]	Hotels occupancy rate in Ethiopia decreased from 80–85% to less than 5%. Tourism SMEs were the most affected sector within the industry.
28	[55]	The research sample adapted and improved their marketing mix as a response to COVID-19.
29	[41]	COVID-19 affected the tourism industry in Ghana harshly.
30	[42]	The more a country’s economy depends on international tourism as a percentage of GDP, the more quickly and deeply it will be impacted by the cessation of touristic flows.
31	[56]	The tourism industry was badly affected by the coronavirus epidemic, which created employment crisis in front of 38 million people associated with the industry. The tourism industry was affected in every state of India.
32	[57]	COVID-19 affected Indian food services industries as well as tourism industry.
33	[43]	COVID-19 badly affected wildlife consumption in tourism in China.
34	[44]	COVID-19 required the Russian government to provide urgent support for tourism industry.
35	[45]	Countless number of job losses within tourism industry in Nepal were noted due to COVID-19.
36	[46]	COVID-19 badly affected both the Indian and the global tourism industries.
37	[47]	Although COVID-19 badly affected the tourism industry in Indonesia, digital innovation can help hotels in recovering from the crisis.

provides an illustration of the main results of published research on COVID-19 and its impact on tourism and hospitality industries. Other tables within this part of the paper provide other related bibliometric data on published research on COVID-19 and its impact on tourism and hospitality industries.

5.4. Literature Review on Coronavirus Impact on Halal Tourism and Hospitality

Based on the review of published work on coronavirus, no papers were published to look at the influence of coronavirus on Halal tourism, Halal travel, and Halal hospitality. This reflects a great gap in the literature and reinforces the importance and urgency of conducting research studies to investigate the effect of coronavirus’ impact on Halal tourism and hospitality in different contexts and countries.

Table 11. Published research on COVID-19 and its impact on tourism and hospitality citations.

N.	Author(s)	Citations
1	[21]	330
2	[22]	66
3	[23]	271
4	[24]	67
5	[25]	23
6	[48]	21
7	[26]	41
8	[27]	21
9	[48]	22
10	[50]	3
11	[28]	31
12	[29]	2
13	[30]	6
14	[31]	29
15	[32]	40
16	[33]	19
17	[34]	7
18	[35]	7
19	[51]	0
20	[36]	13
21	[52]	14
22	[37]	20
23	[53]	1
24	[38]	2
25	[54]	1
26	[39]	3
27	[40]	1
28	[55]	0
29	[41]	2
30	[42]	5
31	[56]	1
32	[57]	0
33	[43]	14
34	[44]	11
35	[45]	6
36	[46]	1
37	[47]	1
Total Citations		1102

and

Table 12. Distribution of published research on COVID-19 and its impact on tourism and hospitality by publication journal.

N	Journal	Frequency
1	International journal of surgery	1
2	Tourism Geographies	8
3	Other	9
4	International Tourism and Hospitality Journal	1
5	Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies	1
6	Tourism Recreation Research	2
7	International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management	1
8	Journal of Developing Economies	1
9	Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering	1
10	RSIS Commentaries	1
11	Studies in Indian Place Names	1
12	Hospitality Quarterly	1
13	Current Issues in Tourism	1
14	Athens Journal of Tourism	1
15	Tourism Economics	1
16	Journal of Business and economics	1
17	IUBH Discussion Papers—Tourism and Hospitality.	1
18	Journal of Latin American Geography	1
19	Journal of Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology	1
20	Population and Economics	1
21	Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Education	1

illustrate published research on COVID-19 and its impact on tourism and hospitality citations as well as its journal of publication.

6. Impact of Coronavirus on Halal Tourism

6.1. Ceasing of Halal Tourism Because of Coronavirus

Although Islam encourages travel and motivates Muslims to travel around the globe, such encouragement is subject to Muslims being safe while doing that. As such, in case of any possible danger, all Muslims are required to avoid travelling and to stay safe and look after their wellbeing. Accordingly, all Muslims who planned to conduct any Halal Tourism activities before the outbreak of COVID-19 cancelled or at least amended their travel plans to meet the health and safeguarding requirements imposed on them by their religion.

Additionally, because of the pandemic, all countries suspended all inbound and outbound flights (except for some commercial flights in the case of some countries—e.g., Egypt). All Halal tourism countries and destinations were among those countries, which suspended flights movements (including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Malaysia, etc.). Such suspension of inbound and outbound flights led to many direct and indirect losses to all Halal tourism destinations. Such losses will have a tremendous negative impact not only on Halal travel companies but also on travel and the whole tourism industry. The following Figure 4 illustrates the projected worldwide 2020 employment losses in the tourism industry because of COVID-19 (millions).

6.1.1. Ceasing of Hajj and Umrah

Even more, Saudi Arabia prohibited any entry to Islamic religious places and destinations, including the entrance to Makah and Madenah until further notice. Umrah was also ceased from March 2020 until further notice. Additionally, although the 2020 Islamic Pilgrimage (customarily referred to as Hajj) was supposed to be conducted during July and August 2020, due to COVID-19, Hajj was on hold and was almost (based on publicly available data and information until mid-July 2020) going be canceled for this year (2020). This was not the decision of Saudi Arabia alone, as other countries announced the cessation of Hajj for this year. In this regard, Singapore announced that its citizens would not perform Hajj this year because of COVID-19 and those who signed up for 2020 Hajj will be pushed forward to 2021 Hajj [59]. The government of Indonesia announced the same [60]. However, the Saudi Arabian authorities announced by mid-July 2020 that the authorities would allow a very limited number of locally residing pilgrims (approximately 10,000 pilgrims) to commence Hajj in 2020. Although the Saudi Arabia Hajj Authority adjusted its decision later on and allowed Hajj for a very limited number of pilgrims in 2020, the numbers were far from the expected number of pilgrims at the start of the year.

Considering the number of pilgrims conducting Hajj and Umrah every year, the cancellation of these two very important Islamic rituals will generate massive negative financial and economic implications for the Saudi Arabian economy as well as the different companies working in Halal tourism and the Halal hospitality industry (hotels, guesthouses, gift shops, restaurants, jewelry shops, transportation operators and companies, etc.). According to the Saudi General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT), in 2019, 2,489,406 people visited KSA for Hajj and 19,158,031 for Umrah [61,62]. The following

Table 13. Number of Hajj pilgrims during the last ten years.

N	Year	Number of Pilgrims
1	2010	2,789,399
2	2011	2,927,717
3	2012	3,161,573
4	2013	1,980,249
5	2014	2,085,238
6	2015	1,952,817
7	2016	1,862,909
8	2017	2,352,122
9	2018	2,371,675
10	2019	2,489,406
Total		23,973,105

Source: Saudi General Authority for Statistics [61].

illustrates the total number of Hajj pilgrims during the last ten years (2010–2020).

6.1.2. Ceasing of Hajj and Umrah Expected Losses

Bearing in mind the cost of Hajj, which ranges from USD 5000 to USD 15,000 per person (as announced on many different worldwide websites, with the availability of much more expensive luxury Hajj packages that can cost up to USD 27,000), the ceasing of Hajj for 2020 cost Saudi Arabia the loss of about USD 12 billion. This is not to mention the other extra money that each pilgrim will spend during his/her stay in Saudi Arabia, which can be around USD 100 per day for each pilgrim. This will count for an extra loss of USD 250 million. If we also considered Umrah, which costs, on average, USD 3000 per Umrah pilgrim, the losses from Umrah between March and September could be in the range of USD 6 billion. Adding all these losses up, the total possible losses for Saudi Arabia’s Halal tourism and hospitality sector will be in the range of USD 18 billion (unfortunately, there is no official figure for the total loses for the ceasing of Hajj and Umrah. However, the author calculated the representative loses for the ceasing of Hajj and Umrah based on the available data in Table 10, and the data available from Saudi General Authority for Statistics [61].

6.1.3. Is It the First Time to Cease Hajj and Umrah?

Many Muslims perceive the complete lockdown due to COVID-19 as a punishment from God and a sign of God’s anger as a result of the sins committed by them and other humans on earth. One of the main reasons for that is the closure of the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah, mosques and other worship places (e.g., churches and synagogue) all over world due to the pandemic. Such closures of two holy cities, mosques and other worship places have a great negative psychological and emotional impact on Muslims, as they had not experienced something like that before and most of them had not even heard of any similar incidents that had led to such closure of holy and worship places. However, this is completely wrong, as Hajj and Umrah have been ceased before for many different reasons. Some sources (such as the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives—Darah, Saudi Arabia) confirmed that Hajj and Umrah have been ceased around 40 times from the early days of Islam to 2020.

According to the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives, there have beeb 40 recorded interruptions for Hajj (and Umrah) in Islamic history, as quoted by Islamic history scholars. The causes of such interruptions varied and ranged from the spread of diseases and epidemics to political turmoil, safety and security instability, as well as high cost and economic turmoil [63].

The Carmatians, which was a group of Shiaa who believed that the pilgrimage rituals were atheist practices and perceived it as idolatry, caused the first recorded interruption for Hajj and Umrah. One of their leaders, Ismail bin Youssef Al-Alawi, and his cohort attacked the crowds of the pilgrims during Hajj in 251 AH (865 AD), killing them in large numbers. However, this was one incident, which affected Hajj only for this year, and afterwards Hajj rituals returned to be performed in the following year. However, the Carmatians continued to attach Hajj pilgrims during their journey to Makkah for performing Hajj [63]. Sixty-four years later, one of the Carmatians’ leaders, Abu Taher Al-Qarmati attacked the holy city of Makkah in 317 AH (929 AD), killing thousands of pilgrims [63].

Moreover, they buried pilgrims’ dead bodies in the well of Zamzam, removed the curtain of the Kaaba, and removed the “black stone” from its place and took it with them to their capital city Hajar (currently Qatif, KSA) where it stayed for ten years [63]. Because of the power of the Carmatians and removal of the “black stone”, Hajj was ceased for the first time since the ritual was imposed in Islam. According to most Islamic history scholars, due to this attack, Hajj and Umrah were ceased for ten years in which no one stood at Arafat or did any of the Hajj or Umrah rituals [63].

Hajj also stopped in 357 AH (968 AD) due to the spread of the so-called “Al-Masheri disease” in Makkah. Afterwards, Hajj was also disrupted twice in 390 AH (1000 AD) and 419 AH (1028 AD) because of the high cost related to perfuming Hajj, as no pilgrims from outside what is now known as Saudi Arabia managed to make Hajj [63]. Hajj also stopped in 492 AH (1098 AD) for a few years due to a lack of security and safety caused by the Crusaders [63].

In 1246 AH (1637 AD), Hajj was affected for the second time by a pandemic which spread from India and killed three-quarters of the pilgrims. Hajj trips also stopped during the French campaign of Egypt and Syria (1798–1801 AD) due to the insecurity of the roads. Moreover, 36 years later, in 1837 AD, epidemics spread to Hajj and continued until 1892 AD. During that period, thousands of pilgrims died daily due to the outbreak of very dangerous epidemics, including cholera [63].

As such, it is clear that epidemics and pandemics are not new phenomena in Hajj and its history. This is both expected and normal due to the nature of Hajj and Umrah, which is characterized by the crowding of a large number of visitors and pilgrims from around the world, not the mention the level of health and safety services that were available in ancient times before the Saudi era. All this has changed now with the excellent level of health, safety, and other services that the Saudi government provide to Hajj and Umrah pilgrims [63].

6.1.4. Moving Forward

Considering the lack of literature on coronavirus on Halal hospitality as well as Halal tourism and travel, there is a necessity to have extra research to fulfil such research gaps. More studies that are empirical are highly needed to test the effects of coronavirus on Halal hospitality and Halal tourism. In this regard, well-established models can be of great benefit in understanding the different effects of coronavirus on Halal hospitality. One of these recommended models is the health belief model (Figure 5). Although the model was introduced back in the 1950s by American public health service social psychologists, it is still considered as one of the best-known and commonly used theories in health behavior inquiries [64]. Accordingly, it can help in understanding the effects of coronavirus on Halal tourism and hospitality.

7. Is Coronavirus the End of Halal Tourism and Hospitality, As We Know It?

Due to the execrable losses that Halal tourism and hospitality firms, as well as Halal tourism destinations, have faced, some practitioners and Halal tourism experts have started to raise some concerns about coronavirus as a starting point to change Halal tourism and hospitality, as we know it. Some pessimists argue that Halal hospitality will take a few years to recover from the coronavirus crisis. Such concerns are motivated by the nature of the pandemic and profound effects that it caused on travel, people mobility, and worldwide tourism activities. Most hotels and hospitality providers will struggle to capture Halal tourists after the pandemic and the cost of doing that is going to be massive. Some scholars (e.g., [25]) have already started to argue that it is vital to examine how the tourism industry will recuperate after COVID-19.

Moreover, travelers’ perception today about safe travel is entirely different from their perception(s) before coronavirus. The majority of travelers now are more concerned about their safety and the safety of their families. As such, travelers’ safety expectations from hotels, travel agencies, and hospitality providers will have a great shift towards a much higher level of safety. The cost of meeting such safety expectations by hotels and hospitality providers will be very high and will definitely affect these providers’ competitive advantage as well as their pricing strategies. Additionally, and as discussed earlier, two of the current major Halal travel trends are the increased importance of price as one of the key factors affecting Muslim travelers’ decision making, and the fact that Halal travel demand is mainly driven by Muslim travelers [17]. Accordingly, the lack of hotels and hospitality providers’ ability to offer competitive packages and prices will have a big negative impact on these hospitality service providers.

Meanwhile, as Muslim travelers mainly drive Halal travel demand, any decrease in Muslim travelers’ income will have a knock-on effect on Halal travel, tourism, and hospitality. With this in mind, and considering that a noteworthy percentage of Muslim travelers are from the Middle East and Gulf (GCC) Countries, the current decrease in oil and gas prices internationally will lead to a decrease in Muslim travelers’ (from this area of the world) disposable income. Even worse, Muslim travelers from other parts of the world have less income (compared with Gulf Countries). This situation will worsen due to the economic conditions post-coronavirus crisis and will even offer such Muslim travelers with less money to spend on Halal travel and hospitality activities. All these factors might lead to a decrease in Muslim travelers’ demand for Halal travel, tourism, and hospitality activities.

Although all these discussed factors are relatively valid from the author’s point of view and can represent a post-coronavirus crisis scenario for the demand for Halal travel, tourism, and hospitality activities, the author disagrees with most of the mentioned concerns.

Firstly, when talking about Halal tourism hospitality, it should be noticed that Halal tourism and hospitality could be divided into two main categories, which are religious hospitality activities (Hajj and Umrah) and other Halal hospitality activities. Considering the nature of religious tourism and hospitality activities (Hajj and Umrah) and the fact that it is part of any Muslim religion, the demand for such activities is inelastic. Moreover, research supports that fact that Muslim travelers, when conducting Hajj and Umrah, are also looking forward to receiving more satisfaction that is beyond religiosity. In this regard, [65] found that expected organizational rewards and enjoyment in helping others drive Umrah travelers’ participation.

As such, the related cost, price, safety or any other hindering circumstances or factors will not have a massive or even noticeable impact on Muslim travelers’ demand for these activities or their willingness to travel to conduct Hajj and Umrah. As discussed earlier, such activities represent one of the pillars of Islam, and accordingly, they represent irreplaceable activities, hence its inelastic demand curve. With such a demand curve (as illustrated in Figure 6), any change in Muslim travelers’ willingness to travel to conduct Hajj and Umrah (∆Q) will always be less than any related cost, price, safety or any other hindering circumstances or factors experienced by such travelers (∆P).

Secondly, concerning the current decrease in oil and gas prices internationally which might lead to a decrease in the disposable income of Muslim travelers from Gull Countries and the Middle East, although this is partially correct, this should be interpreted with a more in-depth view of the situation. First of all, most of any decrease in the disposable income for Muslim travelers in such countries will be passed only (or mainly) to expatriates living in such countries. This can be seen in Saudi Arabia’s decision to reduce expatriates’ salaries working in private sector companies by 40% in early May 2020. Even worse was the Saudi Arabian ministerial decision to allow Saudi private sector companies to terminate expatriates’ contracts. The same happened in the State of Qatar with the decision of the Qatari Ministry of Finance to reduce monthly salaries for expatriates working in the government by 30% starting from the first of June 2020.

Such decisions are expected to be followed by other similar decisions from other Gulf Countries. As such, nationals of such courtiers will be less affected by such a decrease in disposable income. Meanwhile, expatriates typically represent a small percentage of the Halal tourism and Halal hospitality market compared with Gulf Countries nationals. Accordingly, the reduction in their disposable income will not affect the industry severely. In contrast, from a pragmatic point of view, such a reduction in expatriates’ disposable income might benefit the Halal hospitality industry. As almost all the workers and employees in Halal tourism and hospitality are expatriates, salary reductions for such expatriates will lead to a reduction in Halal hospitality firms’ overall cost. Such a decrease in cost will help Halal hospitality firms in surviving the post-coronavirus situation. Additionally, Gulf Country nationals avoid such income reductions and will continue to represent a good segment of Halal tourism and hospitality market.

Moreover, Halal tourism and hospitality are not only meant to be for Muslims, as some non-Muslim tourists are also interested in visiting Halal tourism destinations. Some research was conducted to examine this area of the field (e.g., [66,67]). In this regard, Ref. [66] found that non-Muslim tourists’ loyalty intention to visit Halal destinations is endorsed by their satisfaction and that Halal services offered to non-Muslim tourists add to their Halal trip value.

Accordingly, the author argues that Halal tourism hospitality is here to stay, regardless of coronavirus and its impacts. The industry might suffer from some instability and turbulence, but it will never die. The demand for Halal hospitality will rebuild after coronavirus crisis, and it will continue to grow after that to reach its full potential. As such, coronavirus is not the end of Halal tourism and hospitality as we know it; it is just a stumbling block, and Halal hospitality will recover from it.

8. Conclusions

Unlike other religions, Islam encourages travel and inspires Muslims to travel to every part of the Earth for many different reasons. The holy Quran supports this in many parts [68]. For every Muslim, travelling (for either religious or other reasons) is something that is highly linked to Islamic Shariah. Muslims are required by their religion to travel to get educated, to seek a better life, to perform Islamic religious rituals such as Hajj or Umrah, to seek a cure from illness, tourism and enjoyment, etc. This is supported by many verses in the Quran (the holy book for Muslims) which support and encourage Muslims to travel. Furthermore, Islamic Shariah supports Muslim travelers by offering them some privileges while travelling, based on the travelled distance.

Meanwhile, coronavirus (COVID-19) has gained and will continue to gain a lot of global attention over the coming months. In a comparatively short time, the virus outbreak turned into a pandemic that led to massive negative impacts not only on people’s health and wellbeing but also on the global economy, including the travel and hospitality industry as well as many other industries. Coronavirus led to noticeable changes in consumers’ behavior in many industries worldwide. Such changes will not only affect consumers’ behavior, but also will lead to remarkable changes in marketing communications, promotion spending, as well as some major impacts on the different marketing mix elements. Moreover, based on the review of published work on COVID-19, no papers have been published to examine the impact of coronavirus on Halal tourism, Halal travel, and Halal hospitality. This reflects a great gap in the literature and reinforces the importance and urgency of conducting research studies to inspect coronavirus’ impact on Halal tourism and hospitality in different contexts and countries. Hence, this research tried to investigate the different effects of Coronavirus on the worldwide Halal tourism and Halal hospitality market to enhance current knowledge in this research area.

Based on the research conducted in this paper, Halal travel, Halal hospitality, and Halal tourism are among the emerging notions that are related to the concept of Halal. This is in line with the finding of other researchers, e.g., [1,3,6,14]. However, these concepts (Halal travel, Halal hospitality, and Halal tourism) started to appear in the literature only in the last decade. Meanwhile, the Halal market (with all its Halal aspects) is one of the fastest growing global markets with a very large size that is expected to grow. However, the analysis conducted by the author reveals that some key challenges are facing the Halal market. These challenges include a lack of identical Halal standards, the nonexistence of workable global arrangements for Halal certification and accreditation, the industry being fragmented in nature, the existence of many Halal certification and accreditation organizations, a lack of trust in certification and accreditation organizations, as well as the Halal market still being considered as a niche industry in most countries.

When examining the literature review on COVID-19’s impact on tourism and hospitality, it was found that there are a limited number of published works that were conducted on Coronavirus in the fields of travel, tourism, and hospitality in general. All the concerned research studies were conducted and published in 2020, with the majority of them being published in the last few months. Almost all of these publications are theoretical and conceptual in nature, which is normal and expected due to the very short time between the outbreak of COVID-19 and the dates of publication of these papers. This reflects a gap in the literature and shows the importance of conducting empirical studies to examine the COVID-19-related phenomena in a better way. Only one empirical study was found which employed qualitative methodology depending on three SME case studies to examine marketing innovation for hospitality by SMEs during the coronavirus crisis. In this study, Gustavsson and Larsson (2020) examined marketing innovation for hospitality SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on their findings, SMEs (motivated by changes in their consumer buying behavior) improved their marketing mix as a response to Coronavirus.

Most of the published studies were published in low-quality journals, which are not indexed in well-established international journal quality indices. A relatively high number of the published works were very brief. Moreover, no papers were published to look at the influence of coronavirus on Halal tourism, Halal travel, and Halal hospitality. This reflects a great gap in the literature and reinforces the importance and urgency of conducting research studies to investigate the effect of coronavirus’ impact on Halal tourism and hospitality in different contexts and countries.

Concerning the impact of coronavirus on Halal tourism, most countries suspended all inbound and outbound flights. Such suspension of inbound and outbound flights led to many direct and indirect losses to all Halal tourism destinations. Such losses will have a tremendous negative impact not only on Halal travel companies but also on travel and the whole tourism industry. As per the findings of [21], the revenue of the American hotel industry (per available room) fell by 11.6%, while in China hotel occupancy rates fell by 89% [21]. Moreover, according to the same study, Nicola et al. (2020) argued that American hotels’ losses at the start of the pandemic alone were estimated to be $1.5 bn, with such hotels pursuing around $150 bn of aid from the USA government to be able to deal with the decrease in demand due to COVID-19 [21]. Other scholars within the field provided evidence to support the findings of [21].

The research also revealed that many Muslims perceive the complete lockdown due to COVID-19 as a punishment from God and a sign of God’s anger because of the sins committed by them and other humans on earth. One of the main reasons for that is the closure of the two holy cities of Makah and Madenah, mosques and other worship places (e.g., churches and synagogue) all over earth due to the pandemic. Such closure of two holy cities, mosques and other worship places have great negative psychological and emotional impact on Muslims as they had not experienced something like that before and most of them had not even heard of any similar incidents that had led to such closure of holy and worship places. However, the current research argues that this is not correct and completely wrong, as Hajj and Umrah were ceased before for many different reasons. Some sources (such as the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives—Darah, Saudi Arabia) confirm that Hajj and Umrah have been ceased around 40 times from the early days of Islam to 2020.

Considering the lack of literature on Coronavirus on Halal hospitality as well as Halal tourism and travel, there is a necessity to have extra research to fulfil such research gaps. More studies that are empirical are desperately needed to test the effects of coronavirus on Halal hospitality and Halal tourism. In this regard, well-established models can be of great benefit in understanding the different effects of coronavirus on Halal hospitality. One of these recommended models is the health belief model, as it can help in understanding the effects of Coronavirus on Halal hospitality.

Due to the execrable losses that Halal tourism and hospitality firms, as well as Halal tourism destinations, faced, some practitioners and Halal tourism experts have started to raise some concerns about coronavirus as a starting point to change Halal tourism and hospitality as we know it. Although these concerns are relatively valid from the author’s point of view and can represent a post-coronavirus crisis scenario for the demand for Halal travel, tourism, and hospitality activities, the author disagrees with most of the mentioned concerns. The author argues that Halal hospitality is here to stay, regardless of coronavirus and its impacts. The industry might suffer from some instability and turbulence, but it will never die. The demand for Halal hospitality will rebuild after the coronavirus crisis, and it will continue to grow after that to reach its full potential. As such, coronavirus is not the end of Halal tourism and hospitality as we know it; it is just a stumbling block, and Halal hospitality will recover from it.

As such, it is also very important for governments to understand the changes in consumers’ behavior and other global changes due to coronavirus. Such understanding will help these governments in building or adjusting relevant policies that can guarantee the availability of needed resources, policies, and strategies to deal with such changes effectively and efficiently. Additionally, this paper assists practitioners and scholars in interpreting the effect of coronavirus on global Halal tourism and the Halal hospitality industry. Furthermore, it enhances the very limited number of research projects concerned with coronavirus’ impact on global Halal tourism and Halal hospitality industry.

Limitations and Directions for Future Research

Like any other research paper, the current paper has some limitations that need to be considered. However, the existence of such limitations does hinder the quality of this paper. One of these limitations is related to the nature of this research, which is a conceptual one. Although the foundations discussed within the paper provide suitable ground to explore the different aspects of the phenomena under investigation, it is still important to support such foundations with empirical research that can give reliable findings that could be generalized to enhance the existed knowledge within the field. A second limitation is that the paper discusses the effect of coronavirus on Halal tourism and Halal hospitality in general terms. Hence, it is highly recommended to conduct more research studies that can focus on a certain aspect of Halal tourism and Halal hospitality. As no other research has been conducted to inspect the influence of coronavirus on Halal tourism and Halal hospitality, there is a huge necessity to perform additional research studies to fulfil such research gaps. This is in line with the findings of [69], who argued that, even though Halal tourism research is increasing, it is still a residual zone for conducting more scientific research. Some of the recommended directions for future studies include:

○

Investigating the psychological impact of coronavirus on Halal tourism and hospitality.

○

Investigating the influence of coronavirus on Halal tourism and hospitality companies’ internal customers (employees).

○

Investigating the influence of coronavirus on sustainable Halal tourism and hospitality.

○

Investigating the influence of coronavirus on Halal tourism destinations local communities.

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Investigating different innovative marketing activities and strategies to overcome the negative impacts of Coronavirus on Halal tourism and hospitality firms.

○

The use of technology (e.g., block-chain technology) and ICT by Halal tourism and hospitality firms to cope with Coronavirus.

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Big data as an instrument to overcome the negative influence of coronavirus on Halal tourism and hospitality firms.

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Coronavirus as an opportunity for Halal tourism and hospitality firms.