Indonesian tourism officials are pinning their hopes on Lombok to boost Islamic tourism in the country.
Lombok has long been an alternative beach holiday destination to neighbouring Hindu-dominated Bali, and is now ramping up efforts to promote its Islamic heritage.
It comes at an opportune time as tourist numbers from its major international market Australia could see a shortfall in response to the impending execution of two Australian citizens on death row.
A ‘sharia’ tourism drive is targeting high spending tourists from the Middle East.
A report by Islamic ranking website CrescentRating said the global Islamic tourism market will be worth almost $200 billion within five years.
Indonesia is keen for a larger share of the segment as it lags its much smaller Southeast Asian neighbours.
Indonesia attracted just 8.8 million international visitors compared 25 million in Malaysia and 26.5 million in Thailand.
Of those, just 160,000 came from the Gulf region.
The government tourist ministry has produced booklets promoting Indonesia and Lombok as ‘Muslim friendly’ and reportedly plans to build an Islamic centre with a mosque, a hotel and a study centre, aimed at visiting Muslims.
Local tourism head M. Nasir is confident Islamic and general tourism can co-habit together harmoniously without causing offense or creating tensions.
"We will make zones so that travel agents and guides have clear options depending on their guests’ wishes," he said, adding that all visitors are made aware of dress code when visiting religious sites and villages.
