The EXPLORING PROBLEMS AND STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE HALAL TOURISM IN LOMBOK, NUSA TENGGARA BARAT

Abstract

Lombok Island in Indonesia has recently been awarded as the World’s Best Halal Honeymoon Destination and the World’s Best Halal Tourism Destination, resulting in a significant increase in international tourist arrivals, especially among Muslim travellers. However, the development of halal tourism in Lombok still faces various obstacles that limit its potential market share. This study aims to identify the priority factors hindering the optimisation of halal tourism and to formulate appropriate policy strategies using the Analytic Network Process (ANP) method. The results indicate that the main internal barriers are difficulties in accessing tourism sites, lack of supporting infrastructures, shortage of capable human resources, and insufficient promotion, while the main external barriers include the low number of foreign Muslim tourist visits, limited understanding of halal tourism practices, absence of direct flights, and increasing consumer demand for more services. Based on these findings, several strategic priorities have been proposed, namely enhancing halal tourism products and services, promoting halal tourism more intensively, and establishing supportive government policies to ensure sustainable development of Lombok’s halal tourism sector.