Dealing daily with food and wine tastings, you need to be prepared to satisfy the needs and tastes of all guests. Situations often arise that require flexibility and quick adaptation, such as when there are guests with health issues related to allergies and intolerances (first and foremost celiac disease), or people who have made ethical choices (vegetarians and vegans) or religious choices (Muslims and Jews, for example); all situations that affect their diet and require the ability to offer tastings different from the classic cured meats and cheeses. In the case of vegetarian, vegan, or food-intolerant guests, it is still difficult to offer tastings that are satisfying in terms of taste and appearance, but the frequency with which these exceptions now occur is leading us to develop valid alternatives. In the case of guests whose diet is influenced by religious choices, such as halal tourists, the situation is more complicated. We talk about the halal or muslim friendly tourism segment in reference to Muslim travelers. "Halal" is an Arabic term that means "permitted" or everything that is allowed according to Islam, the opposite of what is "haram", "forbidden". Some interesting research shows that since 2016, Muslim tourism has grown by 30% worldwide, leading to the creation of restaurants, hotels, and other facilities attentive to its needs: they offer menus with dishes free of pork (forbidden in Islam), resorts with separate pools for men and women, flights with only non-alcoholic beverages, and itineraries with breaks that allow praying five times a day, as prescribed by the Quran. According to a Mastercard study, in the next ten years the turnover of halal tourism, that is, compliant with Islamic law, will rise from the current 180 to 300 billion dollars, about 265 billion euros.
Until a few years ago, Muslims traveled mainly to visit distant relatives, for a trip to their country of origin or for pilgrimage, but now things have changed. On the destination front, also due to the fact that the preferred period is increasingly becoming summer (with the consequent search for cooler climates), the choice falls mainly on destinations in Asia and the Far East, preferred over European countries. Among the most popular destinations are Indonesia and Malaysia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, followed by the United Arab Emirates and some non-Muslim majority countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. Among the preferred European destinations are the United Kingdom, France, and Spain, unlike Italy. For Muslims, however, traveling in non-Muslim countries is not easy: partly because of the difficulty in finding dishes suitable for their diet, which prohibits alcohol and pork, therefore lard and many cured meats, and requires a particular method of slaughtering animals; partly because hotels, spas, and beaches often do not provide separate facilities for men and women, which would allow women to feel comfortable. The halal tourism segment is growing strongly and that is why OTAs are developing specific applications to meet this demand. Halal Booking is a search engine dedicated to Muslim travelers. But to attract this rapidly growing tourist segment, accommodation and restaurant facilities should have Halal Certification, a quality certification that attests that products, whether food, chemical, pharmaceutical, or cosmetic, comply with the ethical-religious standards of Islamic Sharia, and are therefore suitable for the life of the final Muslim consumer. In Italy, in the food sector, halal certification guarantees that foods, in addition to complying with Italian and European regulations on hygiene and safety, are prepared according to Islamic rules. To define a product as "Halal," it is necessary to obtain the appropriate certification from one of the accredited Italian bodies, such as the certification company Halal Italia Srl.
