Emerging sharia hotel in Indonesia: Understanding the tourists’ motivation and values

Abstract

The emergence of Halal Tourism is gaining attention both from managerial and academic aspects. Several countries develop Halal Tourism to attract a large number of Muslim tourists. However, there is a limited research investigating the potential of Sharia Hotel from the consumers’ perspective. The purpose of this study is to gain understanding of tourist’s motivation and values to choose and stay in Sharia Hotel. An in-depth interview with three hotel managers and 18 visitors at Sharia Hotel in Yogyakarta and Solo, Indonesia was conducted. The results of the study found that there are three groups of tourists staying at Sharia Hotel. The first group was people who are motivated by seeking for novelty experience who put high importance on freedom and fun. The second group was people who are driven by benefits maximization that consider hotel’s functional attributes (i.e., price, place, comfort). The third group was people who choose Sharia as “the way of life”. They committed to Sharia principles in all aspects of their daily life. The study concluded with managerial implications and directions for further research.