Japanese island set to woo Muslim tourists

City has begun to make changes to accommodate Muslim tourists by building more prayer rooms

Japan’s Hokkaido Island intends to work with Malaysia’s Halal Industry Development Corporation (HDC) to make its capital Sapporo more “Muslim-friendly”.

“The city has begun to make changes to accommodate Muslim travellers by building more prayer rooms and publishing a list of halal restaurants,” Nozomi Ota, who heads Sapporo’s Developing Local Cuisines in Observance with the Cultures of Muslim Tourists project said.

Sapporo PHOTO: JAPAN-GUIDE.COM

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“We hope travellers can enjoy our food in Sapporo and feel safe. We will work with the HDC and fly some people to Malaysia to learn about the halal food,” she informed reporters in Chuo-ku.

Ota and her team have been working with Halal industries in Indonesia to tap the Muslim market in South-East Asia. They have also published a list of restaurants in Sapporo serving Japanese style food approved by the local government as being safe for Muslims.

Hokkaido PHOTO: JAPAN-GUIDE.COM

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Around 28,500 Malaysian tourists visited Japan in December 2013, up 65.5% from the previous year. AirAsia flight D7 550 will fly from Kuala Lumpur to Sapporo every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

This article originally appeared on The Star