New Step from Islamic Countries for Tourism: OIC, the Concept of Capital City of Islamic Tourism

3C - Islamic Pilgrimage

At the end of 2013, in Gambia, all members countries of OIC (the Organization of Islamic Cooperation) agreed to hold a conference to explore and develop Islamic tourism potential in member countries. After this meeting, in Indonesia 4^th member countries’ Tourism Ministries’ Coordination meeting was organized in June 2014. Main discussions of the conference were on understanding the growing demand of Islamic values in global economy and tourism industry. Bases on these goals, OIC announced the concept of “Tourism Capital City of Islamic Countries” firstly and for 2015 Jerusalem, 2016 Konya / Turkey, 2017 Madinah / Saudi Arabia, 2018 Tabriz / Iran were selected as Islamic tourism capital cities. The concepts of Halal, halal food, halal tourism and as a new step capital city of Islamic tourism mean that Muslim world wants to take place in the market because of advantages of economic gains and marketing images of tourism. The study tries to show the last attacks of Muslim world to tourism. The study will provide some example activities from last two capital cities’ (Jerusalem, Konya) and will examine the results or effects of these tourism activities.