Article Review: Evaluating Research on Halal-Friendly Hotels

This report provides a critical review of an article titled "Halal-friendly hotels: impact of halal-friendly attributes on guest purchase behaviours in the Thailand hotel industry." The review analyzes the research methodology employed by the authors, focusing on the qualitative and quantitative approaches used to investigate the relationship between halal-friendly hotel attributes and the behavioral intentions of Muslim customers. The report evaluates the appropriateness of the chosen methodologies, comparing them with other techniques found in similar peer-reviewed papers within the tourism, leisure, and hospitality management fields. It also examines the article's design methodology, including the methods and results sections, and offers recommendations for alternative qualitative-quantitative approaches. The analysis covers various aspects, such as the use of in-depth interviews, correlational quantitative methods, and the application of statistical tools like IBM-SPSS and AMOS 24.0. The report also discusses how the research aligns with existing studies and suggests additional methods, such as case studies and descriptive quantitative methods, to enhance the understanding of the topic. The evaluation aims to assess the validity and reliability of the research findings and their implications for the tourism and hospitality sectors.

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1ARTICLE REVIEW
“Halal-friendly hotels: impact of halal-friendly attributes on guest purchase behaviours in
the Thailand hotel industry”, written by YoksamonJeaheng, Amr Al-Ansi and Heesup Han.
Author of this article tried to recognise the features of the halal-friendly hotel and analyse the
role of these characteristics in influencing the behavioural objectives of Muslim customers
(Jeaheng, 2019). The aim of this report is to critically evaluate the appropriateness of the design
methodology proposed in this article and compare with other peer-reviewed paper.
Answer 1:
The researcher of this article adopted phenomenological qualitative analysis. Researcher
of this article used an in-depth individual interview to analyse the knowledge about this issue.
For the interview, twelve Muslims are chosen who have experience of overseas tourism, live in
Muslim and non-Muslim international hotel. The travel experience and interests of these twelve
Muslims are analysed. This qualitative analysis aims to study the impact of halal-friendly hotel
on the behavioural intention of the customers. For this research, forty-one halal-friendly hotels
are chosen based on six attributes which are halal foods and beverage, room facilities, prayer
facilities, perceived privacy, entertainment and recreation activities and halal service quality with
Islamic teaching. Prior research on halal tourism and its characteristics is helpful to understand
the attributes of halal tourism. However further research is necessary to understand the scenario
more appropriately. To analyse this scenario, researchers have used phenomenological
qualitative analysis. To identify the underlying factors of halal tourism, reasons, opinions and
motivations implication of the phenomenological qualitative analysis is necessary. Qualitative
analysis delivers insights into the scenario and improves hypothesis. So it can be said the use of
qualitative analysis to research further in this scenario is justified.
In this part, the qualitative method, used in this article, will be compared with other
articles. Other qualitative methods are ethnography, narrative, grounded theory, and case study.
Researchers of “Halal-friendly hotels: impact of halal-friendly attributes on guest purchase
behaviours in the Thailand hotel industry” have used phenomenological qualitative analysis. In
this approach, the researcher has the responsibility to analyse every aspect of the case scenario
and collect information about the scenario. This research can help explain the issue or describe
the issue. Previous case studies regarding halal foods, tourism, leisure, and hospitality
management are analysed by the researcher to conduct further research. Though it looks that

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conducting this qualitative method is difficult to conduct yet it is one of the simplest qualitative
methods to apply. To analyse the relation between halal tourism on customer behaviour, using
the case study qualitative method can be the best way. Analysing several case study and previous
research can be used to analyse the scenario more in-depth. Research has found that there is a
correlation between these two variables which are halal tourism and customer behaviour. Muslim
customers prefer that type of hotels, where halal-friendly hotel attributes are available (Han,
2019). Another qualitative method is grounded qualitative method. In this method researcher
analyses primarily interviews and previous documents regarding the scenario. To identify the
impression of halal tourism on Muslim customers, the researcher has used Twitter to collect data.
At first, by using the application programming interface method, researchers collected data about
85,259 tweets. The reasons for which they prefer halal-friendly hotel are identified through the
data analysis (Ainin, 2020). After that existing documents and case studies are analysed
thoroughly to get a clear idea about this issue. By analysing the data it is found that tweets can be
categorised into three sections which are the promotion of tourism in a provided area, praise of
tourist attraction, and appropriate analysis of the content. The reasons for which they prefer
halal-friendly hotel are halal foods, prayer facilities the privacy issue. So it can be said that to
maintain the key aspects and practice Islamic rituals, Muslim customer prefers halal hotel while
travelling internationally. To analyse an issue in-depth, and maintain the progress further
qualitative analysis is helpful for the researchers. This method helps the researchers to justify the
research question. By collecting data, interpreting the data and analysing previous case study and
scenario are helpful to draw the justification.
Answer 2:
In the “Halal-friendly hotels: impact of halal-friendly attributes on guest purchase
behaviours in the Thailand hotel industry” article, researchers used a correlational quantitative
method to analyse the case scenario. There are two variants in this article which are attributes of
halal-friendly hotels and behavioural intentions of Muslim customers. Researchers of this article
have tried to identify the co-relation between these two variants. For the data collection purpose,
Thailand is chosen as it a popular destination for Muslim travellers. Whether features of the
halal-friendly hotel has the ability to attract Muslim travellers or not is analysed in this report.
The features of the halal-friendly hotel are halal foods and beverage, room facilities, perceived

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privacy, prayer facilities, halal service quality with Islamic teaching and entertainment and
recreation activities. Now whether using this quantitative method to conduct further research is
justified or not will be analysed. Though several pieces of research are done to correlate between
these two variants yet it can be said that further in-depth research about the consumer behaviour
of Muslim customer towards halal-friendly hotel will be helpful for tourism and hospitality
management. In this article, researchers have tried to correlate two variants. So using the
correlational quantitative method is the best quantitative method to find the link between these
two variants.
In this article, the correlational quantitative method is used by the researchers to relate
two variants which are attributes of halal-friendly hotels and behavioural intentions of Muslim
customers. In this part, comparison with other quantitative method used in other articles will be
done. There are four types of quantitative methods which are the descriptive quantitative method,
correlational quantitative method, casual-comparative or quasi-experimental quantitative
method, and experimental quantitative method. In this article, researchers have used descriptive
quantitative method. This quantitative method analysis the present status of the chosen issues.
Researchers of this article use this method to provide systematic information about the issue.
After collecting data about the scenario, researchers develop a hypothesis (Al-Ansi, 2019). To
collect the data and information, researchers of this article have chosen the units carefully. A
description of the features of halal foods are identified and consumer behaviour of Muslim
customers such as trust, satisfaction, intention and recommendation, is done by the researchers of
this article. An analysis of existing studies is done by the researchers of this article. The
researchers of this article have conduct descriptive quantitative method to describe the case
scenario further which will be helpful for the halal logistics and hospitality management.
Another quasi-experimental quantitative method is used in this article. Researchers of this article
have conducted this research to find the cause-effect relationship between two variants which are
behavioural intentions of Muslim customers and attributes of halal logistics. Though this type of
method has similarity with true experiments. Whether halal-logistics have the ability to influence
the consumer behaviour of Muslim customers or not is analysed in this article (Kamaruddin,
2012). The behavioural intentions of Muslim customers are the reason for the business growth of
halal logistics. By using quasi-experimental research, researchers of this article have tried to
analyse the issue in-depth. It can be said that by implementing the quasi-experimental

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quantitative method, researchers of this article have tried to find the role of consumer behaviour
of Muslim customers on the business growth of halal logistics. Thus it can be said that the use of
the quantitative method to analyse these issues in-depth is justified. As a quantitative method is
more accepted, scientific, objective, focused and fast, it can be said that the use of the
quantitative method is appropriate.
Answer 3:
In this part, the appropriateness of the design methodology, used in the article, will be
critically evaluated. Methods and results of the chosen article will be analysed in this part. An in-
depth interview is organised by researchers. Candidates for the interview are chosen based on
certain attributes which are the previous experience of international travel, both male and female,
Muslim, living experience in both Muslim and non-Muslim hotels. The experience of those
candidates is critically evaluated. By analysing previous studies regarding this issue and by
analysing the characteristics of hotel 41 halal-friendly hotels are chosen. Common attributes of
these hotels are halal foodstuffs and beverage, room facilities, perceived privacy, prayer
facilities, halal service quality with Islamic teaching and entertainment and recreation activities.
The four-item scale of consumer evaluation tool is used to analyse the data. Existing studies are
used to conduct the three item-scale of affective evaluation. The purchasing behaviour of the
consumer, willingness to pay, and word of mouth are component of three scale item. Two
professionals from the tourism and hospitality sector recheck the survey questions. For the data
collection, three versions of the questionnaire are used by the researchers. A non-probability
convenience sampling technique is used by the researchers. Data of 380 survey forms are
analysed to derive the conclusion. For the data analysis, researchers of this article have used
IBM-SPSS and AMOS 24.0. The researchers of this article have analysed three aspects which
are cognition evaluation, a ective evaluation, and behavioural intention. By implementing theff
explanatory factor analytic approach, confirmatory factor analysis, researchers of this article
have found the result. The identifies that those exclusive factors which are halal foods and
beverage, room facilities, perceived privacy, prayer facilities, and halal-friendly service and
entertainment and recreation activities are statistically perfect for the data analysis.
The researcher of “Halal-friendly hotels: impact of halal-friendly attributes on guest
purchase behaviours in the Thailand hotel industry” article have used phenomenological

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qualitative analysis and correlational quantitative method to identify the relation between two
variants which are attributes of halal-friendly hotels and behavioural intentions of Muslim
customers. In this part, it will be analysed which other qualitative method and quantitative
method can be used to analyse this issue. To conduct a risk assessment of halal products and
services and analyse its impact on the tourism industry. By using the method, researchers have
analysed the casual models which create high and low desired responses of halal customers. This
method is beneficial for the researcher to analyse the issues from various aspects. In-depth
analysis can be done to identify the various types of risk associated with halal foods and services
on the outcomes of the model. To explain the complex mind set up of customers, complexity
theory is used by the author (Olya, 2018). It will help the researchers to develop a new
conclusion. So it can be said that the authors of “Halal-friendly hotels: impact of halal-friendly
attributes on guest purchase behaviours in the Thailand hotel industry” can use case study
qualitative method to find the link between behavioural intentions of Muslim customers and
attributes of halal-friendly hotels. To conduct further research in the case scenario, researchers of
this article have used descriptive quantitative method (Islam, 2020) Through description, this
method is used to analyse any issue. The researchers of this article use this method to analyse
whether religion and gender can be influenced by mom-verbal communication of hospitality. It
can be said that using this qualitative and quantitative method to analyse the impact gender and
religion on the non-verbal communication of hospitality can be helpful for the researcher to
analyse this issue from a completely different perspective. That will be helpful not only for the
development of tourism but also for hospitality management. Further in-depth research about the
impact of halal tourism and its influences on the consumer behaviour of Muslim consumer will
help the tourism and hospitality management to identify key attributes through which they can
attract Muslim customers.

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References:
Ainin, S. F. (2020). Sentiment analyses of multilingual tweets on halal tourism. Tourism
Management Perspectives , 34.
Al-Ansi, A. O. (2019). Effect of general risk on trust, satisfaction, and recommendation intention
for halal food. International Journal of Hospitality Management , 210-219.
Han, H. A.-A. (2019). Exploring halal-friendly destination attributes in South Korea: Perceptions
and behaviors of Muslim travelers toward a non-Muslim destination. Tourism Management ,
151-164.
Islam, M. S. (2020). Non-verbal communication in hospitality: At the intersection of religion and
gender. International Journal of Hospitality Management , 84.
Jeaheng, Y. A.-A. (2019). Halal-friendly hotels: Impact of halal-friendly attributes on guest
purchase behaviors in the Thailand hotel industry. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing , 729-
746.
Kamaruddin, R. I. (2012). Willingness to pay for halal logistics: the lifestyle choice. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences , 722-729.
Olya, H. G.-a. (2018). Risk assessment of halal products and services: Implication for tourism
industry. Tourism Management , 279-291.