These predictions have led to a growth in the number of hotel rooms to be built in the Makkah region. Many hotel development companies are announcing their projects – including Abdul Latif Jameel Real Estate Investment Company – which is investing US$ 3.2 billion, making it a major hospitality development project in Makkah expected to provide 8,500 rooms.[2]

The Kingdom Hotel Expansion Summit, themed ‘harnessing a thriving future for the Saudi hospitality industry’ and being organised by leading French business information firm naseba, commences tomorrow in Riyadh to address the Kingdom’s increasing tourism requirements.

The summit discusses the role of Saudi Arabia as an important regional hub for hospitality development and hosts international experts and speakers from the sector. It addresses issues including hospitality as a foundation for economic growth, energy management, and food and beverage trends. Its timeliness was confirmed by Christophe Landais, Managing Director at Accor Middle East, who noted his pleasure at attending the event for the second year running, highlighting that it is “the perfect platform to showcase Accor Middle East’s growing hotel portfolio in the Kingdom.”

Several hospitality solution providers including IDIS, Schneider Electric and Philips are delivering keynote presentations on innovative and upcoming products. Tomorrow’s first session discusses the hospitality industry outlook with an opening panel discussion on how hospitality can act as a foundation for economic growth and how businesses are embracing this change. The discussion involves detailed viewpoints from the perspectives of government, owner and operator.

Many hoteliers, including Hilton and Nobu hospitality, are expected to announce the details of their upcoming projects in several press conferences being organised in conjunction with this initiative. Christophe Landais added “we have five committed properties in the pipeline: ibis Riyadh Olaya Street (2012), ibis Yanbu (2013), ibis Jeddah Malik Road (2014), Adagio Jeddah Malik Road (2014) and Novotel Jizan (2015). The Saudi market continues to be an important market … and we are fully supportive of Saudi Arabia’s travel, tourism and hospitality industry”.

Fabien Faure, naseba’s Managing Director, added “our hospitality summits are increasingly becoming the preferred platform among major hoteliers to announce upcoming projects as well as source global suppliers. We are looking at over 300 hoteliers, developers and executive chefs attending the summit making it one of the most popular gatherings for decision makers in the Middle East.”

The two-day summit will take place on May 26^thand 27^that the InterContinental Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

For media information, please call Ardaman Sidhu on +9714 367 1383 or email ardamans@naseba.com

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Dr. K. Ravindranath, Chairman & MD, Global Hospitals Group, said “With about two billion Muslims worldwide and a major number of international health travellers coming to Global Healthcity from the Islamic nations, we see Halal certification as a form of approval that boosts our patients’ trust and confidence in our range of hospital services. To earn the certification, Global Health City had to meet strict Islamic guidelines dealing with hygiene & dietary regulations of global standards.”

“This Halal certification will further help in boosting medical value travel in our country and showcasing our world class infrastructure.” He further added.

Mr. Mohamed Jinna, CEO, Halal India stated “We have great heritage for service and hospitality in India which also signifies that we can take good care of patients. The state of art technologies available in medical care is just perfect for overseas patients.  All we need to do is understand their culture and custom so that we accommodate them well and make them feel truly at home”  This way we can respect their values and belief and at the same time cater to this niche market in India.”

Global Health City is one of the few hospitals in the world to have Halal certification. Halal, an Arabic word meaning “lawful or permitted”, is the certification given by the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia. The concept of Halal, is not just being applied to food, but it includes services and infrastructure as per rules in Quran. Global Health City provides special desk for such patients which includes patient managers and co-ordinators who are caring and  knowledgeable about the language, culture and expectations of the patient from the Islamic world. The hospital provides prayer room with Friday prayers, customized cuisine & Arabic TV channels in the rooms.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Chandra Sekhar, Executive Director, Global Hospital Group said “As with the concept of Halal Friendly Medical Tourism it’s a proven set of services which helps hospital attract more and more patients from SAARC & S.E Asia region as well as from various other countries. The biggest example of countries which has already implemented this concept is Thailand, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, UK and Malaysia.”

GLOBAL HEALTH CITY

Global Health City, Chennai is a 500 bedded super specialty tertiary care facility, with a capacity to expand to 1000 beds. It renders 360 degree advanced tertiary healthcare services with multi-super speciality and multi-organ transplant services. With the finest combination of expertise, experience, state-of-the art technology and well coordinated team work, every step is aimed at ensuring excellence in patient care.

The Global Hospitals Group started with its first Hospital a decade ago in Hyderabad. Today, it has nine hospitals with over 2000 beds, strategically spread across the country with branches now in Bangalore and Chennai and many more in advanced stages of planning and implementation, one such being the Mumbai facility which is proposed to be operational by the end of the current financial year. Each unit is a world class tertiary care multi super specialty Hospital with facilities matching the best in the world and offering advanced patient care of international standards.

Halal India

Halal India (HI) is as an Independent Certification body which is recognized by the Government of India. Halal India is one of the established Halal Certification body in India. Halal India Certification is becoming more relevant in today’s market mainly because people are more aware of the Halal concept it is not just about religious related matters but it extends to the products or services being deemed safe for consumption as well as have health benefits.

Halal India is recognized by IHIA (International Halal Integrity Alliance, Malaysia) who is a partner of the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). It has been recognized by the 57 OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference) Countries, in principle member with the World Halal Council and Intertek Testing Services, a testing company, are its global partners.

Hospitals eye ‘halal’ certification to attract patients from Middle East

Pushpa Narayan, Times of India

CHENNAI: There are two things that worry almost every patient from Islamic countries who come to Indian hospitals: the meat they eat and the direction of Mecca. With more than 75% of the medical tourists being from the Middle East, hospitals are eyeing ‘halal’ certification to make them feel at home.

On Monday, Chennai-based Global Health Citysaid it has became the first in the country to receive the ‘halal’ certification from the Halal Development Authority. The certification would mean they get ‘halal’ meat in food and have ‘quiblah’ (the direction of Mecca) signs in every room and prayer hall. Muslims offer prayers facing ‘quiblah.’

At least five leading hospital groups in the country including Apollo Hospitals and Fortis are in talks with the authority, said Halal India general manager Mohamed Noman Lateef. In Chennai, Mehta Hospitals and Lifeline Hospitals have also sent applications for the certification.

Halal India, is an independent Halal Certification body which is recognised by the Indian government and deals with certification of food, cosmetics and drugs as per the Shariah law. Halal is anything that is legal or lawful for Muslims. In terms of meat, halal applies to the kind of meat (pork is banned), their health condition and the way they are killed. The butcher must make a recitation to God and cut the jugular vein, carotid artery and the windpipe with a sharp knife. The animal can’t be stunned before it is killed.

To ensure the meat used in the Global hospital’s kitchen is ‘halal,’ officials from Halal India visited the slaughter house from where the meat is purchased. “It’s not just about food or prayer hall, it’s about lifestyle. For any Muslim it is important that any business performed in their daily lives is clean, hygienic and not detrimental to either their health or wellbeing as specified in the religious text. In that sense, it is a new benchmark for quality,” said Halal India business development manager Sheetal Bajaj.

Hospital chairman Dr K Ravindranath said Halal certification was a form of approval that boosts patients’ confidence. “To earn the certification, Global Health City had to meet strict Islamic guidelines dealing with hygiene and dietary regulations of global standards.” The hospital’s international business vice-president M Zakariah Ahmed said after Joint Commission International (JCI) this would be one of the biggest certification process hospitals in the country are aiming for.

Every room will also have a sticker that gives the exact direction of Mecca. “I tell every patient the food is halal. But I feel they would be happy to see the certification,” said Global Hospital’s international patients executive Vireesh Singh. “We tell them that we make public announcements for prayer and ensure that we give women a separate place during prayer,” he said.

Transplant surgeon Dr Madhu Shankar agrees. “People from the Middle East have a different culture. We don’t enter the female patient’s room without their permission. A female nurse will walk in first and seek permission for a male doctor’s entry,” he said.

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DUBAI: Bangkok is moving in the direction of having its world-renowned spa establishments and treatments, “conform to halal regulations,” in a move to lure more tourists from the Middle East.

Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)-International Marketing deputy governor and in-charge of the European, African, Middle East and American markets Juthaporn Rerngronasa, during her recent visit to Dubai, said this is one of the novel ideas the government is undertaking.

“We are developing the Thai spa to conform to halal regulations, with the organic products and the men and women having their own private rooms,” she said.

In an interview with The Gulf Today, Rerngronasa said a few thousand of the spas in her country already have their unique herbal treatments in halal form.

She repeated that similar to the genuine Thai spa boutiques in the UAE, primarily in Dubai, these already have separate rooms for men and women with male masseurs attending to the former and  masseuses attending to the latter.

“All they have to do is check on the list which spas are already offering halal services,” Rerngronasa said.

“The Middle East is a very potential market for us,” Rerngronasa also said.

TAT regional office figures showed that for 2011, out of the 19.23 million tourists from all over the world, 651,912 tourists from Iran and the six Gulf countries visited various parts of Thailand, spending an average of 10 days with tourism receipts of between 4,000 and 5,000 Bahts a day or $153 a day.

The 19.23 million tourists spent $25 billion while the 651,912 spent $1.093 million.

Though there has been a decrease of 3.38 per cent in the first three months of 2012, the slump coming mostly from Iran, which according to the TAT regional office was the number one source of tourists in 2011, the visiting tourism official still expressed a positive outlook.

This is brought about by the continuous development of family-inspired tourism destinations and packages, including the expansion and modernisation of the Phuket International Airport, eyed to be the second international gateway of the country, which would service 12.5 million visitors in 2014.

Delta Ban Travel and Tours tour manager Mophammad Valimirza, whose clients are basically from Iran, mentioned of the astute marketing and advertising schemes employed by Bangkok.

“They work in very close co-ordination with people like us on the ground to know what our clients really want and work on these,” he added.

Discovery Holidays-Asian, Middle East and Gulf marketing director Eric Anthony Culaton shared the view that Bangkok has been very keen on promoting the country throughout the year, holding roadshows in the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam and India, besides Japan and South Korea.

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Officials of tourism agencies from Arab countries visit the Black Sea provinces of Kastamou and Sinop, and explain the reason why Arabs choose to come to Turkey.

Officials from tourism agencies from Arab countries, have spoken about why their citizens chose to come to Turkey for holidays. Among the most important factors they detailed were the food, the shared history, the natural beauty, and religious similarities between Turkey and their home countries.

The officials from Oman, Kuwait, Qatar Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi visited touristic and historical places in the Black Sea provinces of Sinop and Kastamonu over the weekend. The Western Black Sea Promotional Tour was organized with the cooperation of Turkish Airlines (THY), the Kastamonu Confederation (Kas-Kon), and the Turkish-Middle East Tourism Council Agencies.

Nasim Syed from Kuwait said his citizens chose to come to Turkey with their family since it was a Muslim country like Kuwait and so also used halal food. “Turkey is a Muslim country. At the same time, it attracts our citizens because the roots of the Ottoman Empire are on this land, and the Ottoman Empire protected and governed Arab countries in the past. Halal food and tasty dishes are other reasons for them to come to Turkey. Its weather is nice, too.”

Oman’s Samiri al-Ajmi said that there were very beautiful places in Kastamonu. “The city has a natural beauty.” He said the first thing that came to his mind about Turkey was that it was a good country for tourism, adding, “It has been said that the green areas in Turkey do not exist in any other place. I saw it when I came here. The fact that it is between the East and the West, Asia and Europe is very important in terms of tourism.”

Interest increasing every year
Sree Kumar, a travel agency official from Abu Dhabi, said his agency organized tours to Turkey two or three times a year, and that they had been working with Turkey for 15 years. “People’s interest in Turkey is increasing every year.”

Kumar said there were many people in Abu Dhabi who wished to visit Turkey. “Tours are organized particularly to Istanbul, Yalova and Bursa. Trips on the Bosphorus, historical areas and touristic venues draw the attention of our people. Its history is also particularly attractive.” He added that the opening of a new airport would encourage further tourism in Kastamonu.

Saudi Arabian Muhammet Nas?r said Turkey’s natural beauty had also drawn the attention of Arab tourists. “Turkey is a beautiful country, and it does not require a visa. This is what first attracts us. We also have the same religion, and this is why our citizens want to come to Turkey so much,” Nas?r said.

Bhauna Singh from Dubai said the reason why Dubai’s people came to Turkey was the hospitality of Turkish people and their smiling faces. He added that Dubai’s tourists generally liked to visit multi-cultural places, and so Turkey fits the bill.

KASTAMONU – Anatolia News Agency

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Abu Dhabi has significantly expanded its business travel market in recent years, particularly the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) segment.

Forecasts from the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (ADTCA) now estimate that the MICE market should double in value by 2020 to reach almost $1.4bn, with the segment earmarked to play a significant role in Abu Dhabi’s overall economic expansion.

The move to channel funding into infrastructure for business tourism has helped the emirate strengthen its position as an events destination despite tough regional competition. A report commissioned by the ADTCA and issued on March 26 said the direct economic impact of business events was expected to expand 7% annually between now and 2020. The ADTCA has already set itself an ambitious target of increasing four-fold the number of MICE events staged and doubling visitor numbers for the segment by 2015.

Lois Hall, the director of the annual Gulf Incentive, Business Travel and Meeting Exhibition (GIBTM), which is held annually in Abu Dhabi, believes that the rolling out of new infrastructure in the emirate has provided the foundations for growth in the emirate’s MICE segment.

“Abu Dhabi’s business tourism, meetings and incentive infrastructure has expanded significantly over the past year,” she said in an interview in the March edition of Travel and Tourism News. “Business tourism currently accounts for approximately 70% of Abu Dhabi’s hotel guest profile, with 10% of this emanating from the MICE segment.”

While the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, which is the largest venue of its kind in the Middle East, remains a popular choice for major events in the emirate, a number of hotels have added conference and exhibition halls to their facilities as they look to capitalise on growth in the market.

Omer Kaddouri, the chief operating officer at Rotana Hotels, said MICE was a core component of the group’s business plan. “Everyone’s after MICE,” he said in an interview with UAE daily The National on March 27. “MICE brings volume of business, it brings food and beverage, [and] MICE fills the rooms.”

He added that with competition in the domestic market rising, prompted in part by a wave of newly opened hotels and venues, events organisers were likely to find Abu Dhabi more affordable as a meetings destination.

While Abu Dhabi has to vie with its regional competitors for a larger slice of the MICE market, the emirate has been able to use its position as the capital to its advantage. But competition still remains tough across the region, particularly from Dubai, which began building up its services sector and positioning itself within the international MICE segment several years ago.

A report produced last year by Reed Travel Exhibitions and meetme magazine ranked Dubai just ahead of Abu Dhabi as the top Middle East and North Africa MICE destination, while other countries in the region, including Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, are working to promote themselves in the global events market. Qatar in particular is set to gain media coverage after winning the rights to stage the 2022 World Cup, which will provide it with plenty of opportunities to showcase its hospitality facilities.

While prospects for business tourism in Abu Dhabi look promising, concern remains that the segment could yet feel the ripple effects of the global economic crisis if bookings drop, particularly from markets in Europe. To date, the impact of the European debt crisis appears to have been minimal, with figures issued by the ADTCA in late March showing that hotel guest numbers were up 16% for January and February in a year-on-year comparison.

While the MICE segment’s performance could waver if international firms are forced to curb spending on trade fairs and conferences, industry players will be hoping that the resilience displayed by the market so far suggests business leaders are giving a priority to maintaining their profile on the global stage, even in tough times.

Source: Oxford Business Group

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Gulliver: Business Travel, The Economist

WASHINGTON, D.C.: DEVOUT Muslims, who pray five times a day at set hours, often run into problems trying to meet their religious obligations when flying across time zones. The Quran, which was written down in an age before air travel, offers little guidance on the issue. But now, fortunately, there’s an app for that. Agence-France Presse reports from Singapore (I added some links):

“The Air Travel Prayer Time Calculator, developed by Singapore-based Crescentrating, a firm that gives halal ratings to hotels and other travel-related establishments. Launched earlier this month, the online tool takes data such as prayer times in the country of origin, the destination city and in countries on the flight path and uses an algorithm to plot exact prayer hours during a flight.”

“Before embarking on a trip, a Muslim traveller can now go to the online calculator on the Crescentrating website and input his or her departure airport, time of flight and destination. The calculator then comes up with the prayer times set either in the local time of the airport of origin, the destination city or the country that the aircraft is flying over, which the traveller can then e-mail to themselves to access later…. [The company] also plans to develop a mobile app that will point the faithful in the direction of the Islamic holy city of Mecca, which Muslims must face when they pray, based on the flight path.”

It’s only a matter of time, unfortunately, before another ignorant person freaks out about a Muslim saying his prayers during a flight and creates some sort of incident. (Sometimes, simply flying while Muslim is enough to cause a scene.) But making air travel more welcoming to Muslim travellers is a big deal: Muslims represent around $100 billion—around 10%—of global travel spending, according to AFP, and that figure is growing as majority-Muslim countries like the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Turkey become increasingly important parts of the global economy. (The UAE, of course, has become a crucial international travel hub in recent years.)

Crescentrating’s air-travel app would be even more useful if it could be ported to mobile devices that are approved for use in-flight, such as iPads, or if the company could develop a version that could be used without WiFi access. Still, it’s nice to see that technology doesn’t always make it harder to follow one’s faith—sometimes, it can also offer solutions. Bravo.

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SINGAPORE — As a frequent flier and devout Muslim, businessman Abdalhamid Evans always comes up against the same challenge in the air: when to say his prayers.

Muslims are required to pray five times a day at certain hours, but this schedule becomes complicated when crossing various time zones at thousands of metres above sea level.

“I usually don’t pray when I am in a plane,” said Evans, the London-based founder of the website HalalFocus that provides information on the global halal, or Islam-compliant, industry.

“But lately I have been thinking that it is probably better to do them in the air than make them up on arrival,” he told AFP.

The problem may be solved for travellers such as Evans thanks to an innovation called the Air Travel Prayer Time Calculator, developed by Singapore-based Crescentrating, a firm that gives halal ratings to hotels and other travel-related establishments.

Launched earlier this month, the online tool takes data such as prayer times in the country of origin, the destination city and in countries on the flight path and uses an algorithm to plot exact prayer hours during a flight.

Current programmes only allow Muslims to find their prayer hours according to their position on land, and the absence of any tools that can be used to calculate during a flight has compromised many travellers .

“I knew there was lot of frustration among the travellers on this issue, but nobody had really attempted to solve it,” Crescentrating chief executive Fazal Bahardeen told AFP in an interview.

Before embarking on a trip, a Muslim traveller can now go to the online calculator in the Crescentrating website and input their departure airport, time of flight and destination.

The calculator then comes up with the prayer times set either in the local time of the airport of origin, the destination city or the country that the aircraft is flying over, which the traveller can then email to themselves to access later.

Fazal said his team plans to develop a mobile app that will also point users in the direction of the Islamic holy city of Mecca, to which Muslims must face when they pray, based on the flight path.

Muslim travellers have welcomed the tool. “It’s good for long-haul travelling,” said Shiraz Sideek, a vice president at the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank who travels almost a dozen times a year.

“When you cross different times zones in an airplane, you have a problem of timing when to pray,” he told AFP from Abu Dhabi. “The application sounds like a very unique thing and very useful.”

Indonesian airline industry executive Sabry Salahudeen agrees that there is a potentially big market for the new tool.

“I’ve been in the airline industry for the past 20 plus years… To my knowledge I don’t think anyone has come up with anything like this,” said Salahudeen, vice president for airport operations and aircraft procurement at Pacific Royale Airways, a soon-to-be-launched premium airline in Indonesia.

As more Muslims travel around the world, services catering to their needs are expanding, industry players say.

In 2010, Muslim travellers spent $100 billion, or about 10 percent of total global travel expenditures, according to Crescentrating’s Fazal. This is projected to increase to 14-15 percent of the global total by 2020.

The World Tourism Organization last year estimated that an additional two million Arabs will travel overseas within the next twenty years, raising their region’s total of outbound tourists to 37 million.

While it is still early days for the Air Travel Prayer Time Calculator, potential customers say mobility is important.

“If it becomes a smartphone app .. it could prove to be a popular idea,” said Evans.

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China’s legendary cuisine has been a secret weapon to winning many an investment. But when a major ingredient of the culinary experience is pork, hospitality can only go so far when it comes to entertaining Muslim businessmen from countries like Indonesia and the Gulf’s emirates.

How the Chinese have been able to adjust can be seen in Hong Kong, the international trade port that many of these business people go through on their way to mainland China.

Take a look at the Islamic Centre Canteen, just a few floors above the Wan Chai mosque. Wrapped up in the savory, little dumplings the canteen serves is the quintessential Hong Kong culinary experience, sans the pork. That kind of accommodation for Islamic dietary rules is growing, along with business prospects from the Muslim world.

In 2010, there were only 14 certified halal restaurants and markets in Hong Kong, advertised by visitor centers. In the past year alone, however, the number has almost tripled. Muslim community leaders have intimated that the Hong Kong government has collaborated with Islamic clergy to lure prospective Muslim guests with dining options. The Hong Kong Tourism Board reports that in recent years, the number of Middle Eastern visitors to the region has grown by as much as 20% annually.

One can often find tourists from the Middle East, Pakistan and Indonesia in the Tsim Sha Tsui district, where 13 of Hong Kong’s official halal restaurants are located. The tourists usually buy wholesale mobile phones — often knockoffs — manufactured at mainland factories for resale at home. “There has been an increase in halal restaurants in the past few years; not only that, but supermarkets are now serving lots of halal products,” says Wael Ibrahim, an Egyptian businessman who has lived in the greater China region for a decade and chairs Serving Islam, Hong Kong’s Muslim community organization. Ibrahim explains that promoting halal-food offerings is an effective way of “tightening the relationship between Hong Kong and other countries.”

Establishing Muslim-friendly services in China’s Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region may well be part of a multipronged attempt to establish a stronger business relationship between the natural-resource-rich Muslim world and the greater China region, which is in dire need of fuels for its burgeoning economy. “Mutually beneficial cooperations between China and the Muslim world are extremely important to China,” says Ma Hongjian, president of the Beijing-based China-Arab Council for Investment Promotion, explaining that since 9/11, trade partnerships between the two have skyrocketed because many Muslim businesspeople were unable to obtain visas to the West and instead started going to China in droves. “There are so many examples of the Chinese government trying to provide facilities for our Muslim guests,” says Ma, himself a Chinese Muslim.

In 2010, the mainland Chinese city of Guangzhou, which has become a hub for international Muslim businesses in recent years, hosted the Asian Games. Over half of the 45 participating nations were majority-Muslim countries and major sources of China’s oil and energy needs. For the occasion, the Guangzhou city government poured some $2.4 million into the construction of a giant mosque, a monument to the Prophet Muhammad’s uncle, Saad Ibn Abi Waqqas, who is traditionally believed to be entombed nearby. The government estimates that 30% of the food served at the games was certified halal.

More recently, Hong Kong has been trying to position itself as a conduit for Muslim business with the mainland. And it is not just by offering the business community more dining options but also by developing a strong platform for Islamic finance — which is compliant with Shari’a and prohibits usury, which many modern-day practitioners interpret to mean any form of interest. Investments in un-Islamic industries dealing, for example, in pornography, gambling and alcohol are also prohibited. “We hope to develop a wholesale Islamic capital market,” says a spokesperson for Hong Kong’s Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau. That would include Islamic bonds, known in Arabic as sukuk, which pay investors in assets to avoid, at least nominally, the exchange of interest.

Local Muslims are still skeptical. “We hear that [Hong Kong banks like HSBC] are studying about implementing Islamic finance in Hong Kong, but so far nothing major has materialized,” says Ibrahim of Serving Islam. Indeed, while the official policy of the Hong Kong government may be to welcome Muslim business to the region, perennial reports of workplace discrimination and harassment of Pakistani and Indonesian Muslims abound.

Hong Kong may work to offer Muslim visitors halal dumplings at the Islamic Centre Canteen in Wan Chai, but the city’s employers often refuse to let Muslim migrant workers practice their religion as desired. Sullying Hong Kong’s name in Indonesia late last year, two live-in Indonesian domestic workers were reportedly forced to eat pork and take off their headscarves by Hong Kong employers, according to the Jakarta Post. They also told the newspaper that they no longer prayed five times a day. “There’s no time, and the employers always complain, so we just gave up. It’s easier that way.”

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With the fast-food market expected to reach $4.5 billion in the next three years, you’d hardly believe Saudi Arabia is a hot spot for foodies and gourmet chefs alike. However, as CNN reports, the country’s culinary scene is making waves internationally.

The chefs and foodies on the rise: Yasser Jad, the culinary director of Saudi Arabian Airlines who trained at Le Cordon Bleu; Emanuele Esposito, executive chef at Il Villagio Restaurant; and Rashed Islam, food blogger who founded the site JeddahFood.com that has thousands of hits already. The three point out that new restaurants across the country are slowly making a dent in the fast-food franchise nation. Said Esposito to CNN, “There are more restaurants opening all the time. Alongside the Saudi and Middle Eastern restaurants, there are Italian restaurants and Japanese has really taken off in the last few years.”

Plus, the Saudi Arabian Chef Association, born three years ago, aims to create a home for new chefs and become a major player in international food competitions. Said Jad (the founder) to What’s Up in February, the most challenging part of starting the association was to incorporate their dietary restrictions (because Muslims cannot eat pork or drink alcohol) into the World Association of Chefs’ Societies. Despite difficulties, the group has made an impression already; the group has participated in the International Culinary Olympics and a Top Chef-like event for Al Harthi.

What will transform the country into a major international food scene, said Jad, are more culinary schools for developing chefs. Both Jad and Esposito are working on opening hospitality schools in the country.

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