Online Promotion of Muslim Friendly Tourism in Kazan: A Critical Review and Recommendations

This work aims to develop recommendations to increase the attractiveness of the destination website for Muslim travelers, which will take into account the Muslim friendly attributes available in Kazan. Following the goal, the objectives of the study were formulated: to identify and describe the features of Muslim friendly tourism, as well as the Muslim attributes of destinations and their websites; to review the existing offers for Muslim tourists in Kazan; to assess the potential attractiveness of the destination for Muslim tourists; to explore the official tourist website of the destination for the mention of Muslim attributes present in the city of Kazan; develop recommendations for the promotion of Muslim friendly tourism using online sources. The work is based on the method of theoretical analysis and systematization, content analysis of Internet sources, and web analytics using further programs for collecting and analyzing information. The observation method and the expert survey method were also applied. In the course of this work, a list of Muslim attributes was formed, based on which the actual offers of destination and their use on the official website of the Republic of Tatarstan were investigated. An important part of the thesis was the study of existing Muslim friendly offers and the creation of a database of organizations offering products tailored to the special needs of Muslim tourists. An expert survey of representatives of Kazan hotels was also conducted. Based on the results of the study, we proposed several managerial recommendations for improving the representation of Muslim friendly Kazan proposals on the destination website and the process of its online promotion. These measures may allow an increase in the flow of Muslim tourists choosing Kazan as a destination for their trip.