This entrepreneur left a 20-year corporate career to change the way Muslims travel

Fazal Bahardeen does not have the typical profile of an entrepreneur. He left his native country, Sri Lanka, at the age of 20 to pursue higher education in China. After graduating with an engineering degree, he accepted a job with French telecommunications company Alcatel (now Lucent) based in Beijing. Behardeen went on to dedicate 20 years of his life to the firm, spread across roles in Beijing, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

One thing that constantly irked Bahardeen, a practicing Muslim, during his travels was the lack of sensitivity for Muslim travelers’ needs. Hotels didn’t serve Halal food and there were no privacy arrangements for families. Prayer rooms were few and far between. “Sometimes, during [the fasting month of] Ramadan, I would carry my own packaged food as Muslim meals weren’t available,” he recalls.

For someone who spent “half his time in hotel rooms” this was an urgent, pressing issue with few solutions.

Despite these concerns, Bahardeen still had a comfortable, steady, and well-paying job. There was no need for a fundamental transformation and a radical career shift. However, he yearned for change.

In the mid-2000s, Alcatel was merged with Lucent. This gave Bahardeen the opportunity he needed to leave the corporate world and work on something he truly believed had to be solved. “The more experienced I got [in traveling], the more I understood the difficulty. I needed to do something. I wanted to rate hotels; that was my primary objective,” he stresses.

At the same time, Bahardeen undertook a postgraduate diploma course in Islamic Banking and Finance. This exposure helped him realize that Muslim consumers were increasingly looking for products and services catered to their requirements. He decided a rating system was necessary; it would help Muslims understand how Muslim-friendly their tourist destinations were, whilst also assisting destinations cater to these specific needs. CrescentRating, a B2B service for consultancy, research, training, and ratings formally launched in 2008.

What do Muslim travelers want?

Bahardeen says CrescentRating ranks destinations on a number of different criteria before settling on a particular rating. The most important categories are availability of Halal food and prayer areas. “If you cannot provide these, do not waste money targeting Muslim travelers as it isn’t sustainable. These two things are non-negotiable for Muslims traveling abroad,” he stresses.

Fazal Bahardeen

Other important needs are availability of water for ablution, toilets, and privacy for services such as swimming pools and gyms. “A growing number of Muslim travelers want to know whether hotels offer separate male and female timings. We’re trying to help hotels understand this need,” he says.

Untapped market

Despite having a significant early-mover advantage, he found the going tough. This was a completely unknown concept for most people in the travel industry. They were unaware of Muslim needs, and while they were eager to attract more tourists from Muslim countries, they weren’t doing much to provide specific services to suit their needs. Bahardeen had to do a lot of groundwork, meeting with property owners, restaurants, government agencies, and travel agents to convince them of the effectiveness of his upcoming service. “Not many people wanted to listen,” he adds.

One thing which worked in the entrepreneur’s favor was his corporate background. He understood business dynamics and what made them tick. He was able to communicate with key stakeholders in a manner that resonated with them. However, for people to take him seriously, he needed to foster trust and legitimacy.

“We spoke at conferences, conducted workshops with tourism boards, and published reports in an effort to position ourselves as the leading authority on Muslim travelers,” says Bahardeen. “We were the world’s first rating system to determine whether destinations were Muslim-friendly, and essentially developed the market.”

Partnerships and services