Using Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) and Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) in Measurement of Muslim Visitor's Satisfaction with Hotels Facilities in Taiwan

Many countries in the world are considering tourism as an important sector in their economy. A rapid growth of Muslim population, in consequence increasing the number of Muslim travelers with their high contribution to global tourism revenue, has made Muslims becoming a potential group of customers to the tourism market. Achieving tourist satisfaction could be very challenging for Non-Islamic Countries, especially Taiwan. On behalf to attract the Muslim travelers, Taiwan is eager to offer the Muslim friendly environment since Muslim traveler has some basic and specific needs that should comply with their belief and this phenomenon called Muslim travel or Halal tourism. Two research methodologies with the same attributes were conducted in this study. Importance Performance Analysis to investigate which hotel attributes satisfy Muslim visitors and to identify their expectations and satisfaction with these attributes, and the second survey developed for applying Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) was issued to the experts from hotel management and academics side by evaluating the importance of the attributes and constructing the causal relations among the attributes. The results reported will enable hotels to better manage their facilities for Muslim visitors to ensure the sustainability of business performance. Key Words: Halal Tourism, Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA), Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), Muslim Visitors