An Analysis of Citizens’ Understanding on Sharia Tourism in Pekanbaru City, Indonesia

This study examines one aspect of global economic development, seven sectors of the Islamic economy have increased significantly in the past years, one of these is sharia tourism, which carries the "halal" concept in every product. In Pekanbaru City, sharia tourism has experienced remarkable development due to the vision of Pekanbaru City as “a city of Madani”. Thus, this study aims to determine the extent of Pekanbaru citizens’ understanding on sharia tourism. The theoretical framework used in this study suggests that citizens’ understanding can be assessed by defining, describing, identifying, mentioning, and declaring the object, purpose, target, guide, facility, culinary, relation, and agenda applied in sharia tourism. The qualitative descriptive method with qualitative research type is the methodology used in this study. The total population in this study includes1,038,118 people. Samples were taken from the entire population of 100 people using a sampling technique that utilizes Slovin's formula. Results show that about 83.86% of the Pekanbaru citizens have "very strong / know well" undestanding (81% to100%) of sharia tourism